Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

eugene koplyk Eugene Koplyk 19/02/2023 5 min read

Contents:

What Is the Conversion Rate?

The conversion rate is the percentage of a website or app visitors who perform an action you wanted them to. For example, you wanted every visitor to sign up for a newsletter or start a chat with your agent. However, remember that the main goal of yours should be selling, so for a client to buy something from your online service. High conversion rate signifies the successful marketing campaign of your website/app web design. In simple terms, it means that people do want to buy and that they do buy whatever is on our offer.

The numbers say that on average a good conversion rate is between 2% and 5%, while the top companies in any industry have their rates at about 7-12%. For instance, the average conversion rate of a Facebook ad is 9.21%. So if you want to make it to the top of the market, ensure that you do care about conversion rate and its optimization. Remember that only $1 spent on converting your website or app visitors into customers equals $92 spent on winning them.

Now, as you know what the conversion rate is, it is time to talk about conversion rate optimization (CRO). HubSpot has defined it as “a process by which you create an experience for your site’s visitors”. This process includes all possible means that allow you to convert visitors into customers.

In the process of CRO, you can learn why visitors leave your website or app (bounce rate) as well as what keeps the customers on your products. This process investigates the customer’s journey (its pros and cons), internal website/app functionality, the popular pages as well as those in need of revision or redevelopment. CRO basically puts you into the shoes of a customer and explains what must be improved to increase conversion.

Well, even this short explanation, about what a CRO is, must have given you a hint on why this process is so vital for any online business. Yet, if you are not persuaded, read on and learn what other perks are waiting for you.

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Lead the Competition

To lead the competition, you do not need to be the best. All you need is to be better than your competition. This might mean shorter page loading time, a bigger number of options to choose from, more efficient support, etc. Such a tactic allows your business to be better than company X’s customer service and more diverse than company Y’s in their choice. These are small things that make you truly stand out of the competition.

CRO allows understanding what your visitors are missing in your online solutions, why they do not become your customers. They might be missing a button or not like the location of your CTAs. This all might seem like a tiny thing, yet this is what differentiates Amazon from a local store’s website.

Save Money

Money-saving with respect to CRO means lower customer acquisition cost in the first place. The more optimized for the customers and visitors a website is, the greater your chances of keeping the former and converting the latter.

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Let’s speak numbers. If you are spending $1,000 and among 10,000 visitors only 500 become your customers, then you spend $2 per customer on conversion. After the optimization, you improve your numbers and get the conversion rate of 10% (yes, let us be realistic on this one). In this case, while still spending $1,000 on 10,000 visitors, you get 1,000 customers and hence spend only $1 per customer. And do not forget that every customer buys something from your website, so they bring profit to you.

So CRO allows a business while spending the same amount of money on visitors, receive more customers and as a result, increase the overall profit.

Profit From PPC Marketing Even More

PPC stands for Pay Pay Click advertising in search engines, it is usually an element of the general search engine optimization campaign. PPC costs go higher and higher, making businesses spend more on this means of visitors conversion. However, if the ads are placed in the wrong sources or with the wrong products, the PPC will not work since the potential customer will not complete a purchase of shoes while searching for the lingerie.

CRO allows to identify the key points when a PPC campaign is effective, so increase the number of “working” ads and eliminate the dead ones. As a result, the pay-per-click strategy becomes more targeted and hence more effective. Such an approach, again, saves the budget and improves conversion because every visitor gets directly to the place they aimed for.

Keep the Visitors Interested

It is a known fact that the average attention span of a modern consumer equals about eight seconds. Back in 2000, the number was 12 seconds. And Jampp has calculated that the time will continue decreasing by 88% yearly.

The numbers sound awful because a business needs to keep users interested and focused at all times to eventually convert website visitors into customers. This means easier navigation and more intuitive design. People today will not stick around to check something. They do not like something, they are free to leave because there is plenty of other fish in the sea.

Conversion rate optimization allows understanding what elements of a website or app are great and which ones must be revised and perfected. The sooner you optimize the content and navigation, the easier and faster the visitors become the buyers.

Refresh Online Representation

In the modern world, you and your business need to look fresh, up-to-date, and young at all times. This means a new design, ad hoc technologies involved, fashionable colors user in the online solutions, etc. CRO investigates the whole user journey from the landing page to the cart and identifies the weak spots in it.

These weak spots are the elements for improvement. For example, it might be an unnoticeable button with a product full description or the absence of reviews on a product and service in general. These found elements require improvement and refreshment at all times. Since the market involves and grows rapidly, your website or app also needs to keep up and change under the market demands. The more modern look and feel of a platform, the greater conversion it gets.

To Sum Up

Conversion rate optimization is a universal tool for marketing. It uncovers the hidden problems in all aspects of an online solution work: from design and navigation to core functionalities. It evaluates visitors and customers, differentiates them from one another and explains what should be done to turn the former into the latter.

eugene koplyk
Eugene Koplyk
Head of Marketing department
As a Digital Strategist, I help companies grow their business online. Here share my expertise, ideas, and best practices on Ecommerce marketing initiatives, branding, SEO, conversion and many more. If you want to stay connected, follow me on LinkedIn.
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