Since the creation of the web, the Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) rate has been increased by improving the quality of headlines, design, forms and class-to-action elements of on-pages. Although the optimization of these on-page elements increases the number of conversions, there are other techniques that can be used to increase the frequency of conversions.
The following are the ten CRO facts that will change your view on the strategy to use in optimization of on-pages.
- The common A/B test does not guarantee real conversion percentages.
The A/B test was perceived as an excellent CRO technique done through the changing of the font type, line spacing changes and changing the images and button colours resulting in percentage increase in conversions. However, the conversion rate increase is not real as it sounds and what actually happens after the A/B tests is that the early conversion increment disappears and the gains do not continue over time. In this context, if one gets good results from this technique it is because their offer is still new and with time the offer loses its uniqueness leading to diminishing results and thus limiting CRO.
The A/B test can therefore be used to create awareness of something new, but one needs to realise its limited capability of being a growth strategy as the increment is not persistent.
- CRO causes the development of quantity at the deprivation of quality
A high quantity does not always mean high quality and in the pursuit of high conversion rates, one may decrease the quality offered in the increased marketing leads; for example increasing leads using shallow on-page changes at the deprivation of quality. Increasing the number of leads means people will need more time to follow up on them and in the long run they may lose their concentration leading to low conversion rates.
- Averagely, conversion rates have not transformed over time
The benefits of CRO have recently gained attention and the World Stream data shows that the median rate of conversion is 2 to 2.35 with the top 10% of the sites having the conversion rate as 11.45 or more. These rates however, have not changed that much for over a decade even as more firms are employ CRO.
- To raise the conversion rates, one should increase the Click-Through Rate (CRT).
The CTR rate is directly proportional to the conversion rate implying that the higher the CTR rate the more the number of conversions. This is because when people get excited over an offer and click it, they are more likely to make a conversion due to the excitement. One should therefore, incorporate innovative offers to create differentiation and add value to create excitement in the targeted market encouraging the CTR which will translate to higher conversion rate. One can also use the CTR to confirm if the offer they created has an appealing effect on people or not and prompt recreation of the offer. To increase the CTR, one should concentrate on keywords that are highly commercial, create urgency and anxiety of missing an offer through the use Ad customizers and include emotional triggers in the advertisements.
- Familiarity of the brand is important
Brand awareness remains a difficult task to accomplish using On-page CRO. People familiar with a brand are more inclined to purchasing a product or service of the brand. Data from Word Stream shows that repetitive visitors are two to three more times likely to convert compared to new visitors. This shows that brand familiarity has a significant impact on the CRO.
- Remarketing increases conversions.
The use of social and Google Display Network in marketing increases conversion rates as brand awareness is created by increasing the number of times one comes across an Ad in remarketing campaign. Remarketing thus changes a single chance of user conversion to more possible chances through using the behavioural information, demographics and interests of the user.
- Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA) can be used to increase conversions.
RLSA constitute of target Ad’s targeting people using specific keywords that recently visited a website and thus can be used in highly competitive and challenging conversion rate markets. This is because they offer about 2-5 times ROI compared to non-RLSA Ad’s as they target people already familiarised with a brand.
- Video Ad’s increase conversions
Videos increase conversion rates as they likely to have huge impressions due to the high engagement rates and the possibility of users recalling a brand. Usually Visual content is more appealing and people are easily persuaded into converting to a brand they did not recognize initially.
- Offers with outstanding look
Unique offers with exemplary presentations are more appealing and attract a larger audience and in turn lead to an increased number of conversions. Making small changes in an offer will leads to a lower increment in conversion as compared to a thoroughly reviewed offer. It’s advisable to invest in making offers more presentable as they eventually pay off with huge conversion rates.
- Elimination of landing pages could increase your conversion rates
People find landing pages annoying and at times after clicking on the ads and finding landing pages, they leave the page without bothering to check on the content. Eliminating these landing pages and linking the ads directly to the main page will ensure most clicks lead to conversion as people won’t be bored by the landing pages.
Conversion rate optimisation summarised:
- On-page elements: involves making changes to fonts, images and psychological techniques and leads to minimum returns.
- Brand awareness: involves making people familiar to a brand as it impacts greatly on conversion rates as people easily buy form brands they are familiar to and
- Growth hack: involves presenting of offers in a timely manner to avoid low CTR due to bad timing that lead to huge results in conversion.
In choosing a CRO strategy one needs to know the conversion lifecycle. One should not only think about what is presented in the landing page but rather about the actions prompted and taken by people before and after they see the page and evaluate the importance of the page.
To successfully increase conversion rates, one should consider new technologies such as remarketing, mobile and RLSA as they present an optimistic future for CRO. The real leverage on increasing conversion is therefore based on the modification of page elements, branding and growth hacking.
