Marketing is more science than it is dream-fueled inspirations or flights of ecstatic genius…It is built by sweat, fueled by metrics, sharpened by analysis, and confirmed by tests, research, and studies. As an example, consider conversion optimization.” – Neil Patel
Back in April, Brian Eisenberg asked the question, “Is conversion optimization a dead end?” After spending over two decades in the marketing world specializing in CRO, he was starting to wonder whether the current market — focused on quick fixes after the fact — was still bearing fruit. He concluded by saying that successful CRO must align strategy with customer needs. I couldn’t agree more.
In 2015, CRO is an in-demand and growing service. A recent Venturebeat survey that included 3,000 CRO tool users and insights from over 3 million US websites found that only two of the 36 solutions failed to create large returns. And only 5% of the 3,000 marketers failed to generate ROI.
Most importantly, the average ROI for the other 95% of marketers was 233%. And for 173 marketers (a 5.7% elite), ROI was through the roof — over 1,000%.
A great quote that neatly summarizes the major survey findings came from Stewart Rogers, the study’s author: “It is much cheaper to optimize 2,000 visits per day and increase the conversion percentage from 10 percent to 20 percent than it is to buy an extra 2,000 visits.”
How Marketers Can Leverage CRO in 2015
The survey also revealed how marketers are using CRO solutions in 2015. The top five categories were A/B split testing, multivariate testing, heatmapping, website/mobile analytics, and user feedback (e.g., expert panels, concept testing, surveys, etc.).
Let’s see how marketers are using each of these tactics:
- A/B Split Testing
One of the most famous case studies for the power of A/B testing comes from Performable. In 2011, they made a single change to their homepage that increased CTR by 21%. See if you can spot the change:
Your eyes are not deceiving you: all they did was change the color of their CTA buttons from green to red.
The 2008 Obama presidential campaign is another well-known example of effective A/B testing. After testing 24 different variations for their campaign newsletter signup page, they found that the most effective option was not the one with video (which they assumed would drive the most views). It was this one:
It’s 2015. If you haven’t started A/B testing yet, you are doing your brand a serious disservice.
Winner: The runaway winner for top A/B split testing solution was Optimizely, with a SMB-friendly multi-tier payment system. Unbounce was a close runner-up for small businesses in particular.
- Multivariate Testing
Neil Patel is not a fan of multivariate testing, but a lot of marketers are. It’s a lot harder to do right because there are more variables in play, but that’s not to say that it doesn’t save time (and money). When deadlines are looming, a conclusive test with five variables beats a test with two any day of the week. You may not glean as many insights for each option, but as long as you can isolate a clear or majority winner, you’ve achieved your goal.
Winner: Google Analytics is still the most popular solution by far. 73% of surveyed marketers use GA. Adobe Analytics is a lesser known but powerful option.
- Heatmapping
Popularized by solutions like Crazy Egg, heatmapping and clicktracking are appealing for obvious reasons. Even if it generates an ROI of 0%, it confirms your suspicions about what does or doesn’t work, which helps any marketer sleep better at night. But heatmapping just might show you something you didn’t know, and that’s where it’s true value lies.
Critics of heatmapping argue that it’s not worth the cost, but the opposite argument can just as easily be made. If you can afford heatmapping, you should add it to your marketing quiver. Even the best marketing pros make mistakes sometimes, and campaigns for complex or new “blue ocean” products can only benefit from a solution that pinpoints easy wins and puts a magnifying glass to mistakes.
Winner: Crazy Egg is still the most well-known heatmapping solution, in no small part because of Neil Patel’s ubiquitous presence in the marketing world. Mouseflow offers an intriguing alternative, and Google Analytics also offers a solution.
- Website, Funnel, and Mobile Analytics
The proliferation of data and cloud-based solutions has generated a tremendous demand for an entirely new role at most companies: data scientist. And these data scientists are being charged with analyzing everything from website to funnel to mobile optimization.
Mobile, in particular, is a rapidly growing market. Very recently mobile-only users surpassed desktop-only users globally, a milestone some marketers had been predicting for 2020. Mobile website and app analytics are more in demand than ever before, and may very well be the next big arena for all marketers.
Winner: Google takes the cake with Google Mobile App Analytics, but Flurry and RadiumOne aren’t too far behind.
- User Feedback, Expert Panels, Concept Testing, Surveys
Steve Jobs once famously declared that customers don’t know what they want. And then he proceeded to revolutionize tech. But a valuable and underused tactic of successful marketing is to ask your customers what they want. Chances are, unless you’re Steve Jobs, you could learn a lot from their input.
Giant analytics firms like Gartner and Forrester got their start running surveys, but smaller client-oriented survey firms do exist for those of us who want to sit down and have a conversation with our customers.
Winner: Surprisingly, Google Forms is not the winner in this category. SurveyMonkey is tops, and has been for some time.
