How do you measure success on your website? Do you only track the number of visitors or also how many of these visitors performed the action you desire - whether it's a purchase, registration, or filling out a form? The real value does not lie in quantity, but in quality. And you achieve this quality through conversion rate optimization (CRO).
What Does Conversion Rate Optimization - CRO Mean?
Let's start from the basics. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is a systematic process aimed at increasing the percentage of visitors who perform a desired action (purchase, registration, etc.), also known as conversion. Unlike SEO or PPC advertising, whose primary goal is to bring visitors to your website, CRO focuses on the next step - maximizing this potential.
Although conversion is often associated with direct sales, it can encompass a wide range of activities:
- Macro-conversions: These are the main, large goals, such as completing a purchase, signing up for a free trial, or filling out an important contact form.
- Micro-conversions: These are smaller steps that users take on the way to macro-conversions. This includes page loading, time spent on the page, downloading an e-book, watching a demo video, or adding a product to the cart. Tracking micro-conversions helps us identify weak spots in the conversion funnel.
According to what we mentioned, the goal of conversion rate optimization is to turn passive visitors into active customers. This requires understanding their needs, goals, and desires, as well as removing all barriers that prevent them from converting. Only then can you ensure that your website or service intuitively helps users complete key conversion actions. In practice, this means that a successful CRO strategy primarily focuses on improving the customer experience.
Why is CRO Important?
CRO allows you to gain more customers from existing traffic without increasing marketing expenses. Additionally, CRO strengthens your market position, increases revenue, and ensures sustainable growth. It is important for several reasons:
- Increasing revenue and reducing costs: CRO allows you to gain more customers from the same traffic, effectively reducing the cost of acquisition. Simple math: If you can convert more visitors without increasing your advertising budget, your profit automatically grows.
- Improving user experience (UX and CX) and loyalty: CRO is a user-oriented process. It focuses on making your website intuitive, fast, and free of unnecessary obstacles.
- High return on investment (ROI): Data speaks clearly. Companies that actively use CRO tools report an average return on investment (ROI) of 223%.
- Synergy with other marketing channels: CRO is a critical component in the entire digital marketing ecosystem. Without this optimization, you could be spending money on campaigns that attract visitors but fail to convert them into customers.
What Metrics Are Examined in CRO?
Tracking metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) in CRO shows you where visitors convert and where they get stuck.
What Key Metrics Should You Examine in CRO?
Macro and Micro Conversions
- Monitor the success of main goals (macro) and smaller (micro) steps leading to them.
- If you see, for example, a high abandonment rate after adding a product to the cart, it may indicate issues with a complex checkout process or lack of information.
Conversion Rate
- This basic metric tells you what percentage of visitors complete the desired action.
- If your conversion rate is low, look for reasons throughout the customer journey. Investigate whether your offer is compelling enough or if there are technical obstacles on the website.
Bounce Rate
- The number of users who leave the site after viewing only one page.
- If this rate is high, the page content likely does not meet visitors' expectations. It could be due to slow loading, confusing design, unclear messaging, or poor content.
User Path
- A visual representation of how visitors navigate the site. Using path analysis tools, you can determine if your site is intuitive and where users get stuck.
- If visitors "skip" important pages, it may indicate poor navigation or unclear content structure.
Traffic Sources and Device Type
- By analyzing these metrics, you can find out where visitors come from and on what devices they view your site.
- If, for example, mobile users convert significantly less, your site is likely poorly optimized for mobile devices (slow loading speed, hard-to-click buttons, poor content layout).
Form and CTA Conversions
- Monitor how many users complete form submissions and click on your calls to action.
- If these numbers are low, test different text variations, button colors, or their placement. In the case of forms, consider whether they are too long and if you are asking for too much information at once.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
- CTR is a metric that shows how successfully your ads or emails bring visitors to the site, but on the site side, it shows how many additional products the customer clicked on
- Low CTR in campaigns may indicate that your ad is not relevant enough for the target audience, or that your ad text and creative are not engaging enough. Low CTR on the site may point to unsuitable products, weak descriptions, high prices, or technical issues.
Time on Page
- If a customer comes to you, maybe even goes to another page, but leaves the site without converting after a few seconds, use other metrics to find out what distracted them enough to leave.
- Common issues may include pricing, stock availability, but also poor accessibility or a slow site.
By combining these quantitative metrics with qualitative insights gained from tools like session recordings or user surveys, you get a comprehensive picture of what is happening on your site and, more importantly, WHY it is happening.
What Does the Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Process Look Like?
It is important to realize that CRO is a systematic and iterative process that is constantly repeated and refined. Success depends on a deep understanding of user behavior and a user-oriented approach, which identifies what motivates users ("drivers"), what prevents them from converting ("barriers"), and what convinces them ("hooks").
What Are the Phases of CRO?
1. Defining Key Goals
At the beginning of a CRO audit, it is important to clearly define which conversions are important for you as a company and need to be tracked. We have already discussed what conversions we know (see the section "What Does Conversion Rate Optimization - CRO Mean?")
The formula for calculating the conversion rate is:
For example, if a website had 18 sales (number of conversions) and 450 visitors (number of visitors), the conversion rate is 4%.
Just for interest:
- The average conversion rate across all industries is 2.9%.
- For e-commerce, the average conversion rate is 2.7%.
2. Conversion Funnel Analysis
This initial phase involves thorough data collection and examination of user behavior. The goal is to understand how users interact with the website, where they come from (e.g., traffic sources, device type, geographic location), and where they encounter obstacles in the conversion funnel.
Our tips:
- Identify key pages: Focus on those with high traffic, such as landing pages or registration pages. This is where the greatest opportunity for improvement lies.
- Combine quantitative and qualitative data. Use tools like Google Analytics to get an overview of the numbers – what is happening on your site. Then, with tools like Heatmaps and session recordings, understand why. You'll see where users get stuck, click, or what they ignore.
- Look for "Drivers, Barriers, and Hooks". Analyze what brings people to your site, what prevents them from converting, and what convinces them to take action. These insights are key to successful adjustments.
3. Customer Research
In addition to quantitative data, it is crucial to gain qualitative insights into what users really want and need – in their own words. Surveys and user research can help determine if your product is market-fit, why visitors leave, their opinions on pricing, and more.
4. Identifying Quick Fixes
Based on the insights gained from quantitative and qualitative data, it is easiest to remove obstacles that do not require major intervention. For example, removing unnecessary fields in forms, simplifying the payment process, ensuring clear and engaging headlines, having strong calls to action (CTA), quality images, using white space, social proof (reviews, testimonials), and clear contact methods.
5. Hypothesis Phase and Testing
Based on the data and analysis, specific hypotheses are formulated - proposed change, expected outcome, and justification.
Then comes hypothesis testing. The most common method is A/B testing, where two versions of a page (original and modified) are compared to see which one achieves better results. Multivariate testing can also be used, allowing multiple changes to be tested at once.
6. Analyzing Results and Implementing Changes
After gathering enough data from tests, the results are analyzed. It is important not only to identify which version performed better but also to understand why it was more successful. Based on the results, adjustments are made and changes are implemented.
8. Continuous Iteration and Improvement
CRO is not a one-time activity but a continuous process. User behavior, competition, and the overall online environment are constantly changing, so it is essential to regularly review and update the strategy.
We recommend conducting CRO audits regularly, either after a certain period or upon reaching certain milestones.
What Tools Are Used for CRO?
To effectively implement CRO, tools are used to collect data, help understand user behavior, and enable testing of changes.
- Web Analytics Tools: Provide quantitative data on what is happening on the site. The most commonly used tool is Google Analytics 4 (GA4).
- Behavior Analysis Tools: Gather qualitative data on how and why users behave in certain ways. Tools like Hotjar, Plerdy are comprehensive platforms offering Heatmaps (visualize clicks and movement), Session Replays (record user interactions), and conversion funnel analysis.
- CRO Testing Tools: Help compare and measure the impact of changes, such as Matomo.
- Feedback and Survey Tools: Gather direct feedback from your users, e.g., SurveyMonkey, TypeForm.
uičkovský tip: An effective CRO strategy requires a combination of these tools. No tool alone provides a complete solution. Free tools like Google Analytics 4 and Matomo are a great start for any business.
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is much more than just tactical improvement. It is a process that never ends, but the results it brings are tangible and measurable. Increase your profits simply by optimizing your websites. Contact us.
