What is CRO? (Conversion optimisation)
Written by Jamie Schelling
Digital Marketing & AI Automation
CRO stands for Conversion Rate Optimisation. CRO is a crucial part of online marketing. CRO optimises the conversion rate of a website, so that the same number of visitors generates more leads, sales or other conversion goals.
What is conversion optimisation?
Conversion optimisation (CRO) is the process of increasing the percentage of conversions on a website or mobile app. CRO typically involves generating ideas for elements on your website or app that can be improved and then testing those ideas through, for example, A/B tests.
Conversion rate optimisation is important because it enables businesses to lower their customer acquisition costs by getting more value out of the visitors and users they already attract. By optimising the conversion rate you can increase revenue per visitor, win more customers and grow your business faster.
If a landing page has a conversion rate of 10% and receives 2,000 visitors per month, for example, the page generates 200 conversions per month. If the conversion rate can be improved to 15% by optimising various elements on the page, the number of conversions generated jumps by 50% to 300 per month.
There is always room for improvement when it comes to increasing conversions, and large companies are therefore constantly working on improving their websites and apps to create a better experience for their users and increase the number of conversions.
Why is conversion optimisation important?
Conversion rate optimisation
Conversion rate optimisation begins with defining the conversion goals for a particular web page or app screen. The success metrics of the website or mobile app depend on the type of business and the goals the organisation pursues.
For example, if you sell products online, a conversion goal might be purchases, or the number of website visitors who add a product to their shopping cart. If you sell products or services to businesses, you might measure the number of leads your website collects or the number of whitepaper downloads.
Some common conversion goals by type of industry:
- Media – pageviews, ad impressions, newsletter sign-ups, recommended content engagement
- E-commerce – product sales, add-to-carts, cart completion rate, e-mail newsletter sign-ups
- Travel – booking conversions, additional purchases, social shares
- B2B – leads generated, deals closed
Once you have established the conversion figures for your digital interactions with your audience, you can start improving your digital customer experiences through conversion optimisation.
Conversion optimisation strategy
The strategy starts with determining which areas need to be optimised.
Once the conversion figures have been mapped out, the next step in the optimisation process is to determine which part of your conversion funnel should be optimised.
Typically you want to start by optimising the part of your conversion funnel that receives the most traffic or generates the largest number of conversions. By focusing on these pages, the results of your changes will become visible faster and have a bigger impact on your business.
Other possible places to start are the highest-value pages or pages that underperform compared with the rest of your website. Again, improving these areas can have the biggest direct impact on your conversion goals.
A clothing shop might discover, for example, that its hats page receives a lot of traffic but has a conversion rate that is much lower than that of the rest of the site. By improving the conversion rate of that page, the retailer will see a major improvement in sales for its CRO efforts.
Benefits of conversion optimisation
The biggest benefit of conversion optimisation is that you can improve business performance with your existing visitors and thus get more return from your website. This way, for example, more revenue can be generated, which means the advertising budget can also be increased, ultimately leading to extra growth. The other benefits are as follows:
- Increasing the value per visitor;
- Steering visitors and enticing them to take action;
- An increase in ROI (Return on Investment);
- An increase in revenue or number of customers;
- Data-driven optimisation, and therefore measurable results.
Supported by the best conversion optimisation specialist?
Do you want to get started with CRO but don't know where to begin? BE Digital is an expert in conversion optimisation and has by now supported many clients through this process. We are happy to help you generate more business at low cost.