With internet ad spending predicted to increase by 12.2% in the next four years according to a recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, leading brand advertisers are dedicating more of their budget to online advertising. But spending more on online advertising is only one way that advertisers can help increase their results. Advertisers can significantly improve their return on investment by increasing their conversion rate and increasing the percentage of website visitors that fulfill a desired action on their site. Whether launching a new service or looking to improve ROI on campaign costs, a strategy and test plan are essential to continuously improving conversion rates.
One of the most important elements of the conversion optimization process is multivariate testing. This method allows you to test more than one component of your website at a time in order to identify which content or creative variations produce the best conversion rate. Multivariate testing provides granular results and indicates the best combination of components for webpage design. There are many advantages that come with this strategy, including the ability to easily isolate small elements of a page and measure their effectiveness.
It is vital for brand advertisers to implement a multivariate testing plan into their marketing strategy. A multivariate testing plan will determine which page elements are the most powerful in terms of conversion rates and what factors have the most influence over consumers visiting your page. In many cases, small changes based on test results provide significant increases in sales. For example, American Home Shield, a leading Home Warranty Company, experienced a 78% conversion rate improvement as a result of continuous multivariate testing implemented by Direct Agents, a leading performance-based digital marketing agency.
Following are the top conversion components that should be tested in order to help boost conversion rates:
- Headlines- Typically the first thing to catch a consumer’s eye, a headline provides the largest opportunity for increased conversion rate (at least 50%). You should test different compelling headlines in order to see which headline provides the best results.
- Lead paragraph- The text in the lead paragraph also represents another strong opportunity to increase conversion rates. This paragraph must grab the consumer’s attention with enticing information about the offer or product.
- Images and Forms- The location and types of images and forms on a website can determine whether or not a consumer goes through with their action on your site. By discovering the best combination of elements and reviewing the order check-out process, marketers can cut down on the number of abandoned shopping cart orders.
- Call to Action- The call to action urges the consumer to take an immediate action. Test out different messages and phrases to see which one delivers the best response.
The enhancement of online marketing testing strategies, such as multivariate testing, gives marketers the opportunity to better understand how their audience responds to their brand’s advertising. By applying a conversion optimization strategy to ones landing page, email design and website, one can increase click through rates and increase conversion rates on ones marketing campaign.
Part 2: Advanced Multivariate Techniques Coming Soon!
The call to action is so important. And there are 1,000 aspects to a call to action that you can test. Color, placement, wording, number of required fields. They all can create large changes in your conversion rates. Testing them is a must.