No one wants to see a bounce rate that exceeds their conversion rate, unless you don’t really care if you keep a job in marketing. And we’re guessing that’s not the case. Your conversion rate shows you how well (or not so well) you’re meeting your goal, whether that’s earning newsletter subscriptions, whitepaper signups, order placements, new customers or a number of other actions. Getting more of your visitors to convert will help reduce your cost per acquisition (CPA), grow your business and experience increased engagement. Sounds great, right?
But not all rates will leave a smile on your face, so see how yours stacks up. The average conversion rate in Google Ads across all industries is 2.7 percent on the search network and 0.89 percent on the display network, according to WordStream. WordStream also offers a tool where you can input your information and see how your rate compares to others in your specific industry.
If your rate is less than stellar, you could be making some common mistakes that are causing users to say goodbye before ever converting.
Why you’re missing out on conversions
Ask any online user why they left a site before they converted, and their reason is probably because the site is one or more of the following issues:
- Difficult to navigate
- Takes too much time to complete
- Untrustworthy
- Poor design
- Doesn’t answer their questions
Your pages need to be crafted with the user experience (UX) in mind, or you can forget about spikes in your data. If their needs and expectations aren’t being met, how can you expect them to engage with you? Learn how to get users to take the next step with these five tactics to improve your conversion rate.
#1 Optimize landing pages
Each element on your site’s landing page — including your headline, CTA, images and copy — can either help or hurt your efforts to improve your conversion rate. When all of those things work together, you’re one step closer to achieving the elusive conversion.
Beyond following the standard best practices (i.e. prominent CTA, personalized content, clean design and clear headline), there are other ways you can win over users. Embedding a video is one proven way to make that happen: Using videos on landing pages can increase conversions by 80 percent.
You also want to reduce the chance of users leaving your page, so reduce or eliminate your navigation bar. Be sure your page is ranking for your targeted keywords on Google and that your content resonates with your intended audience.
#2 Take advantage of AI
Artificial intelligence has become an integral part of many marketing campaigns and efforts, and it can also help with your mission to improve your conversion rate. One AI tool that can assist users to take the next step is the chat box.
Intuit increased its conversion rate by up to 211 percent using a proactive chat approach on different parts of their site, including their checkout, product comparison, and lead-gen pages. This proactive approach includes a pop-up chat box asking if they have questions or need help, instead of requiring customers to search for the chat function.
#4 Test it out
You can perform A/B testing for everything from email campaigns to landing pages, and it can be a beneficial tool for measuring performance and boosting your conversions. To find success, you need to understand your target audience and tailor the different elements to them. Because while A/B testing software can tell you how you’re doing, it can’t tell you what to test — that comes down to you knowing your audiences’ preferences.
Some of the key components to test on your landing pages include headlines, images, buttons, and body text. There are a variety of different softwares that will handle and track your testing results, so find one that meets your marketing team’s budget and needs. You can even try out free software, like Google Analytics, for your A/B testing, but you’ll probably want to invest in something with more capabilities as you go deeper into the process.
Testing really can make all the difference. Just ask the analytics team that worked on President Obama’s campaign a few years back. Thanks to A/B testing, they earned an extra 2.8 million email addresses and raised an additional $60 million in donations. All from recognizing that ‘every visitor is an opportunity.’
#4 Build trust
When you prove that your brand or product is trustworthy, you’ll see more conversions. From your web design to your URL, there are a variety of factors that will make your web presence appear more professional. Including terms or badges on your pages that show you’re “certified” or “authorized” gives visitors more confidence in your company, which can lead to more conversions.
The nonprofit organization with an option that showed statistics, testimonials, where they’ve been featured and answers to common questions on their page. The end result was an increased conversion rate of more than 11.5 percent at more than 95 percent confidence over their original design.
#5 Cut down time
One of the greatest conversion rate killers is requiring users to fill out too many form fields. Not only is it a time concern, but people are also wary of giving out so much of their information online. So, it’s important to only ask for the data you can’t live without. You can always request more in a customer survey, but when it comes to making the initial conversion, you want to keep it short and sweet.
According to a survey Imaginary Landscape conducted on their pages, a form with four questions saw 160 percent more conversions, whereas one with 11 questions had more 120 percent conversions than their previous forms. Displaying your privacy policy or other elements that show it’s a safe site will also increase the likelihood of them filling out the form.
To further simplify the form process, allow users to provide their information by signing in with a site like Google, Twitter or Facebook. That turns it into a one-click process (unless they need to sign into the third-party site first), making it easier on them.
Not a one-and-done
A healthy conversion rate needs continuous love and attention to keep it where you want it. Make it a priority within your marketing efforts to continuously experiment and test your assumptions. Find new ways to improve the UX, use A/B testing as one of your more important tools for acquiring information and you’ll see your rate continue to grow.