Our annual celebration of all things conversion and analytics was both totally different and entirely the same for 2020. On one hand, it comprised five webinars over the course of a week - a far cry from the intimate conference of the past two years.
On the other, we hope (and like to think) it featured the same standard of conversion and analytics focused content as you have come to expect, and invited healthy and challenging discussion around the topics covered.
Below, you’ll find a handy written summary of each of the week’s presentations, including a live recording of each session. But, if you’d prefer not to read, then jump straight in:
Day 1: The Role of Media Buying in Conversion Optimisation. Watch now >>>
Day 2: How User Testing Can Amplify Your Conversion Optimisation. Watch now >>>
Day 3: Understanding a Non-Ecommerce Journey. Watch now >>>
Day 4: How to Get Your CRO Programme Up and Running. Watch now >>>
Day 5: Analytics & Conversion Guest Panel Q&A. Watch now >>>
Analytics and Conversion, 2021 & Beyond
Day 1: The Role of Media Buying in Conversion Optimisation | Harry Martin, SearchStar
Watch the recording on-demand >>>
Kicking off the conference, Harry confessed that many businesses are mostly focussed on advertising, as the impact of conversion optimisation seems to slow.
However, he noted, it’s essential to remove such prejudices and consider media buying and conversion as key components of the same strategy. The two entities must work towards shared goals to make a digital strategy successful.
His advice was to focus on the content of your ads to improve conversion rate, as well as following the conversion framework with simple values to ensure the landing page is optimised for conversion.
Harry offered four media buying tips for boosting conversion rates:
- Make sure to prequalify users with clear pricing to boost conversion rate
- Reassure with social proof by adding reviews (for example). 63% of the people are more likely to purchase if reviews appear on the ad and landing page
- Keep it simple and relevant, and make sure to work with the media buying team to identify the main call to action and adapt the conversion strategy accordingly
- Stay relevant with topical content, as media buying is essential to improve traffic quality and conversion rate
Day 2: How User Testing Can Amplify Your Conversion Optimisation | Ryan McCourt, Userlytics
Watch the recording on-demand >>>
According to Ryan, user testing is an essential part of conversion optimisation, because it helps you understand why customers are struggling to convert on your website. It does this by integrating qualitative and quantitative data, reducing guesswork - not only does it help you improve your conversion optimisation now but helps plan your road map. For example, asking users to highlight their biggest issues can help you direct your A/B testing.
Ryan went on to explain that user testing gives you access to direct customer feedback, and enables you to ask direct questions to be answered as a user completes a certain task. This approach gives you better insight into what they like or didn’t like, what they expected or didn’t expect and, most importantly, what worked and what didn’t, and why.
Most importantly, Ryan demonstrated just how accessible user testing is. Generally assumed to be resource-heavy, platforms like Userlytics have opened up the possibility of user testing to even small businesses. He was quick to point out that even a small amount of data from a handful of participants could be incredibly valuable in informing conversion optimisation projects and securing the buy-in of once sceptical stakeholders.
Day 3: Understanding a Non-eCommerce Journey | Jon Boon, SearchStar & Connor Goddard, Pure Planet
Watch the recording on-demand >>>
On day 3, Analytics Consultant Jon Boon and Data Scientist Connor Goddard joined us to look at how Pure Planet embedded web analytics into their website and started using Google Analytics Enhanced eCommerce to measure a non-eCommerce website journey.
Pure Planet approached SearchStar to help track its main user journey, which wasn’t quite as simple as it sounds. The problem was that Pure Planet had a single page Ajax web application, with a single URL and no page change between clicks. This made ‘out-of-the-box’ Google Analytics tracking difficult.
Using a combination of custom dimensions and event tracking, SearchStar added tracking to track key data points such as fuel type, energy usage, journey type and postcode area. Jon used virtual URLs to track each stage as a separate page, so we could see where users were dropping-off and could build remarketing lists for those who didn’t complete.
All of this was built using Google Tag Manager, using basic custom JavaScript to create an eCommerce funnel. The enhancements provided a clear view of the three separate journeys that a user might take on the website and the performance of each one.
Connor and the marketing team gained visibility of the choices that users were making, including if they were dropping off at any particular point, which meant they were able to begin to make interventions to optimise the journey. Finally, Pure Planet could now target their media activity to be more personalised to a user’s state in the buyer’s journey.
Day 4: How to Get Your CRO Programme Up and Running | Jamie Willmott, Pure Electric
Watch the recording on-demand >>>
For Pure Electric's Jamie, asking the right questions is the important first step when getting your conversion optimisation project up and running. In other words, what is it that you’re trying to achieve?
Asking the right question drives focus on everything you do in research, analysis and A/B testing. In Jamie’s case, the question was ‘how do we sell more electric scooters online?’.
This simple ‘how’ question can be refined and broken down, for example, into two further questions: ‘What is stopping us from selling more scooters?’ and ‘What can we do to convert more visitors to buyers?’. This is providing yet more focus and direction.
By way of analogy, Jamie asks us to imagine a website is like a leaky bucket, and the job of conversion optimisation is to find the biggest leaks and to plug them. A powerful ally in your quest to find the biggest leaks is Google Analytics, which can help you discover how visitors are interacting with your pages.
Once you have used Google Analytics - combined with Hotjar - to answer the ‘what’ questions, it’s time to formulate the appropriate ‘why’ questions. Jamie reminds us that an essential component of answering the ‘why’ is do conduct qualitative research. The data we gather and analyse is connected to real human beings.
Ways of achieving this information might be to conduct free-form customer surveys or carry out user testing. Jamie also drew attention to an often-overlooked source of information - call centres and customer service teams. These people are talking directly to customers on a daily basis and will have potentially useful information to share with us about them.
In the case of Pure Electric, one ‘why’ was that it was not easy to compare electric scooters on the website. Armed with the knowledge collected using the methods above, Jamie hypothesized that the answer was to provide a shopping assistant that allows customers to compare scooters more easily, and recommend scooters based on their specific requirements.
The result of careful implementation of these ideas resulted in a variety of improved metrics, including a 20% increase in AOV, and a doubling in conversion rate.
Day 5: Analytics & Conversion Guest Panel Q&A
Watch the recording on-demand >>>
The final day of Analytics and Conversion, 2021 & Beyond was a guest panel featuring speakers from the week. It was incredibly insightful, drawing upon years and years of collective experience, and is well worth a watch.
