CRO Tests: How to Drive Conversions with A/B Testing

If you’re out of Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) test ideas, it’s time to snap on those goggles and throw on your lab coat because we’re going to channel our inner Dr. Frankenstein. When we’re done, you’ll be able to use CRO A/B testing to increase how often your website’s visitors convert, thanks to the power of SCIENCE!

But first, a few definitions, so we’re all on the same page of the syllabus.

What is Conversion Rate, and How Do I Optimize It?

In the online business world, CR, or Conversion Rate, is a useful number indicating how many people visit your website and take an action you find desirable. When somebody clicks an ad, lands on your page, then signs up for emails (or buys a product or takes a survey), that is one conversion.

Conversion Rate Optimization, then, is the science of making that process happen more often or more effectively. Basically, it’s about making small changes over time to increase the amount of money, sales, and so on that your business makes.

The equation to get your CR is: how often you can get a visitor to your page to complete an action you want them to take divided by the total number of page visitors.

CR = Page Visitors Who “Do The Thing”/ Total Page Visitors

So if on a given day you get 1000 visitors to your “sign up” page and 400 of them do the thing, your CR = 400/1000, or four out of ten visitors. Not a bad ratio. Whether you want a customer to buy a product or sign up for a newsletter, measuring how many people a given page can convert is important to the overall health of your business.

What is CRO A/B Testing?

Remember, we’re in science class at the moment. An A/B test, sometimes called a CRO test, is a fancy way of describing an experiment where you only change one variable. The unchanged condition is A, while the one with the change is B. To do the CRO test, you show half of a page’s given visitors version A and the other half gets version B. Then after a sufficient amount of time has passed (when you get a sizable amount of data), you can compare the two and learn which is working better.

You can use A/B testing to compare different copy on a website, different images, different types of forms, or even different color schemes.

Which Variables Should I Change in an A/B CRO Test?

Use your noggin and come up with a hypothesis! Depending on the type of A/B test you are doing, the answer to this question can vary. But, in general, you want to think about the page you are testing from the perspective of the user.

Example Hypothesis: Making the email sign-up form shorter will increase conversions.

Experiment: A/B test the two forms—the “A” page will have the current form, the “B” page will have the shortened version.

Duration: 48 hours.

Result: The shorter form had a higher CRO, using the equation “CRO= action-visitors/total-visitors.”

The nice thing about CRO tests is how easy it is to see if they’re working. Remember, you’re only changing one variable, so you know exactly what the change is doing—increasing conversions, decreasing them, or causing no change at all.

When Should I Optimize My Website’s Conversion Rate?

Once you’ve got a solid baseline of data gathered for your business, you can use an A/B CRO test to make easy, measurable and efficient changes that do not cost a ton of money but reap great rewards. When you’re measuring and implementing Conversion Rate Optimization strategies effectively, you’re getting more conversions than the day before. More conversions bring you closer to whatever your goal is, and implementing effective CRO isn’t very expensive at all. It’s a science-backed way to bring in more customers.