Larry Kim started his SMX East NYC session by explaining how he’s just like another well-known man who recently visited the Big Apple: “The pope and I are both obsessed with conversions!” The puns and productive tips that followed proved that WordStream‘s CTO and founder is a master of conversion hacks – and his session offered tips any marketer should bear in mind for ads and every lead generation-focused effort.
Kim, who runs one of the largest online advertising platforms, shared his belief that marketers are setting the bar too low in their efforts. His access to data for countless companies’ PPC conversions reveals a disturbing trend in the uneven distribution of success:
- The average conversion rate is 2.3%
- The top 25th percentile’s conversion rate is double that at 5.3%
- The top 10th percentile’s conversion rate is 11.45% – more than 5x the average
Before sharing five CRO tips, Kim explained his epiphanies on some common conspiracies that are “plaguing” every marketing department, and keeping businesses from incredible results.
Epiphany 1: A/B test are fairy tales.
Have you recently changed the font size, the button color, the image and/or the spacing on a page, and saw a 5 percent conversion lift!? It won’t last.
“The landing page CRO test can show results that won’t persist over time.” said Kim.
“Stop mucking around with buttons and colors on landing pages and start focusing on upstream optimization.”
Epiphany 2: Most marketers are delusional about CRO test results.
Marketers can see the (minor) results they want to see, and lose sight opportunities for big wins. “Small changes yield small results.” He compared excitement for minimal A/B test wins to getting excited about the way deck chairs are rearranged on the Titanic.
The little tweaks won’t sail the ship.
Epiphany 3: CRO exercises may boost quantity of leads at the expense of quality.
Leads do not mean sales, and it’s a common trap to focus on increasing lead numbers without focusing on growth in qualified leads – like buying cases of Spam instead of a nice piece of steak.
There’s no value in more, unless it’s more what’s valuable.
Epiphany 4: Marketers set the bar too low.
See the above date, re: average conversion rates and 5x higher conversion rates for the leaders (or, as Larry calls them, the unicorns). The gap between unicorns and donkeys is huge, and businesses too often sell themselves short.
“Aim for a 3x-5x increases… not 3%-5% increases,” Kim said.
And without further ado, he went into his five conversion rate optimization hacks.
CRO HACK #1 Skip landing pages
Stop obsessing about the color of the CTA button on your page and remove the landing page from the process. Larry advocated that advertisers implement “Call Now” features in PPC, because mobile has been a game-changer in reducing the time between lead interest and sales opportunity.
“Calls to businesses are worth over 3x clicks to websites.”
Even if people fill out a form on a landing page, the longer the span between the moment of interest and the time someone on a sales team contacts them, the less qualified the lead. “Force mobile searchers to call you!” he said.
CRO HACK #2 Use new direct response ad formats
If you’re doing lead gen you should absolutely avoid having people fill things out if you can get their information by other means. Think of Twitter ads that share email information with advertisers after users click to Download (or similar).
He also highlighted the “Submit” and “Subscribe” features on Facebook that allow for direct response. Marketers can then add pertinent information to their CRM without creating a barrier to entry for leads.
CRO HACK #3 Steal “shopping ad” features & qualify visitors
Why are the “shopping” sections of Google so popular? Because they give people all of the information they’re looking for BEFORE they click – so a click indicates they’ve already decided to purchase.
Kim pointed out multiple ways Google is “stealing conversions” that show this isn’t restricted to ecommerce. There are ample features that can qualify clicks, including:
- Ratings information
- Book now (in SERP) features
- “Call” features
- “Get directions” features
- “Compare rates” features (popular in insurance)
“Go nuts with ad customizers.”
He recommended adding language to ad copy to boost qualified traffic, ie:
- Add “Sale ends” language to create urgency
- Give clear pricing or product information directly within the ad
CRO HACK #4: Use super remarketing
“How many of you have heard of super remarketing?” Larry asked. “Well, I just made it up 20 minutes ago.” But here’s why you’ll want to get familiar with the phrase:
Super remarketing allows you to be “choosy.” This casts a narrower net, but increase conversion rates. Instead of marketing to everyone who visits the site, only target the people who have spent money, or visited product pages and map to demographic criteria that suggests they’re in a position to buy. Use the search behavior feature of remarking and layer in “life events.”
CRO HACK #5 Change the sign up flow
Put “Register” at end, or use an emotional trigger to let users decide path to conversion. “Rethink the typical or standard form to encourage a desired response.”
BONUS CRO HACK: Change your offer
Small changes beget small changes, but big changes beget big changes. Kim described his own personal experience working at WordStream.
“I asked myself, ‘How can I make this a multi-million dollar company if I can’t boost my conversion rate?’ I had to change my offer so people wanted it. So I reprogrammed, and changed my offer.”
When asked a follow up question on Twitter about whether this policy goes against iteration as a pathway to success, Kim said this:
You can never iterate your way to greatness, only slightly better. True greatness doesn’t require much iteration.
— Larry Kim (@larrykim) September 29, 2015
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