{"id":14915,"date":"2021-06-24T06:04:58","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T11:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/blog\/?p=14915"},"modified":"2021-06-24T06:04:58","modified_gmt":"2021-06-24T11:04:58","slug":"expert-answers-to-9-tough-cro-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/blog\/expert-answers-to-9-tough-cro-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Expert Answers to 9 Tough CRO Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 18<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

Conversion rate optimization is always going to be complicated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It was complicated in its early days; it still is complicated today, and it will still be tricky tomorrow.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is why there\u2019s no one universal process to approach it. Different CRO experts use different methods when optimizing websites.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But no matter how you approach conversion optimization, they will always be burning questions that will make you scratch your head before you answer them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I compiled 9 of those tough questions and reached out to five conversion optimization experts from different parts of the world. The point here is to understand different ways to look at the same conversion optimization problem.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, without further ado, let\u2019s meet the CRO experts and learn some new tricks, shall we? <\/span><\/p>\n

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Tim Stewart<\/a>, Digital Consultant at trsdigital<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Georgi Georgiev<\/a>, Founder of Analytics-Toolkit.com<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Lorenzo Carreri<\/a>, CRO, User Research and UX Consultant<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Andr\u00e9 Morys<\/a>, Founder & CEO of konversionsKRAFT<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Chad Sanderson<\/a>, Head of Product, Data Platform at Convoy<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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1. Are there any risks involved in an optimization project?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Every project comes with risks. That’s probably a known fact. But does this ring true in the world of conversion optimization? If it’s true, what kind of risks are there in a CRO project? And how can you avoid falling victim to them?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, according to Georgi:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“<\/span>Yes, similar to any other project. The difference is that most optimization projects rely on experiments to manage those risks, so usually, such projects involve much less risk than other types of marketing or product development work. This means that if your CROs do not know what they are doing, this will become evident during testing (assuming the tests are done properly), which is not necessarily the case with PPC or SEO. While experiments are possible in PPC, I don’t think they are as widespread as in CRO. Experiments in SEO are very difficult if not outright impossible and of much more limited value<\/span><\/i>.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lorenzo says that he always see a couple of risks in optimization projects:<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

“<\/span>The first one involves the people running an optimization program without proper experience. The second thing that could also be risky is optimizing for the wrong KPI. Most people always obsess about optimizing the conversion rate. But that’s just one side of the coin in terms of trying to achieve the company’s overall goal. Sometimes, there could be some opportunity to increase the AOV or retention rate, but if you are only obsessed with conversion rate, you might miss other important opportunities<\/span><\/i>.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s funny that CRO should help you avoid risks, and yet it comes with its own set of possible risks, says Andr\u00e9. He also goes on to mention three potential risks you should avoid when doing conversion optimization:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“CRO should be about risk mitigation, but it also has its own risks. If you do not know what to optimize and why you don’t need to A\/B test anything, you could save a lot of money by not doing A\/B testing and optimization.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The first risk associated with CRO is testing weak hypotheses.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The second risk is weak operationalization. This usually happens when you test things and deduce the wrong assumptions from the results. Sometimes you may have already tested something, not get positive results, and then decide to stop at that point. But, that doesn’t mean they might not be another way of testing it.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The third risk is the wrong implementation. Sometimes your variations may work in another browser, and you think that’s alright, and you forget to test on other browsers and devices. That’s a huge risk that can cost you a lot of money.”<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chad says there are dozens of risks in a CRO. He also warns against implementing a test without proper Quality Assurance<\/a>:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“<\/span>There are many risks, and one I can think about is the implementation of the test. Rolling out an experiment without doing Quality Assurance. We once ran an experiment where we changed the priority order of a list of offers for our customers. When the experiment was rolled out, the swipe to go down the page wasn’t working. There was a bug. And because of that bug, we saw a pretty big negative impact<\/span><\/i>.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Nothing of value is without risks<\/span><\/i>,” says Tim. He also goes on to say, “<\/span>the biggest risk in experimentation is people not doing it in the way it is intended and trying to treat it like some kind of shortcut to money<\/span><\/i>.” Tim also mentions different kinds of CRO risks you should look out for:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“<\/span>Another risk is to try CRO, but not give it the correct thinking, and you continue to do the wrong thing. Then there’s the risk of making decisions based on too little data on the false assumptions that some data is better than no data and making the wrong decisions believing that they are the right ones.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

2. What comes first, CRO, SEO, or PPC?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If you are reading this, you probably know the difference between CRO, SEO, and PPC. But do you know which one should come first? If CRO has to come first, why is that so? Well, Georgi says they should work hand-in-glove and not as foes:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“I’ve always seen them as complementary and not as mutually exclusive options.”<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Andr\u00e9<\/span> agrees with Georgi, as he says, “traffic multiplied with conversion rate equals revenue.” But he also adds that CRO problems are usually the plague of most businesses:<\/span><\/p>\n

“So, of course, if you have constraints in your traffic acquisition, it’s as bad as having problems with your conversion rate. The thing is, I strongly believe that SEO has a 10 years maturity advantage. The SEO industry is quite mature, the knowledge is quite mature, and it’s not that complex. I see much more companies having much more conversion rate challenges compared to traffic acquisition. But in general, it’s two independent variables.”<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the other hand, Chad says CRO should always be given the first priority because it enables you to unlock your customer pain points:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“CRO should always be first. But the problem is that most people think of good CRO as a particular set of techniques. And that’s not the whole idea of CRO. Experimentation and CRO is simply the thought process of thinking about the problems of our customers. We need to build engineering solutions to solve those problems. And then, we need to measure the results. So we have some idea whether it worked or not…that should be the core of every business. You can always keep your business strong \u2013 even without SEO or PPC \u2013 if you build more things and test to see if they work.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

A great example of this is Airbnb. They cut their marketing spend by 25% during the pandemic, and they didn’t see a significant drop in sales. The reason that people use Airbnb is not because of the marketing. It’s because they’ve developed an excellent, fantastic product that people love to use, and it solves a problem. I’m not saying that marketing is terrible. SEO, PPC, or Facebook ads can be a good solution. Especially if customers have never heard of you.”\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lorenzo agrees with both Georgi and Andr\u00e9 in putting CRO, SEO, and PPC in the same box,<\/span> “they should all work together.” <\/span><\/i>But he also says that if you are to choose which one you should start with first, go for CRO.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“But it’s better to start by doing CRO and figuring out \u2013 from that perspective \u2013 the customers’ decision-making process. And based on those findings, then you can create an SEO or PPC strategy.”\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tim says that what comes first is determined by the kind of problem you have on your site. He also goes on to say that not all CRO issues should be given first priority over SEO or PPC:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“Sometimes, when clients approach me, I look at their data, and they don’t have a CRO problem. Or, if they do have a CRO problem, it might not be the problem they should be solving first, so I tell them to fix their SEO or PPC. Part of it is down to maturity or situation.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Sometimes, I look at what type of CRO program fits their business. I mean, if their Search Engine Marketing is poor, then the conversion optimization effort can be spent on trying to understand why it is performing poorly. This can help us answer the following questions:\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n