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Someone recently Tweeted that WiderFunnel had the largest collection of Conversion Optimization case studies anywhere on the web (even I didn’t realized that!) and today we added one more: the PluralEyes Software case study.

Our 30^th posted Case Study tells how testing PluralEyes Software increased its Free Trial Download rate by over 17%. This, of course, in and of itself was a major success but the story has an interested wrinkle: we were all surprised with the results.

But before I tell you why, let me back up for a moment.

As readers of this blog know, the WiderFunnel team is passionate about Conversion Optimization testing. And as if the pressure of delivering conversion lift for each and every client wasn’t enough, whenever we launch a new Test Round, we put some “extra skin in the game” by having a small wager of a Starbucks Gift Certificate for the person (on the WiderFunnel or client teams) who can guess which test variation will lead the pack and win.

We do this to have a bit of fun (of course!) but also because, after over 4 years of a pretty perfect track record, we fully expect that at least one of the test variations we create will improve the client’s conversion rate – we just do not know which one will be the overall winner.

And so when the team created the hypotheses for the PluralEyes Software Test Round, it was “obvious” which Variation was going to win.

But was it?  No it wasn’t.  Here is the scoop.

There were three test variations created:

Variation A

The hypothesis was to simplify the page and provide minimal product information. We added a headline and sub-headline that spoke to the value proposition, made it clear what the call to action was and how to interact with the page, and included reference to all the video editing programs that Plural Eyes supports. Since many visits to the page came from Search with branded keywords, we thought that maybe just “getting out of the way” would win.

Variation B

The hypothesis was that “a fair amount of content was needed to persuade prospects.” In addition to the same headlines, copy, and call to action as Variation A, we added a static screenshot of the software, an illustrated summary of how PluralEyes works, and two relevant testimonials.

Variation C

Here, the layout and content were identical to Variation B but we wanted to try using an existing “overview” video in place of a static screenshot. So, the hypothesis was that “rich media would be more effective than a static screenshot.” The video, if watched, conveyed so much more than one static screenshot. Since everything outside the video player area was the same as B, the video content was an isolated variable.

“Gut feel” isn’t so good…

Everyone’s “gut” was of course that Variation C (“rich media more effective than a static screenshot”) would be the winner because the target audience were “video people,” so therefore a professionally-produced overview video would be more persuasive.

In reality, the winner was Variation B – screenshot (not video)!

This page variation increased the Free Trial download conversion rate by more than 17%.

How much better was screenshot than video?

Over 35% better!

And THAT is why we test!

Important take-aways:

The key takeaway here is video should always be tested. While having video on your site may be considered a general best practice, having it on landing pages, or any page where you’re asking for a conversion, is not a sure bet.

You can read the complete case study here and watch the recorded webinar here.

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Sometimes, one is too close to the trees to see the forest. This morning I awoke to a Tweet from our friends at Unbounce which said: “29 Conversion Rate Optimization case studies – http://bit.ly/qOYxMY – from @widerfunnel #cro <<< Awesome” and quickly realized that, being so busy working with clients and creating the case studies, we had never taken the time to count them.

Since the Tweet went viral, we quickly realized that this fact (i.e., having 29 Conversion Optimization Testing Case Studies in one place!) is in and of itself is of value to our tribe that thrives on Conversion Optimization testing.

So I counted them.

And @Unbounce is right: we have 29 Conversion Optimization Testing Case Studies published here for you to access at any time.

About these 29 Conversion Optimization Testing Case Studies

With clients across North America, Europe, Australia and Asia, we are fortunate to work with some of the world’s smartest BtoB and Consumer Marketing companies in dozens of industry verticals.

As a result, these client-approved case studies cover BtoB and Consumer Marketing as well as eCommerce and Lead-generation. They include a very wide range of industries and calls-to-action, from High Tech software to Catalogue and single-product eCommerce retail; Tourism, Travel and Hospitality; Financial Services; Affiliate marketing; Video Games; and even hair restoration services and alcohol and drug addiction recovery! Most case studies are written documents – but we also have a video one.

You can check the 29 Conversion Optimization Testing Case Studies yourself.

(Plus stay tuned, because the next Conversion Optimization Testing Case Study coming up relates to testing the use of Video for improving software downloads. Brendan Regan, our Conversion Strategist, alluded to it in a recent blog post, 3 Lessons From My 1st WiderFunnel Test – you can read it now but it may spoil the surprise results! ).

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Since I joined WiderFunnel in April, I’ve been busy getting to know new colleagues, learning a new conversion rate optimization approach, and working with a new group of enlightened clients on optimization strategy.

With all that busy-ness, I’ve not been sharing my thoughts with the Marketing community as much as I used to. But since my very first WiderFunnel experiment had both interesting and positive results, I feel it’s time to post some learning.

Looking at the 3 lessons I’ll share from this experiment, I would say that 2 are good reminders that don’t surprise me, and 1 is a legitimate surprise…definitely worth testing!

Background

We were engaged to run a test on a landing page for a software maker. While the site offers the ability to buy the software, the client wanted to focus on getting more free trial downloads out of their marketing investments. The software is relatively “niche,” so we were unsure about how much persuasion was necessary to maximize free trial downloads.

An A/B/n experiment was designed to test the ‘boundaries’ of how much content was needed to get this niche audience to take the desired action. Ultimately, the experiment achieved an 17.4% improvement over the Control design! And that impressive improvement will be enjoyed without spending an extra cent on traffic.

Lesson #1: Be Vigilant About Competing CTAs

Our client’s Control page had 3 competing calls to action to account for 3 separate user tasks. You could: 1) watch a video, 2) buy the software, or 3) download the free trial. Since the primary goal of the page (and the experiment) was to increase trial downloads, we downplayed the competing calls to action, and improved the design and copy of the primary call to action, with favorable results.

Lesson #2: Headlines Should Convey Value Proposition

Especially on landing pages, headlines need to be about more than just Search Engine Optimization. It’s fine to drop in a keyword or two, but if your main headline and/or sub-headline doesn’t convey the value proposition at the top of the page, you’re probably missing out on extra conversions. Our winning variation’s headline talked about the value proposition using “loss aversion,” and the sub-headline was more to-the-point about value.

Lesson #3: Surprise! Screenshot Beats Video!

The experiment’s Control page relied on creative imagery to build value, but the imagery lacked specificity about the value that the product brings to the table. Two alternate ways to convey the value of software are screenshots and demo/overview videos.

Since the client had both available, we decided to pit the two types of content against each other as an “isolated variable.” We ran 2 combinations where the only difference was that one had a product screenshot above the fold, while the other had an overview video player above the fold. My gut said that video would win because it is a) interactive and b) can convey so much more information than a static screenshot. Guess what? The screenshot won, performing 35.94% better than the variation with video!

Perhaps prospects were in a hurry and couldn’t be bothered watching a video? Or, the realistic screenshot conveyed more to the target audience than I thought? Or both?? Would you have guessed screenshot, or video? Why? Drop us a comment below and let us know.

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A brief and lighthearted post today based on something I saw (and screen-captured) that made me laugh out loud. Like an old boss of mine, I’m a screenshot addict.

But before the screenshot, a little background: Every so often, I go through the emails I get on a regular basis and unsubscribe from a bunch of companies who’ve emailed me too often, offer services no longer relevant to me, or haven’t provided enough value in their communications.

This usually involves clicking on a link in the email and visiting a landing page (Yes, unsubscribe pages are landing pages) to complete my task. If all goes well, there is no ill will towards the marketers who I’m going to hear from less, no loss of brand affinity, etc. If it goes less than ideal, then who knows what kind of trouble there will be in this highly networked world

So, I click the link to unsubscribe, hit the landing page and…

Exhibit A - Click to Enlarge

Yes, folks, that’s a “subscribe” call to action on an ‘unsubscribe’ landing page! I’m a user experience geek, so these things tickle me

Now, I’m not here to pick on marketers who have to run big eCommerce sites. I know their jobs are extremely difficult, and I’m sure this was a case of “dumb” technology instead of human negligence. Nor am I picking on the technique of using an overlay/lightbox interrupt to optimize your site–we often use them in the conversion rate optimization experiments we handle here at WiderFunnel.

But here’s the lesson/warning/call to action: If you have any “interrupt” calls to action on your site (survey, live chat, contest, email capture, etc.), go and spend a few minutes investigating the logic whereby they interrupt. Is it site-wide? Is it session based? Cookie based? Does everyone see it?  Do your best customers (who don’t need it) see it? Does it interrupt on pages where it doesn’t make sense?

A few minutes of thought and discussion may prevent your site from ending up on my “wall of shame.” Better yet, you’ll avoid damaging relationships with your customers and prospects.

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You want your website to generate more revenue, right?

Of course you do.

If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be reading WiderFunnel’s blog. Generating more revenue is what the Conversion Optimization industry is all about.

That’s why I’m concerned about all the talk I hear about “optimizing for micro-conversions”, especially micro-conversions related to Social Media.

What are Micro-Conversions?

We define a micro-conversion as a visitor action that is either on the path toward a revenue-generating conversion or is not directly related to generating revenue.

In other words, a micro-conversion could indicate interest or intent, but does not directly represent a sales lead or revenue.

Micro-Conversion Examples

Your website probably has many actions that you could track as micro-conversions. For example, a visitor could trigger a micro-conversion by:

• Tweeting about your blog post
• “Liking” your blog post on Facebook
• Viewing the “Request a Quote” page
• Visiting the checkout page
• Viewing the whitepaper download page
• Clicking the ‘View pricing’ link
• Viewing the software trial download page
• Proceeding to the third step in the checkout process
• Viewing a product detail page
• Viewing more than three pages in a session
• Adding a product to the cart
• Subscribing to your RSS feed
• Commenting on your blog post
• Watching a demo video
• Using your search tool
• And many more secondary Calls to Action

So, should you run micro-conversion optimization tests to improve your results for these?

No, you shouldn’t. Allow me to explain why.

Why Some Marketers Optimize for Micro-Conversions

The most common reason people optimize for micro-conversions is to speed up their experiment results.

The length of time needed to run your A/B or Multivariate test depends, in part, on the amount of traffic and conversions you get. Most websites get many times more micro-conversions than sales or lead conversion, so your experiments may complete faster using micro-conversions as test goals.

For example, consider a typical gated form that a software company uses to generate leads for a sales team. The conversion funnel may look like this:

At each step, there is a certain drop-off rate. If the home page gets 100,000 visitors monthly, the counts for each page in this hypothetical scenario could be:
a. Download Page: 20,000
b. Gate with Form: 15,000
c. Thank-you Page: 5,000

Choosing Your Conversion Goal

Let’s say you want to run an A/B/n test on the Home Page above.

You need to decide whether your experiment goal is: a) visit to the download page, b) visit to the gate page or c) a download completion.

If you choose option “a)”, to use the download page micro-conversion as the goal, your experiment will complete faster since you’ll have 20,000 goals triggered rather than 5,000.

That’s good news, right? You can finish the test sooner and move on to the next test.

Not so fast.

The False Micro-Conversion Testing Assumption

You’ve made a big assumption there.

If you assume that there’s an equal drop-off rate through the funnel regardless of the Home Page variation shown, it shouldn’t matter which one you choose.

But will your funnel completion rate (from Download to Thank-you Page) really be the same regardless of the Home page variation?

In our experience, that is often a false assumption.

We have seen many examples where the first step of a funnel can dramatically change the completion of a subsequent step, even a step that is several steps removed.

Here’s a typical example A/B/n Test result through the funnel:

Depending on the micro-conversions you were counting as your goals, here’s what you would have decided:

Clearly, the best performing variation is actually Variation B. It lifted the lead generation conversion rate by 46%.

But, if you had run the test using Download page visits as the goal, you would have chosen Variation C as the winner and could have seriously hurt your results!

What should you optimize for?

For Conversion Optimization, you should always set your test goal as close to revenue as possible. Optimize for direct sales, average order value and qualified leads generated.

Please continue to look at micro-conversions in your web analyses, but for Conversion Testing, stick to revenue-producing goals.

For examples of revenue-improvement tests, take a look at these Conversion Optimization case studies.

What do you think?

Which micro-conversions are important to your business? What do you use as your Conversion Optimization test goals?

If you have attended any of our monthly webinars, you have experienced the power of the GoToWebinar tool:

• We are able to deliver webinars of any length for up to 1,000 attendees
• You are able to interact with the speakers, not only by asking questions in real time but by “guessing which test variation won” via the polling and survey capabilities during our interactive Testing Game

Citrix Online wants to help its customers do a better job in marketing, including improving their own conversion rate

This Thursday, May 12, 2011 at 11:00 am PST/2 pm EST Citrix is sponsoring the newest webinar: “Learn from the Pros: The Top–5 Secrets of Landing Page Optimization”

The guest speaker will be Brenda Dentinger, Senior Customer Programs Manager, Citrix Online and she will lead the interactive presentation, including content on how to run successful webinar programs and GoToWebinar’s best practices for marketing professionals.

As Bernardo de Albergaria, vice president and general manager of collaboration, Citrix Online, put it: “Marketing professionals love GoToWebinar because it is incredibly easy to use and provides the tools needed to increase market reach, generate more leads and expand their business,” said Bernardo. “With insight from WiderFunnel and the power of GoToWebinar, they can improve their online conversion rate with skills they can use every day on their own website landing pages.”

To register, visit http://learn.gotowebinar.com/content/11029360

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Having just returned from Conversion Conference in San Francisco last week, where both Chris Goward and I had a chance to present to a full house, I was struck by the amazing diversity of technologies as well as conversion optimization services options available to clients considering embarking on a conversion optimization strategy.

Lots of choices to make

This diversity is, of course, both good and bad depending on what your needs are and where your company is at in its online marketing lifecycle.

Clients just embarking on the strategy must decide between outsourcing and executing in-house; need to select the right tool from many technological and pricing options and, once they decide to get external help (and most clients executing in-house quickly come to realize that they do not possess all the cross-functional skills required to make the strategy succeed) need to determine what sort of help they need to hire.

This leads to a lot of unnecessary Conversion Optimization confusion

In the past we have blogged about the many testing tools we at WiderFunnel like. As a testing and analytics technology-agnostic Agency we have put together a list of “conversion optimization tool we like”. While it is by no means a comprehensive list, it will give you an idea of where to start.

Clients are confused as to how to go about selecting the right Conversion Optimization Agency

Conference organizers did something very smart: for each of the conference lunches, speakers were asked to “host” a table which gave attendees a chance to interact informally with speakers. Both days I was very fortunate to meet some amazing marketers and get a chance to hear first hand about the challenges they were facing. And one of these challenges was how to select the right Conversion Optimization Agency for their particular needs.

To help clients select the right Conversion Optimization Agency for their needs, we developed a 10-Point Conversion Optimization Agency Evaluation Checklist to help them compare different Agencies (including web designers).

By taking a systematic approach to comparing Agencies, we believe clients hiring a Conversion Optimization Agency will ensure they get the best fit between their company and the selected Agency – which will lead to the highest conversion rate lift for their websites!

You can download this 10-Point Conversion Agency Checklisthere.

Let me know what you think of it, will you? Please leave a comment below.

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Here is some fresh thinking for the new year for you: Do you really need a web redesign?

There are many situations that justify a website redesign: if the platform your current site sits on is outdated, for example, and you need greater functionality, is one of them. Other reasons include: your overall branding has dramatically changed and your website needs to change accordingly; you need to make the site web-accessible for disabled users; you face competitive needs driving a marketplace re-positioning; your target demographic has changed; or you need updating to web standards.

However, not all websites need a comprehensive redesign whenever management encounters a business challenge.

In fact, there really are *bad*reasons to redesign your website. These include this vague notion that “the site needs to be updated” because web visitors are “getting tired” and “the site looks old” – which are typically reasons ad agencies and web design agencies give to justify the recommendation to redesign a client’s website.

But where is the data to justify this recommendation?

What percentage of your web visitors are New vs. Repeat?

The argument that you need a large-scale web redesign because the site hasn’t changed in a long time and therefore looks old and does not inspire customers to take action can be easily supported or repudiated with data.

To do this, simply check your web analytics and determine what percentage of your web visitors are New vs. Repeat visitors.

If the vast majority of your web visitors are New, then the only people for whom the site is “looking tired” are your staff and your agency. No need for a large-scale web redesign project for them!

What percentage of your web visitors come from organically generated traffic vs. paid sources?

If a significant percentage of your web visitors come from SEO traffic, then a large-scale web redesign project is a risky undertaking. A brand new site is likely to have a negative impact on your SEO efforts, taking valuable time to replace the traffic you have come to take (almost!) for granted.

A poor conversion rate is a particularly bad reason (in and of itself) to embark on a web redesign project.

We know this as we often get calls from prospective clients asking us to redesign their site because it is underperforming and they need to improve their conversion rate. After an initial discussion, it very often becomes apparent that a large-scale web redesign is not the optimal way to proceed, and it certainly is not the most cost-efficient way to go either!

Very often, a much better approach is to analyze the website, identify the web pages that need to “work harder” for the company and then only optimize those pages. (At WiderFunnel, we call this the Kaizen Plan)

In other words, even though your agency told you that you needed a new website, it is quite likely that your site is just fine, thank you very much – you just need to make specific web pages work harder!

It’s time for smart marketers to move away from large-scale web redesign projects to evolutionary, data-driven website improvements.

Marketers need to shift from the “accepted wisdom” that their websites needs a total re-build at regular intervals to an attitude about continuous improvement and incremental change based on conversion optimization.

The benefits an improved conversion rate generates are clear: increased profits from traffic-building tactics (you knew that) without risking any loss in that beautiful thing that an effectively search-engine-optimized site is.

But what is fresh thinking for the new year is this: not having to invest in a large-scale web redesign by only focusing on improving the conversion rate on key web pages will free up your marketing budget to invest where it generates the highest demonstrable ROI.

Happy 2011!

comScore (“a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence“) just published a very interesting White Paper entitled, “When Advertising Goes Digital” – with the catchy sub-title “What Would Don Draper Do In A Digital World?” Of course, as a Mad Men fan, this caught my eye.

(Disclaimer: I very much enjoy the show Mad Men as a *period piece* but not as an instructional show on how to execute marketing campaigns. But I digress)

According to comScore, this paper is meant to serve as a starting point “for an important industry-wide dialogue about creative’s role in digital” to answer questions, such as:

• Knowing what we do about creative’s important role in advertising, why is there still so little focus on creative in digital?

• What role should it play in today’s new advertising ecosystem, and why are so few advertisers and their agencies testing it?

OK, so comScore is interested in finding out why so few advertisers and their agencies test. I am in!

The comScore paper starts by citing the obvious: “great creative is critical to the success of campaigns” and continues to say that in the world of TV advertising “brands would not consider launching a campaign without first testing a variety of creative strategies and executions” whereas the digital advertising space “has historically centered on the media plan, while the underlying strategy and creative execution have taken a backseat.”

The paper then takes an unexpected turn. It moves on to say that, historically, because banner ads were so inexpensive to produce and deploy, especially when compared to television advertising, advertisers did not consider it a risk to simply launch without testing and “click-through rates (CTRs) emerged as a popular metric because they were inexpensive and easy to measure.”

And this is where the paper really starts to fail me: “While clicks can be measured, they do not necessarily matter, at least not to the extent that many might have believed.”

I beg your pardon? It continues:

“There are several reasons why CTRs are not the appropriate measure of display advertising’s effectiveness. Perhaps most notably is the fact that the majority of Internet users do not click on display ads, and the percentage of users who do is continuing to decrease over time.”

We have known this since the internet Stone Age (well, at least since 2007), when Jakob Nielsen’s eyetracking studies confirmed for the umpteenth time that banner blindness is real.

It isn’t that the majority of Internet users do not click on display ads – they actually don’t even see them. And THAT is why they don’t click on them.

But if “CTRs are not the appropriate measure of display advertising’s effectiveness” – what is?

Well, according to another comScore report (I guess that is what they do), “How Online Advertising Works: Whither the Click? “…even with dismal CTRs, display advertising has been shown to lift site visitation for the advertised brand, to lift trademark search queries and to build both online and offline sales” and “…a comScore analysis from dozens of studies in the AdEffx™ Offline Sales Lift normative database clearly demonstrates the offline impact of online advertising on retail sales of CPG brands. On average, 82% of all campaigns evaluated showed a positive sales lift and, among Internet users exposed to the ad campaigns, offline sales for the brands being advertised increased by 22%”

So according to comScore the appropriate measure of display advertising’s effectiveness are: site visitations; trademark search queries; and both online and offline sales of CPG brands. These sound awfully close to CTR to me.

The paper then goes back to try and answer its original questions: why is there still so little focus on creative in digital and why are so few advertisers and their agencies testing.

It seems that comScore is unaware of Conversion Optimization testing as the fast growing discipline it truly is, as there is no mention of it in the paper.

While the paper confirms that “the notion of testing a strategy before developing and launching a campaign has yet to take hold in the digital advertising community” it fails to answer the questions it ask: Why?

A better discussion as to Why can be found in Dan Ariely’s recent blog post, “Experiments? Not!”

Ariely is a professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics and the author of The Upside of Irrationality and, my favorite, Predictably Irrational (we have blogged about Prof Ariely’s work in the past here).In this blog post, Ariely bemoans the fact that he had written to Whole Foods “about some ideas for doing experiments together” but received a corporate reply: No.

“What annoys me” writes Ariely, “is… companies in general are willing to spend lots of money on consultants, they are willing to spend lots of money on gambling that their intuitions are correct, and sometimes they even spend money on focus groups. But, when it comes to testing things empirically, the typical answer is ‘Interesting, but not for us.’”

Ariely does not try and explain why that happens, but the dozens of readers who posted replies provide some very interesting insights.

The bottom line? It seems reluctance to test boils down to fear of empirical data not aligning with the spin.

So, do you think Don Draper would run Conversion Optimization tests? I think he would not.

But why? Why do advertisers and agencies not embrace testing? What do you think?

(If you are in a rush, here is the registration link – otherwise, read on.)

You probably already know Bryan Eisenberg: he is the co-author of the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, USA Today and New York Times bestselling books “Call to Action”, “Waiting For Your Cat to Bark?” and “Always Be Testing” and has been the keynote speaker for Search Engine Strategies, Shop.org, Direct Marketing Association, MarketingSherpa, E-consultancy, Webcom, SEM Konferansen Norway and the Canadian Marketing Association, among others.

And on April 1st, you don’t have to leave your desk to hear him speak!

In this free webinar sponsored by WiderFunnel, Bryan will guide you through some of the recent changes in the online advertising world and provide you with strategies and proven techniques to maximize your return on investment from your advertising budget based on the latest developments in Internet marketing and advertising.

Are you are currently spending a significant marketing budget on Pay-Per-Click, Pay-Per-Call, and Social Media Advertising?

Then you absolutely owe it to yourself to learn the techniques you need to increase the ROI of these powerful advertising mediums.

Would you like Bryan to answer a specific question?

Easy. Simply post your questions right here on this blog and Bryan will incorporate them in his presentation.

WHEN: Thursday, April 1, 2010 at 2:00 pm EST/ 11 am PST

LENGTH: 50 minutes

COST: Free – But you need to reserve ahead by registering

REGISTRATION LINK here

BONUS! Each webinar attendee will receive an electronic copy of the “Persuasive Online Copywriting” ebook – The actual book on Amazon has sold for over $1000

WIN:
• Attend this webinar and you could be one of 20 attendees qualifying for a FREE custom landing page evaluation!

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
• Sales, Marketing and eCommerce Leaders and Managers with revenue responsibilities
• Search Engine Marketing practitioners interested in improving the ROI of campaign investments.