Online A/B and MVT experimentation to achieve conversion rate improvement has been around for a few years, with tools such as Offermatica (now Omniture’s Test & Target), Optimost, and others.

However, since the launch of Google Website Optimizer (GWO) last year as a free tool, we started to see a dramatic increase in awareness –as well as a fast rate of adoption– of online testing as an extremely valuable strategy.

After all, GWO easily allows marketers to run experiments on their web pages and determine which layout, offer, creative and copy combination delivers the highest number of conversions – without having to spend additional dollars driving *more* traffic to the site.

But, as in most cases, technology is only part of the equation for success.

After testing staples like a red button (yes, they often do improve the conversion rate; just try it) and shorter registration forms (the shorter the better), marketers often run out of ideas of what to test next.

At the same time, some marketers who have the right ideas in terms of what to test, lack the internal resources to develop the needed test assets (such as the designs, the HTML coding, the technical install, the QA, etc).

Plus, executing a conversion optimization strategy and running experiments is not a one-off event: to generate truly meaningful lift in conversion rates, marketers need to be continuously and relentlessly focused on the strategy and launch the new experiment just as the current one completes.

All this calls for the right people, the right strategy and the right services to take full advantage of a free tool such as GWO (and also, for that matter, to take full advantage of the not-so-free tools such as Omniture’s Test & Target, Optimost, and the rest).

It is here that marketing services companies like WiderFunnel Marketing come in.

Lately, we have been getting an increasing number of calls and emails from prospects that report either having worked with these tools themselves, or with a marketing services company. When I ask them why they are contacting us, invariably I hear answers such as…

• GWO is easy to use, but we’ve ran out of ideas of what to test
• I don’t have the staff to do all the steps that are necessary, and do so on a timely basis
• No one in the company knows how to design experiments worth running
• The marketing company we hired designed an MVT experiment and it’s been 4 ½ months since we launched it but so far we have seen no results
• I can get consulting advice from marketing services providers but no one puts their neck on the line in terms of delivering results

To help prospective clients select the right marketing services company that will enable their conversion optimization strategy and deliver timely conversion rate lift, I have put together here a handy checklist, “How to Hire a Conversion Optimization Services Provider”

These questions should help you evaluate the firms you talk to and make the best possible decision for your company:

Q1: How long do experiments take to complete?
Since the whole point of running conversion rate optimization experiments is to make you more money sooner, experiments should be designed to deliver results within a few weeks – and never longer than that.

The experiments need to be designed with several key variables in mind such as unique visitor counts; expected conversion rate; numbers of variables to be tested; etc, aiming at delivering competed results within two or three weeks max!

Your best bet is to find companies that have a process designed to deliver results within predictable, short intervals. For example, here is a link to WiderFunnel’s proven, scalable conversion optimization process, the Kaizen Method .

In my next post, I’ll discuss the question “What increase in conversion rates should I expect?” Make sure you get it by joining the email list below (you can always unsubscribe later).