conversion optimization for startups

CRO FOR STARTUPS

Hello!I am Espen Grimstad

Serial Entrepreneur, Product Manager & Conversion Optimisation advisor / Experiments AS

linkedin.com/in/espengrimstad@espengrimstadespen@experiments.no

What is your Conversion rate?

2.2%

Avg. U/A conversion rate on e-commerce sites 2014

#smartinsights

build optimize drive traffic

Optimization before marketing

Figure out what works, do more of that

Chris Neumann

Marketing Product

CRO

Chris Neumann

Don’t assume, use science

Conversion Optimization for Startups Agenda

■ What is CRO?■ Gains

■ Method■ Tools

■ Case study

CRO GainsWhy do we do CRO?

Improves any metric on your

website

Super high ROI, super

measurable

Increases new customers,

registrations, downloads

Creates the must-have user

experience

Builds long-term business value

CRO MethodHow to apply CRO to your startup website or app?

““a method of using science and tools to

continuously improve the performance of your website or app”

Conversion Rate Optimisation Method

Plan

Investigate

Ideate

Experiment

Collate

STEP 0: PLAN

Define Scope. Create Focus and Directions

Figure out what doesn’t work

Dave McClure’s Pirate Metrics

Dave McClure’s Pirate Metrics AARRR

Example AARRR metrics

Dave McClure

Estimating conversion value

http://www.entrepreneur.com/calculators/conversionrate.html

Select the investigation scope

Dave McClure

STEP 1: INVESTIGATE

Understand User Behaviour

Figure out why it doesn’t work

Quantitative tools

Qualitative tools

Insights

User behavior

UX research

STEP 2: IDEATE

Create your hypothesis

Come up with ideas on how to fix it

Everything is an ASSUMPTION

Change Page LayoutNew Header copy

Remove functionalityAdd new CTA

Insert Video on pageAdd trust badge in footer

Your Hypothesis

Change you want to make will lift conversion rates for Signups / Product sale

Ideation tools

STEP 3: EXPERIMENT

Setup Your A/B Test (or A/B/C/D Test)

Test your ideas

Basic A/B testing

Variants

Experimentation tools

STEP 4: COLLATE

What have we learnt? Analyze and implement

Summarize results and add to roadmap

Collation tools

THE STACKWhat, Why, How and When

Quantitative ToolsQualitative Tools

Experimentation Tools

Ideation Tools

The What

The Why

The How & When

Collation ToolsThe

Learning

The Creative

The CRO Stack options

TRANSFERCAR CASEOptimizing their request funnel

Increasing annual revenue with est. 2.5M NOK

The Rental Car Industry Business Problem

Rental car companies are spending large amounts of money on transferring cars between their branches in

order to position their fleet for new hires.

Most companies are hiring trucks or trains to transfer their cars, and the average cost is over $600 per car.

How can the rental car companies save money on

car transfers?

rental cars that need to be transferred

with travelerswilling to drive them for free

Transfercar matches

The Solution

Rental companies gets a low cost transfer, Travelers gets free one-way rental cars,

Transfercar gets paid by the rental car companies

- it’s a win-win-win!

Drivers get free service and free rental cars

80,000registered drivers

35,000transfers

140companies

3countries

The planning

Transfercar case

Users (U) RO’s (O)

Inventory (I)New requests (R)

New listings (L)

New bookings (B)

Completed Relocations (C)

New Cancellations (X)

Request funnel

Plan: optimize Transfercar request funnel

Request confirmed (R)

Content pages incl. Blog and Help

Home page

Search page

Details pages

Authentication wall

Confirmation page

Users (U)

Request funnel details view

Project plan

(Scope: US website transfercarusa.com)1. Investigate funnel with Usertesting.com and Mixpanel

– Collect test results in Sheets, break down problems per page – Report in Slides

2. Ideate. Convert findings to ideas.– Add ideas to Prodpad – Vote on ideas

3. Experiment with Optimizely in voting order– Collect results– Update Prodpad ideas on Impact

4. Prioritize ideas on Impact vs Effort (most low-hanging fruit) in Prodpad– Decide product roadmap in Prodpad– Implement

The Transfercar project CRO stack

Investigation Tools

• Quantitative

• Qualitative

Experimentation Tools

Ideation Tools

The What

The Why

The How & When

Collation ToolsThe

Learning

The Creative

The investigation

Transfercar case

Conversion rates (before) - Mixpanel

Usertesting.com test script (extract)

1. Tell us about the first impression the site gives you. What is offered? Is it relevant to you? Would you feel it's worth spending more time here?

2. Feel free to click around. What do you feel like doing next? Go ahead and do what comes natural. Tell us what you're thinking, what you're looking for, and what you find good or annoying. Proceed to the next question once you're ready for a new task.

3. Now tell us about your second impression. What is offered?

4. Would you personally be interested in using this service (why/why not)? Do you feel like you can trust the company and the product/service offered?

5. At this point, would you feel comfortable booking a car through Transfercar? Do you have any questions you'd want answered before you would proceed? If so, go ahead and see if you can find these answers. Please talk about what you're thinking and looking for along the way.

Usertesting.com investigations

● 20 trial user test:● 10 computers● 5 smartphones● 5 tablets

● Additional 40 user test:● 20 computers● 10 smartphones● 10 tablets

60 tests in total

Result: Over 180 issues collected

Request confirmed (R)

Content pages incl. Blog and Help

Home page

Search page

Details pages

Authentication wall

Confirmation page

Users (U)

15 4

30

35

20

44

...and many more. View all issues collected.

Details page top issues

Desktop and tablet MobileNot clear that days have to be selected in the calendar picker (13)

Difficult to see the details on a phone (1)

Pricing is confusing. Does not understand the pricing at all, does not understand that some day are free and additional days cost extra (4)

Phone - picking dates on the calendar is difficult (1)

"or similar" is a negative. Want to know the exact vehicle type (2)

Branches - what does the big circle mean? Would it be better with a pin? (2)

Importance: High Importance: Medium

View 14 video highlights from listing details page test

Auth wall top issues

Desktop Mobile and tabletLong wait for confirmation email, or not received during the test at all (**often with Yahoo!**) /went to spam (10)

On tablets: Email not recognized as an email address at first entry. Maybe because of "space" after .com? (4)

Believes if registering, it takes the user to the front page and have to start all over again (does not understand that he can enter the code directly) (3)

Suggest "log in with Facebook/G+/Amazon" or other known service (2)

Importance: Medium Importance: Low

View 9 video highlights from auth wall test

The ideation

Transfercar case

The experimentation

Transfercar case

Experiments

● Conducted 19 Optimizely experiments based on Prodpad votes (high impact/low effort)

● A/B and multivariate testing

Details page original

Details page variant

Bold and rephrased

label in a color separating from calendar picker

bigger button and font size

Details page results

Auth wall variant

new copy

Auth wall results

Experimentation results

● 9 weeks● 5 experiments negative● 14 experiments positive● Request funnel conversion rates increased

from 2.02% to 2.68%

Conversion rates (after)

The collation

Transfercar case

Impact and effort aids roadmap decisions

The aftermath

Transfercar case

Search page: New search engine

● Replaced the existing search page with a new (Solr) search engine, with faster results and faceted search

● Not possible to analyse with Optimizely due to complexity● Mixpanel data shows Search page to Details page conversion rate increased 1.65%

Details page redesign

Old New

Auth page redesign

Old New

Conversion rate after redesign

Project results

● 5 months● 5 experiments negative● 14 experiments positive● Total cost 34K NZD (175k NOK)● Request funnel conversion rates increased from 2% to 3.3%

$490k NZD (2.5M NOK) est. annual revenue increase

Thanks!Any questions?

You can find me at:@espengrimstadespen@experiments.no