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Econsultancy: Testing Ranks as the Most Valuable Way to Improve Conversion

Econsultancy recently published their first Conversion Report, delving into how conversion rate should be managed and the most effective ways to improve it. By surveying over 300 predominantly UK based client-side marketers, they have produced the most comprehensive overview we’ve seen to date of the challenges faced by brands as they look to improve conversion performance.

Testing emerges as a key theme throughout the Econsultancy research with a/b testing coming top of the rankings for the most valuable approaches to improving conversion and multivariate testing close behind. Not only did testing rank at the top of respondent’s opinions of what works best, there was also a strong correlation between those who were satisfied with conversion performance and use of testing.

“Company respondents who said they were “very satisfied” with their conversion rates carried out more than four times as many test per month on their web properties as those who were “very dissatisfied” with their conversion rates” Conversion Report, Econsultancy.com, October 2009

As competition for high quality traffic continues to put pressure on acquisition metrics, we are seeing successful online brands increasingly turning to testing to ensure they are converting their traffic. More often than not, on-site conversion is now the weakest link in campaign performance yet the skills and tools exist to address it for a fraction of the cost of increasing acquisition budgets. On-site conversion offers a great low hanging fruit for marketers to attack when looking to boost performance through 2010.