CRO
FOR STARTUPS
Hello!
I am Espen Grimstad
Serial Entrepreneur, Product
Manager & Conversion Optimisation
advisor / Experiments AS
linkedin.com/in/espengrimstad
@espengrimstad
espen@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 Gains
Why 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 Method
How 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
Conversion optimization for startups
Select the investigation scope
Dave McClure
STEP 1:
INVESTIGATE
Understand User Behaviour
Figure out why
it doesn’t work
Quantitative tools
Conversion optimization for startups
Conversion optimization for startups
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 Layout
New Header copy
Remove functionality
Add new CTA
Insert Video on page
Add 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 STACK
What, Why, How and When
Quantitative Tools
Qualitative Tools
Experimentation Tools
Ideation Tools
The What
The Why
The How
& When
Collation Tools
The
Learning
The
Creative
The CRO Stack options
TRANSFERCAR CASE
Optimizing 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 travelers
willing 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
80,000
registered drivers
35,000
transfers
140
companies
3
countries
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 Tools
The
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 Mobile
Not 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 tablet
Long 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
Conversion optimization for startups
Conversion optimization for startups
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:
@espengrimstad
espen@experiments.no

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Conversion optimization for startups