Top 8 Tools for a Conversion Rate Optimisation Project

A Conversion Rate Optimisation project cannot happen over night. It is a complex and detailed process which requires you to carry out a number of different steps and stages, including gathering data and carrying out A/B tests. These different stages all link together to help you achieve the best result possible for your website. But to achieve actionable data and scientific results, you’ll need the support of a number of different tools along the way. Looking for tools across the web can be quite an overwhelming task, so to help you out; I’ve compiled a list of some of the most helpful tools out there (you’re welcome).

One of the first steps in a Conversion Rate Optimisation project is gathering data, so lets start by looking at the range of tools available to help you gain as many insights as possible …

Google Analytics

If you don’t currently have Google Analytics, this would be worth investing in even from a business point of view.

Its overall purpose: In short, the purpose of Google Analytics is to track and report on your website’s traffic.

Its CRO purpose:

• Within Google Analytics, you can also track Behaviour Flow. This will show you the typical flow of traffic throughout the content of your site. It will be able to show you the pages that people are visiting and in what order. This will give you an insight on how people travel throughout your site and could be a big eye opener if it’s not what you were expecting.
• Google Analytics also gives you data on the demographics of your users including age, gender and their interests based on their online activities.
• Most importantly, by setting up goals throughout your site on your CTA’s, it’s the place to track your conversion rate.
• All in all, Google Analytics can provide you with a number of insights on how your users are engaging with your website, and most importantly, where they are not engaging.

Cost: Standard version is Free.

Image: https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/s/logo-ga.png

User Testing

Its overall purpose: To gain audio, video or written feedback on websites and apps

Its CRO purpose:

• User Testing allows you to listen to what users think of your website, which will help you to understand why users behave the way they do.
• User Testing gives you real life feedback from real life people – and not just any ‘people’ – your target audience. This means it will give you actionable data, which isn’t just based on your opinion or gut feeling.
• The videos allow you to see reoccurring issues users uncover when using your site. You can see them get stuck and hear them explain what they are trying to do and why it’s not working for them.
• User Testing has a user database of over a million people, so you’ll be able to test your specific target audience rather than any Tom, Dick or Harry.

Cost: Free Trial for Pro Subscription or $49 Basic Subscription

https://www.usertesting.com/

CrazyEgg

Its overall purpose: To provide you with insights on how and where your users are interacting with your site.

Its CRO purpose:

• CrazyEgg can provide you with a heatmap of every page of your website.
• This means you’ll be able to see where users are clicking on your website, and what aspects they are engaging with the most.
• More importantly, it will also show you what aspects of your site users are not engaging with – which is where you’ll need to make changes, especially if one of your CTAs fits within this category.

Cost: 30 day free trial, $99 Pro, $49 Plus, $19 Standard, $9 Basic

http://www.crazyegg.com/

Qualaroo

Its overall purpose: A website survey software

Its CRO purpose:

• Creating a website survey can help you gain information on what your customers/ potential customers want and whether your website makes it easy for them to achieve this.
• It can also provide you information on the roadblocks they face & why your website isn’t providing them with what they want.
• ‘Qualaroo lets you target questions to visitors anywhere on your website, within a product or deep in your conversion funnel’.

Cost: 14 day free trial, Small Business = $63/ month, Professional = $199/ month, Enterprise = $499/ month.

https://qualaroo.com/

If you also get the time, Kissmetrics and Clicktale are great tools for gathering data & are definitely worth including in your tool deliberation!

Ok, so you’ve gathered your data efficiently and are aware of the aspects of your website that aren’t working and why. You’re now inspired with a number of different changes you can make, but before making these permanent, you need to test whether your changes actually have a positive impact on conversions. Here’s a number of great A/B testing tools that can help!

Optimizely

Its overall purpose: An A/B testing tool

Its CRO purpose:

• After gathering insights and data from your target audience, you have a pretty good idea of the elements of your website that need changing.
• If you’re not a developer, implementing these changes can be pretty daunting. But Optimizely allows you to run these A/B CRO tests without needing to change the code behind your website.
• Just the initial Optimizely code will need to be installed, but then you’ll easily be able to make a number of different visual variations.
• The tool also provides you with reports on which variation performed better, helping you to prove that changing that aspect of your site will result in a higher number of conversions.

Cost: Starter Plan = Free, Enterprise Plan = Get in touch for personalised quotes

https://www.optimizely.com/

Google Content Experiments

Its overall purpose: Landing page variation experiments (A/B testing).

Its CRO purpose:

• Another A/B testing tool, which links up with your Google Analytics data.
• Google’s Content Experiments allows you to create multiple landing page variations and send a % of your website users to these variations.
• Google Experiments will then provide you with the code you’ll need to add to your original page in order to report on which variations have the highest increase in conversion rate.
• The tool will then provide you with a detailed report on which landing page performed best.

Cost: Free

https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1745147?hl=en&topic=1745207

Visual Website Optimiser

Its overall purpose: Control A/B tests without the need of a developer

Its CRO purporse:

• VWO is very similar to Optimizely. It allows you to change visual aspects of your website without needing any coding knowledge.
• Developers simply need to install the tool’s code, and then you’ll be able to create variations yourself.
• Also provides you with detailed reports on which variation led to the biggest increase in conversions.

Cost: Free Trial, Startup Plan = $49/ month, Business Plan = $129 / month, Enterprise Plan = $999 / month.

https://vwo.com/

Once you’ve carried out you’re A/B tests, you have a pretty good understanding of which changes need to be made permanent throughout your website. This is the tricky part where coding gets involved and this may no longer lie within your jurisdiction. Instead, it falls to your developers. To effectively communicate the changes you want made, I recommend using a wireframe tool to mock them up and pass on to your developers. A great wireframe tool is Balsamiq.

Balsamiq Mockups

Its overall purpose: A wireframe creation tool

Its CRO purpose:

• So, you’ve A/B tested multiple aspects of your site and you’ve proven that one of your design changes as a positive increase in conversions. You now want to make this change permanent.
• Now, if you’re part of a larger team, you’ll need to communicate with developers/ designers what and how you’d like to change the site.
• Balsamiq allows you to create easy wireframes, which you can pass on to your developers so they understand what it is you want.
• The tool also allows you to add annotations to your wireframes, saving backward and forward emails with your developers about why you want these changes made.

Cost: Varying costs from $89 – $9,790 depending on the time of licence you are looking for. A single user licence is $89.

https://balsamiq.com/products/mockups/

Image: https://media.balsamiq.com/files/company/balsamiq-logo-screen.png

These are just a small selection of the tools available out there for you to use – but they’re a good place to start! The tools you use will be very dependant on what you want to achieve, the size of your business and how much you’ve got to spend throughout your Conversion Rate Optimisation project, but the idea is that you’ll need to get your head around what tools can support you the best. With the right tools, you’ll gain all of the insights you need to make your Conversion Rate Optimisation project a successful one!