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You’ve got a great idea, you know someone to create your webpage, you’ve registered your domain, you’ve got some keywords, wants to start a CPC/SEM campaign, but doesn’t know much about what to test or how to test your online strategies?
Now you can use the Google optimizer. In April/2007 Google announced the open beta for Optimizer, a free testing tool available to any Adwords account.
According to Tom Leung, business product manager for Google, what Optimizer can do is
“allow you to instrument the page so that you can test a whole variety of ideas. So you aren’t limited to picking just one of a few design mockups. You can literally test hundreds, if not thousands, of versions of a page. When a visitor arrives at your site, we’ll show them a specific version, and it tracks whether or not they convert, whether it’s purchasing a product, or signing up for a newsletter, or whatever you decide is a successful conversion. Then, it will report back to you which combination worked the best. It takes the guesswork out of marketing by letting customers tell you what works best for them by letting them vote with their clicks. You can constantly test new hunches, new ideas, and turn your Web site into a living laboratory. We think that ultimately this is going to make a better Internet overall.”
It seems a great concept and so far all Blogs/news have been reporting positively to this tool.
And it is a great tool, if you KNOW what to test.
Below I have put together some key tests you should think:
- Identify which products bring you the most overall profit, then put them in prime position on the page, by which I mean above the fold (that is, on the upper part of the page so the user doesn’t have to scroll down to see it), preferably on the left-hand side
- Headlines are extremely important. If your visitor doesn’t like the headline, they won’t read any further
- Struggling for a good headline? Adapt headlines from Cosmopolitan magazine or MSN.com, who use formulaic headlines that have been proven to work again and again
- The strapline under your logo will be viewed almost as much as the headline. So make sure it clearly expresses a distinct USP
- Test high and low prices - because customers don’t always seek out the lowest prices. There’s such a thing as “reassuringly expensive”
- Test odd-pricing. Odd pricing is prices that end in 9’s and 7’s, which tend to sell better. Would you or I be fooled by that? No, we’re far too smart. But someone’s falling for it, because this phenomenon has been proven over and over again
- Test different offers. How about a one-month free trial? In general, do whatever you can to get the product into the customer’s hands. If you’re so confident in your product, prove it by taking some of the risk.
- Divide your product or service into a standard version (for the prospects who are price-sensitive) and a premium version (for the ones who aren’t)
- Add a guarantee or test different ones. Start with the bravest guarantee you dare test. And if it works, test a braver one
- Add testimonials from happy customers. In general, a video testimonial is better than a testimonial with an image, which is better than a testimonial with just a name, which is better than an anonymous testimonial
- Add testimonials from the media. If you don’t have any, try giving them free stuff in exchange for reviews and feedback
- Make the right stuff “pop”. “Pop” just means stand out. There are several ways to do this:
Use bold
Use italics
Use yellow highlighter (yes, it looks terrible, but it can be effective)
Use hand-drawn scribbles
- Test different reasons why the visitor should act promptly. For example, “offer ends Wednesday”, or “only 42 tickets left”
- Try making the “call to action” button nice and visible. Large brightly-colored buttons often convert better – they seem to draw the readers’ attention, try different locations, but remember ask for just ONE action, make it easy.
- Test different “calls to action”. The call to action is what you want them to do next. It is usually written on the ‘proceed’ button. Test direct ones such as “Buy Now And Get 10% Off” as well as indirect ones such as “Learn More”
- Try easy to fill boxes for testimonials
- Test different navigation structures
- Test different images. Most effective tend to be
a. images of the product
b. images of the product being used
c. images of a “role model” character using the product
d. images of happy customers holding the product (that is, a testimonial and product shot all in one).
- Put captions under your images and test them. For some weird reason, people almost always read the captions under images
- Test Violators, which are attention-getting shapes such as starbursts, ovals and banners.
- Test different font colors and sizes
- Test Video and Audio
- Whenever you’re asking for information, that’s the time to provide timely reassurance as to why you need it, try different formats. For example,
a. Under the email field, say something like “We hate spam as much as you do” – and consider including the HackerSafe logo.
b. Under an email newsletter opt-in box, have a link to your privacy policy.
c. Under the “Order Now” button, remind them of your guarantee and returns policy
- Try to make it everything clickable. Visitors click on everything, pictures in particular
- Time split tests (also known as before-and-after tests)
- Don’t complicate what is supposed to be simple, sometimes just a A/B test is enough.
- Eye-tracking - There are some companies specialized on it, but if you don’t want/can afford it you can use “Poor-man’s eyetracking“ – About 5 seconds into each usability test, ask a person what they have looked at so far. They usually find it easy to tell you.
- Don’t end the test too soon! Make sure you have enough data! Some people say you need to test for two weeks. Some people say you need to collect at least 30 orders. Some people use “gut feel”. They are all wrong. The only correct answer is to use the right statistical tool.
- Don’t worry about temporarily lowering your conversion rate
If a test is a failure, you get one bad day of business. If a test is a success, you get a lifetime of success.
Cheers
Lucio Dias Ribeiro
Sources:
http://www.conversion-rate-experts.com/
http://www.techcrunch.com
http://www.seochat.com/c/b/Google-Optimization-Help/
http://www.seochat.com/
