Conversion Rate Optimisation: How do I find the right tools?

18. April 2023

11 Minutes

Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) improves the customer experience and strengthens customer loyalty

In today’s business world, it is essential for companies to pay attention to the needs and wants of their customers. Customer Centricity has become increasingly important in recent years as companies have realised that they can be successful by focusing on the needs of their customers. In line with Customer Centricity, Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) improves the customer experience in a customer-centric process and ensures stronger customer loyalty.

The key points of the blog

What is Conversion Rate Optimization?

CRO is a continuous process of optimising websites, apps or other digital channels to increase the conversion rate. This means that the goal is to increase the proportion of visitors who perform a specific action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form. By applying the CRO strategy, companies can optimise the user experience, increase conversion rates and ultimately improve business results.

The conversion rate indicates how many visitors to a website perform a desired action, such as making a purchase, filling out a form or signing up for the newsletter. Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) refers to the continuous improvement of the website to increase the conversion rate. One of the most effective methods to perform CRO is A/B testing.

What is/can/may Google Optimize do?

Google Optimize is a tool that allows website owners to run A/B tests and personalisation campaigns. With Google Optimize, you can create and test different versions of your website to see which works best. For example, you can change the colour of a button, optimise the placement of content or adjust the navigation to see which version leads to a higher conversion rate.

Google Optimize offers an intuitive user interface and integrates seamlessly with Google Analytics. You can simply start a test and Google Optimize will show you the results in real time. You can even create personalised campaigns to offer visitors different experiences on your website depending on their interests, locations or other variables.

When will Google Optimize be discontinued?

Google Optimize is now being discontinued: What does this mean for your e-commerce business?

Google has announced that its A/B testing tool Google Optimize will be discontinued at the end of the year. For e-commerce companies that use this tool either in the free or paid 360 version, this means that they should better look for alternatives. Because so far Google is still silent on how the previous functionality will be integrated into GA4. The official statement so far is: “Google Optimize and Optimize 360 will no longer be available after 30 September 2023. You can continue to run your tests and personalisations until then. However, all tests and personalisations that are still active will end on that date.”

Why is Google Optimize being taken off the market? Competition could be a factor. There are more and more tools on the market that offer similar functions to Google Optimize. Other companies, such as Adobe, Dynamic Yield or Optimizely, have a strong presence in this area and offer similar features and services. It is possible that Google has decided to focus on other areas where it has a competitive advantage. For example, Google has replaced the popular keyword planning tool Google AdWords with Keyword Planner, which offers similar features but also includes some changes and limitations.

If you now want to reorient yourself in the area of CRO, A/B testing and personalisation, you should pay special attention to the topic of server-side A/B testing.

What is server-side A/B testing and what advantages does it offer?

Unlike client-side A/B testing, which is supported by Google Optimize, server-side A/B testing takes place on the server and not in the user’s browser. This means that the tests are performed regardless of the user’s device or browser and deliver consistent results. However, server-side A/B testing requires more technical expertise and is usually more expensive than client-side A/B testing.

Server-side A/B testing allows you to run test variations on the server side before the content is sent to the user. The prerequisite here is that your entire frontend architecture is already technologically designed for this. The possibility of daily deployments at best also helps to be able to continue to act as flexibly as possible as a CRO team or an experimenting product team. The experiments are then usually coded by software developers in the proven tech stack. This all requires a larger investment, but brings great advantages.

The advantage of server-side testing is that it offers higher performance. Because the tests are run on the server, there is no drain on the user’s resources, resulting in faster load times and a better user experience. Server-side A/B testing is also better suited for complex websites and apps where client-side A/B testing may not be sufficient.

All the advantages of server-side A/B testing at a glance:

Consistency across devices: Server-side A/B testing ensures that tests are consistent across devices and browsers. You now know that your tests are accurate and reliable, and that your results are meaningful.
Better performance, reduced load times: Because server-side tests are run on the server before the page is sent to the user, they can run faster than client-side tests. This helps reduce page load times, resulting in a better user experience. Flickering during major above-the-fold changes are also avoided.
Scalability with concurrent tests: Server-side A/B testing is usually easier to scale than client-side A/B testing. Because the tests are run on the server, you can run more tests concurrently without impacting the performance of your website.
Flexibility to test on content and functionality: Server-side A/B testing allows you to access all aspects of your website, including content and functionality. This gives you more flexibility to run tests tailored to specific business goals and user needs.
Shorten time-to-market by activating successful variants immediately: Successful client-side tests often end up in the backlog of the responsible product team after the test phase. Proven positive effects are therefore not used immediately. With server-side testing, you can activate successful variants immediately for all users.

What is personalisation and why is it important?

Another way to improve the performance of your website is through personalisation. Personalisation refers to businesses engaging their customers in a personalised way and providing them with a unique experience. This can include personalised recommendations, individualised offers or customised content, for example.

Personalisation is usually done on the basis of A/B testing, whereby the tests are not played for all visitors, but for specific visitor groups (preferably automated).

Through personalised targeting, companies can increase customer engagement and satisfaction.

Customers feel valued and receive relevant content and offers tailored to their individual needs. Furthermore, through personalisation, businesses can increase their conversion rate and improve customer loyalty. Personalised offers often lead to higher repeat purchases and thus to higher customer loyalty.

Increasing the conversion rate through personalisation
The personalisation of offers and content can significantly increase the conversion rate. Through personalised recommendations and offers, customers feel better addressed and are more willing to make a purchase decision. According to a study by Epsilon, personalisation can increase email open rates by up to 29% and conversion rates by up to 73%.
More effective testing through personalisation
Personalisation can also help tests become more effective. By personalising test content, companies can gain better insights into the behaviour and needs of their customers. By tailoring test content to individual needs, companies can also improve the accuracy of their test results.
Encouraging repeat purchases through personalisation
Personalisation can also help to encourage repeat purchases. By offering personalised offers and recommendations, companies can increase customer engagement and loyalty. Personalised offers and recommendations often lead to higher repeat purchases and therefore customer loyalty.
Saving time and resources through personalisation
Personalisation can also save time and resources. By automating personalised content and offers, companies can make their marketing activities more efficient. By automating personalised offers, companies can also improve the quality of their offers while reducing costs.

What must a personalisation tool be able to do?

A personalisation tool is software that allows businesses to analyse the interactions and behaviour of your users on your website or app and create personalised experiences.

Most personalisation tools generally enable A/B testing for conversion rate optimisation and can be seen as an evolution of A/B tools, but not all.

A good personalisation tool should offer a few functions:

Collect and analyse data
A personalisation tool should be able to collect and analyse data from multiple sources, including behavioural data, customer data and demographic information.
Segment users into multiple groups
The tool should be able to segment users into different groups based on demographic information, behavioural data and other factors. This allows companies to create personalised experiences for specific target groups.
Personalisation of content, offers and recommendations
The personalisation tool should be able to create personalised experiences for users in different segments, including personalised content, offers and product recommendations.
Easy integration with systems and platforms
A good personalisation tool should integrate easily with existing systems and platforms, including content management systems (CMS), e-commerce platforms and customer relationship management (CRM) systems.
Analysis of conversion rates, clicks and sales
The personalisation tool should make it possible to measure and analyse the effectiveness of personalised experiences, including conversion rates, clicks and sales.

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How does KPS choose the best A/B testing tool for your business?

KPS is a leading digital transformation consultancy and has extensive experience working with various A/B testing tools. When selecting the best A/B testing tool, KPS considers several factors, including functionality, integration, reliability, analytics and high scalability:

The functionality should be as broad as possible.
The A/B testing tool should offer a wide range of functions, including the ability to create tests quickly and easily, test different variations and analyse the results easily.
Integration into existing systems should be easy and flexible.
The tool should be easy to integrate with existing systems and platforms, including CMS, e-commerce platforms and CRM.
The reliability of the tool must ensure testing without interruption.
The tool should be reliable and provide high availability to ensure that tests can be run without interruption.
Analytics must be simple and comprehensive, with results available in real time.
The tool should allow the results of the tests to be easily measured and analysed, including the ability to monitor the results in real time.
High scalability is a prerequisite for meaningful results.
The tool should be able to run tests on a large scale to ensure that the results are meaningful.

Overall, choosing the best A/B testing tool requires careful analysis and evaluation to ensure that clients’ needs are met and that an optimal result is achieved. Clients should have an effective and reliable solution for A/B testing and personalisation that helps them optimise their online marketing campaigns and increase their conversion rates.

How does CRO contribute to Customer Centricity as a target vision?

The first and most important aspect is that with CRO we better understand customer needs: CRO requires a thorough analysis of customer needs and behaviours. By better understanding their customers, companies can better meet their needs and expectations and provide a better customer experience.

In addition, it is important to know the following benefits:

Provide personalised experiences: By using CRO strategies, companies can provide personalised experiences based on the customer’s needs and preferences. This can lead to higher conversion rates and improve customer loyalty.
Collect better data: By implementing CRO strategies, businesses can collect valuable data about their customers. This data can be used to better understand customer behaviour and improve customer communications.
Continuous improvement: CRO is a continuous process of optimisation. By constantly improving their digital channels, companies can ensure that they stay up to date and meet the needs of their customers.

Selection of an A/B testing tool, implementation and consulting from a single source

We help you select and implement a new A/B testing tool that best fits your needs and strategy.

In addition, we can support along the entire operational process chain with know-how and experienced professionals to help you get the most out of your tool.

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Ensure your business success with Customer Centricity

The highly personalised customer journey as the decisive criterion for business success – a paradigm shift that demands maximum flexibility from all market participants and prepares the ground for the principle of Composable CX: At its core is the idea of combining strategy and technology in a business model based on interchangeable components. The goal is to achieve maximum agility that enables companies to take on all changes.

Organisations that follow the principle of Composable CX respond robustly to market events and can offer their customers all the benefits of unified commerce. As an evolution of content and omnichannel commerce, unified commerce is the comprehensive interaction paradigm that uses an integrative platform to inform all target groups across all media channels, consistently, based on interests and context, within the framework of a personalised customer journey, as well as to accompany them before, during and after the ordering process.