In this short conversion tip, you’re going to understand how to test and optimize at an entirely new level. A level of testing that can lead to the highest conversions you have ever seen. A level of testing that you have not seen before. And a level your competition likely have little to no clue about.
First, you need to hear one of the very first lessons I ever learned from my first marketing mentor, Todd Brown…
I remember so clearly when he said this,
“All Marketing Is Test Marketing”.
I don’t know if those are his words. Or he was quoting someone else. I do know Todd said it with an authority that made me never forget it.
These words may not sound profound at first. But trust me in just a moment you will understand why you must heed this wisdom.
You see, when it comes to achieving lasting success as an online marketing, iteration is the name of the game. If you think every offer you create… every marketing campaign you craft… every sales letter you write… is going to convert like a champion from the moment it goes live, you are in for a rude awakening.
The most valuable online marketing assets you create will be like a great sculpture. You will labor and toil over them for days… weeks… and sometimes even months. Chipping away at your laptop with worn and weathered hands. Perfecting every single step in the conversion process from the very first call-to-action on your optin page… to the very last offer in your upsell sequence.
That’s how you dial in a marketing asset that will produce stupendous sales for you day in and day out.
To this extent online marketing is both a science and an art. It is scientific to the extent the numbers don’t lie. Either variation A or B is the winner. Either an ad is breaking even or it’s not.
However, it is an art because while it follows principles, online marketing does not obey laws. You can find an orange order button generates the highest conversion rate 9 out of 10 times. However, on this 10th order form page for some product, for some unknown reason orange is not the winner. It’s some other color.
Maybe it’s because marketing really is an art. Or maybe it’s because we have not discovered the principles yet about why an orange order button always wins unless one other specific element is at play.
But I digress. Philosophy will not get us to the truth. Only testing will.
So lets talk about the most common way we are split-testing and optimizing. It’s the way virtually every online marketer, newbie and veteran, are doing it.
Goes like this. Set up a funnel. Set up some split tests at key conversion points (optin page, sales page, order form, upsell page). Open up the traffic floodgates. Keeping iterating and finding the winners to achieve a higher and higher conversion rate at each step leading to the highest overall conversions for your campaign or funnel.
And this works. But it is only the first step.
Stopping here, you will not reach the highest possible conversion rates. You’re about to learn a much more sophisticated approach…
You see, lets take this real life example. You have a new offer you just released. And you turn on Google and Facebook traffic.
Now consider this. Google and Facebook are two totally different traffic sources. And I’m not talking about the interface or ad format. I am talking about the frame of mind your prospect is in before they get to you.
When you advertise on Google keyword search the way it works is your bid on certain target keywords. Then when a prospect is SEARCHING for those keywords, your ad appears. The prospect is already actively searching and seeking your specific topic or solution before they get to your page. In fact, they are probably focused in on what they are doing right now. Because they took the time to type your keywords into a search bar.
Now lets turn to Facebook. Your prospect is wishing happy birthday to Cousin Louie. He gets distracted by a funny picture of a cat wearing pajamas. Then he spots some news videos of cats performing various acts of heroism.
Oh and then, out of nowhere like a drive-by advertising… you happen shoot your ad out in front of his nose (because 6 months ago this guy liked one of your competitor’s fan pages and now you’re targeting the same fan list).
Two totally different mindsets before a prospect hits your marketing funnel. And they will have two drastically different response to your offer, if you take the time to track it and notice.
Let me introduce you to the brand new way to test and optimize to get to an even higher level of overall conversion rates than you have seen before.
Listen closely. You start, just like you always have. Main funnel or offer. Split tests at your key conversion points.
However, once you have a significant amount of traffic (at least 30-40 conversions at each key conversion point or whatever is statistically significant for your model), it’s time for the truly savvy marketer to drill a layer deeper. Down to the traffic level. This is what we call here at ConversionFly Targeted-Traffic-Testing.
In our scenario we now look at these key conversion points but we compare them side-by-side from our top traffic sources, in this case Adwords and Facebook. We look for any significant disparities, good or bad. You will undoubtedly find some. Perhaps the take-rate on your upsell is 35% on Facebook, but only 5% on Adwords traffic. Or maybe your optin page is performing 20% better for Adwords then it does for Facebook.
Now the question is what do you do about it?
You now begin the next level of testing and optimizing, this time at the traffic level. Testing variations to just that one key traffic source, say Facebook. And then picking the variations that perform best for that specific traffic source. Hence the name Targeted-Traffic-Testing.
What kind of variations would you run? What would someone clicking from a Facebook ad want to see versus an Adwords clicker?
Here are a couple ideas you can follow.
Get really smart and start running variations taking into consideration where your visitor was before they came to you. If they were busy surfing Facebook before they hit your page… well then how about having a bunch of positive Facebook quotes of people raving about your or your product/service is going to be a slam dunk. Think this has a high likelihood of boosting conversions? You bet!
Even testing subtle things like taking the same “native ad” approach of having your creative look organic with the platform it is advertised on, you can begin to optimize your funnel for each traffic source by making your key conversion steps also look like the platform they just came from. Like matching the colors, look and feel of Facebook, without swiping anything or being misleading of course. Just creating a smooth, contiguous user experience for your prospect.
Not all traffic the same. We all know that. So why should we be testing and optimizing as if they are? It doesn’t make any sense.
And with ConversionFly you don’t have to. Targeted-Traffic-Testing is one of the very first innovations we committed to in ConversionFly because we know how powerful this approach to optimization is. You can run tests at the traffic level. Find winners, cut losers. And then apply the highest converting variations to any specific traffic source or all your traffic sources with just a click.
Remember, if you do what everyone else is doing, don’t be surprised when you get the same results everyone else does. Go out there and take your testing and optimization to a whole new level today. Try ConversionFly today FREE.
