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  • How to Find the Best CRO Agency

    How to Find the Best CRO Agency

    Are you finding your conversions aren’t as high as the industry average?

    Then you may need to bring on board a Conversion Rate Optimization Agency or CRO to address the problem.

    But what should you look for in a top-flight CRO?

    Why Use A CRO Agency?

    principles of CRO

    Some companies decide to do their CRO within the organization, but optimizing conversions often can get forgotten as staff worries about other priorities. That’s too bad.

    No matter how much cash your firm drops on Google and social media ads, you’re flushing money down the toilet if you don’t make sure as many site visitors as possible convert into customers.

    When you bring on a CRO agency, you are working with a team of skilled, proven veterans of the industry. These are usually professionals who have spent many years optimizing conversion rates for their clients in all industries.

    This means a hired CRO company probably has more experience in the industry, more proven results, and knows what boosts conversions and what fails.

    When you look at what it costs you to establish a CRO team in your company compared to outsourcing it, there’s no contest. Hiring a CRO costs less, is more efficient, and can produce superior results.

    Why Evaluate Several CROs?

    What’s the point of checking out several CROs? If a marketing company says they can handle CRO, shouldn’t you go with them? No.

    Some say you should view CROs like mechanics. When your water pump goes out, it leaks coolant everywhere, and there are several steps that the mechanic must follow to repair it. If an inexperienced candidate tries to fix it, you could pay a lot of money and still have the same problem.

    CRO also has a process that requires several steps, methods, and tools. It won’t get you good results if you just hire anyone or try to do it on your own. Companies with experience and skills in CRO processes will give you great results.

    Many online marketing companies now know that CRO is big, so many offer the service to capitalize. But some less experienced and legitimate agencies try to do CRO on the cheap and take shortcuts. They figure, if we take some online courses or go to a marketing conference in San Francisco, we’re CROs!

    But the opportunity in the CRO space has led to many companies offering inadequate CRO, and the mistakes they make can damage your conversions.

    If you want the best CRO, you need to look at several marketing firms and compare them before you invest.

    Strategy

    CRO steps

    It’s important that a CRO company know what your goals are and be able to meet them. Also, if you talk to them about your strategy for CRO, they should grasp it quickly and point out any issues for improvement.

    The strategy of the agency should track your key performance indicators (KPI) and make changes along the way to maximize your conversions. The CRO you hire also should sue multivariate testing and A/B testing to determine the strategies that will produce best results in your niche.

    Appropriate Tools For Testing

    You should continue shopping for a CRO if you see an agency that isn’t using advanced tools to optimize your conversion rate. These decisions cannot be made well with only intuition. People who use your services and products will usually tell you the best strategy to use.

    Experience shows that the ideal way to gauge the user experience is with advanced testing tools like Google Optimize.

    A/B testing is the ideal way to optimize your site; it shows at least two versions of a piece of content to determine which converts better.

    Also, multivariate tests show full sections of content. These tests are helpful to design the best landing page and finding which page elements produce the best results.

    The best CRO company understands where your traffic is coming from that produces the most results. And they also glean vital information from your bounce rate, length of session, and other vital components.

    Web Analysis Tools

    cro tools

    The CRO you select should understand where conversion traffic originates. If the agency tells you your landing page converts at 3% and and a bounce rate of 65%, think about getting another agency. This is merely data, but you need them to interpret the data and give you insights.

    The CRO should find out where traffic that converts comes from, when, and how it behaves on your site. The company also should give you strategies that helps that traffic to convert. The information you need from the CRO leads to conversions; giving you data alone doesn’t help.

    Data analytics also help you figure out which electronic devices are better for conversions for the same site. For example, you could have a high conversion rate on a desktop but not so great conversion rates on mobile. Why is that? How can it be improved?

    Landing Pages

    cro landing page

    Your CRO should be able to tell you the landing pages that work and don’t. And if you are getting results with one but not the other, the company needs to explain why.

    Has The Technology In House

    Not every test a CRO does involves just switching a block of text or headline. CRO is complicated, and you should have a company working for you that can analyze data with their own tools and technology.

    You should look for a CRO that can execute complications, varied tests with JS, CSS and HTML. As noted above, your CRO should use A/B testing that lets you do as many tests as you want and is completely private.

    Last, the CRO you select should give you results as they come in in real time, and keeps every stakeholder in your organization informed. When you choose a CRO with these attributes, you’ll know you’re investing in a company and process that will increase your conversions.

    Chief Marketing Officer at SEO Company
    In his 9+ years as a digital marketer, Sam has worked with countless small businesses and enterprise Fortune 500 companies and organizations including NASDAQ OMX, eBay, Duncan Hines, Drew Barrymore, Washington, DC based law firm Price Benowitz LLP and human rights organization Amnesty International. As a technical SEO strategist, Sam leads all paid and organic operations teams for client SEO services, link building services and white label SEO partnerships. He is a recurring speaker at the Search Marketing Expo conference series and a TEDx Talker. Today he works directly with high-end clients across all verticals to maximize on and off-site SEO ROI through content marketing and link building. Connect with Sam on Linkedin.
    Samuel Edwards