Quantitative Web Site Optimization FREE from Google
You’ve heard the old saying. “I know half of my marketing budget is wasted. I just don’t know which half.”
I’ve said it before… I hate that saying. But I guess it wouldn’t still echo in the conversations of marketers if, once upon a time, there weren’t some truth to it.
If a remark like that rolls off your lips these days however, odds are, you’re just too lazy to figure out what’s not working.
A marketing instrument is a complicated beast. Numerous parts need to work in concert to move a person to action. Creating such a thing was once seen as an art. Increasingly today, it is a science.
Consider a direct mail package. An envelope must persuade a person to open it. Should you use a live stamp? An address label, a window, or a typed address on the envelope? Should there be copy on the envelope, or should it be disguised as a bill? Standard #10 or a more distinctive shape?
Once opened, the variables multiply as copy and graphic variations must be considered… the call to action… and of course the offer itself.
Which combination works the best? You know there’s an answer to the question, but finding it can be amazingly difficult – particularly for small and mid-sized businesses who don’t generally market at a scale that provides for statistically significant test cells.
The Web gave rise to the potential for faster, cheaper testing as creative variations can be made without great production expense. And results can be tallied in almost real-time.
But even online, good testing can be labor intensive and expensive. For some time, I have been a fan of a company called Offermatica. At least in my mind, they lead the charge in creating tools to allow online marketers to chop a web page into its key component parts and test different combinations to find the best performing “recipe,” as they call it.
A prime application of this type of analysis is the testing of different landing pages (i.e. the page that appears when someone clicks on your pay-per-click ad). The goal of the page of course is to retain the traffic and move them to your desired action. And some combination of page attributes work better than others.
As wonderful as their technology is – and as fascinating as the knowledge they have accumulated is – it is far from free.
Well, we can all stop sulking. Because in case you haven’t heard, Google just brought this technology to the masses with their new Website Optimizer.
If you have an Adwords account, you have likely seen the new announcement. This is a tool that offers unprecedented testing and analytical sophistication to smaller marketers. If moving the needle on your site’s conversion rate would be meaningful to your business, somebody in your organization should become acquainted with this new offering.
You’ll have to be patient if your site receives only modest traffic volume, because it takes time to accumulate statistically significant results. But I will guarantee that if you start testing your landing pages, your conversion rates will improve.
At the bargain price of FREE, it’s tough to find an excuse not to try it.
A/B testing, Conversion Rates, Offermatica, split testing, Web site optimization
