What factors can influence conversion tests?

Improving your website conversion rate is something everyone should be constantly working on.

Obviously, lots of people in our industry bang on about the importance of A/B split testing and Multivariate testing as tools to lift Conversion rates. And more often than not, these systems work.

But there are factors which can come into play which can knock your testing efforts for six.

So here are six factors which might be affecting your conversion rates and your ability to test effectively.

1. Traffic spikes from leftfield

We recently had a situation where a client received a huge amount of junk traffic, right in the middle of a test. The traffic came from a new affiliate the merchant allowed to promote her site called AdFlasher – basically a system where people get paid to click on affiliate banners on the AdFlasher site.

The bounce rate from this traffic was sitting at 99%, the reason being is that people actually get paid to click on as many banners as they can in a 10 second timeframe. Can’t for the life of me work out how AdFlasher makes any money – none of the traffic was converting into sales – but traffic went through the roof regardless. By the time we’d figured out what was going on the test lay in tatters.

Always test the integrity of your traffic!

2. Conversion ‘pressure’

Conversion pressure is a phrase I’ve coined to describe a phenomenon which rolls around every year. Quite simply, it’s the pre-Christmas shopping rush.

Nearly every retail client we have sees a lift in their conversion rates in the weeks leading up to Christmas as online shoppers make last-minute, hasty and impulsive decisions to buy gifts. They’re under pressure and it shows! Conversion rates can double without lifting a finger, but don’t expect it to last post Christmas. It never does.

3. Seasonality (needs)

Like conversion pressure, seasonality can also affect your conversion rates – depending on your industry. Usually B2B sites experience abysmal conversion rates over summer. People are visiting their sites, but no one’s filling in enquiry forms! Folks in business are looking and planning, but they’re usually on leave.

If you’re selling sunglasses – then summer will probably be a good time for conversion rates. A bit like running a carwash after a dust storm. Same amount of cars driving past, but more people driving in to get their car washed.

This is why it’s always important to be testing all the time – ‘Always Be Testing’.

4. Competitors

Competitors can definitely affect your conversion testing efforts. A big sale on a competitor site will probably sink your efforts. In many categories people do browse quite a bit online looking for the best deals, which means if a competitor does something dramatic in the middle of your test, the effort is wasted. Pull the test and compete!

5. Currency

If you sell internationally, then you might be seeing your conversion rates starting to drop, especially if you advertise your prices in international currencies, mainly because the Australian dollar is strengthening rapidly against most other currencies.

Same amount of traffic, but fewer sales due to the fact you’re less competitive on the pricing front. This also plays havoc with your testing. And don’t forget, it can work the other way too if the currency weakens.

6. Annualised tests

Don’t run a test just before Christmas this year with the intention of running it again the same time next year thinking you’re going to get conclusive results. You can’t, because so much can change which is outside your control. The variables are just too great, your data will be different, economic circumstances will have changed, and so on.

I mentioned earlier, ‘Always Be Testing’, so run your tests as quickly as possible and check the integrity of your data during and after your test.

If it all sounds too hard, don’t forget to stick to the basic tests that always work; keep up your usability task-based testing (try www.usertesting.com) and run Crazyegg and Clicktale over the site once in awhile.

Chris Thomas heads Reseo, a search engine optimisation company which specialises in creating and maintaining Google AdWords campaigns and Search Engine Optimisation campaigns for a range of corporate clients.

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