We are experts at the implementation of Google Website Optimizer to measure and test different messages, programs, and traffic and special promotions.

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It is pretty obvious that Web Optimization is still in its infancy, even though we have been doing optimization for years. I say that because when you look at search engine traffic, very few searches are done on Web Optimization, while millions of searches are done on Search Engine Optimization and Web Design.

The difference between the old days and today is that today we have better tools and knowledge to draw from in order to perform more, and better, optimization analysis. Thanks to Google's just out of beta "Website Optimizer" combined with Google Analytics and Conversion Analyzer, today we can run heuristic analysis and A/B testing better and more accurately than ever before, and the complex mathmatics underlying the results can be summarized into easy to visualize and understand reports.

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With hard work and a good background and understanding of testing methodology, Website Optimizer can be used for almost an unlimited number of uses, most pointedly used to gain insight and higer conversion rates from your website traffic.

Better than Most Online Marketing Campaigns - a Sample Case Study

Why do we think that website optimization is a better use of your investment and marketing dolars than almost any single marketing activity of similar cost? That is easy - the results are usually significantly better and optimization is the gift that keeps on giving.

Let me explain; let's assume that you are the one who has been presented with two marketing alternative for product and website promotion from different vendors. The first is an email broadcast and banner campaign on a targeted website, the other is a Web Optimization series of tests and improvements on your most visited pages, both of which will cost $10,000 and run for 3 months.

In this campaign, let's say you just scored a nice marketing contract, $5,000 of which goes to 600,000 email exposures (at less than 1 cent per email impression), and $5,000 for a related banner advertising campaign on the site. At a 2% response rate for email ads, which is a great response rate these days for an email ad, the email campaign would net 12,000 new visitors each month. At a current conversion rate of 10% and a Goal Value of $20, you would be converting 120 customers for a $2,400 value.

Banners have even a lower conversion rate, closer to 0.3%. Assuming that $5,000 of the initial $10,000 was allocated to banners at $10 per thousand impressions (CPM), that would mean 500,000 impressions, 1,500 visitors. Assuming the banner visitors converting at the same rates, you would convert 150 customers at a value of $3,000 over the three months.

The total return for the campaign would be $5,400 ($2,400 in email and $3,000 in banner ads) over the three months, and then the campaign ends. Hard to make money with those kind of conversion rates and performance statistics. Of course, many advertizing sales people will tempt you with much higher return rates and promises of greater conversions, you will have to test these to get a feel for where your results may be.

Now lets look at the website optimization project. Your top 3 targeted pages currently enjoy 500 visits per day, and convert similarly to the campaign above, 10% conversion and a $20 conversion value.

According to Google, a single experimentation can increase conversions by up to 25%. We've had some clients come close, however a more standard improvement rate would be more like 6% per optimization. The contract calls for 3 optimization tests over the three months. By the end of the 3 months, conversion rates on the pages would have skyrocketed to 19.1%, and the total value of the optimization by the end results in a difference of $5,730 per month in conversions. Over 12 months, the value of the optimization alone would be almost $70,000, for an ROI of almost 700%!

Now, with an optimized site and pages, you could still run the Email and Banner campaigns, but you will have almost doubled your returns on even these marketing campaigns. It is truely the gift that keeps on giving.

A beautiful thing about this kind of testing is that it is not a high cost program, has great ROI payoff, and can also teach you a lot about your visitors and customers. For example, in one set of tests on a landing page, a client tried two headlines, one which was very corporate oriented and reflected the corporate overall direction, which the management was very fond of. The other we proposed something more end-user centric, simpler and more direct as to the benefits of the particular product being promoted.

After the experiment ran for a while, it was easy to see, the more end-user centric headlines converted almost 20% better than the standard corporate headlines. As much as management liked their more corporate, MBA style headline, they couldn't argue with the results, and began to use the knowledge discovered in the optimization in all their ads and marketing, even in how they approached bigger OEMs and partners, increasing conversion rates accross the board and even opening up discussion on a new product line more oriented towards the customer.

The customer wins, as they were able to identify with the message and find the product they were looking for. The company wins, as it creates more sales and conversions and learns more about their customers.