{"id":8919,"date":"2022-07-13T10:00:29","date_gmt":"2022-07-13T04:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/?p=8919"},"modified":"2022-09-24T18:30:49","modified_gmt":"2022-09-24T13:00:49","slug":"three-inhibitors-of-cro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/2022\/07\/13\/three-inhibitors-of-cro\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Inhibitors Of CRO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Digital Marketing comprises two stages:<\/p>\n

ATTRACT<\/strong>: Attract traffic to your website, app store page, and social media properties (collectively “website”).<\/p>\n

CONVERT<\/strong>: Get your website visitor \/ app user (collectively “visitor”) to take some purchase-oriented action.<\/p>\n

Obviously, you need to get visitors to your website before you can nudge them towards purchase. Therefore,\u00a0 ATTRACT precedes CONVERT, as illustrated in the following exhibit of digital marketing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

ATTRACT<\/em> works by generating visibility for your product via Search Engine Marketing \/ PPC Ads, Search Engine Optimization, Content Marketing and other tactics described on our website here<\/strong><\/a>. It’s typically handled by ad agencies.<\/p>\n

The bedrock of the CONVERT phase is Conversion Rate Optimization<\/strong>. CRO is the process of increasing the number of leads \/ deals generated from a given number of website visitors.\u00a0A lead is generated when the website vistor fills out a form, signs up for a newsletter, adds an item to the shopping cart, and so on. A deal happens when s\/he places the order. CRO is concerned with “lead” in B2B and “deal” in B2C.\u00a0You can find the various techniques used for CRO on our website\u00a0here<\/strong><\/a>. It’s typically handled by boutique CRO shops.<\/p>\n

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In theory, CRO is very compelling.<\/p>\n

But, in practice, while virtually every company does digital advertising, very few companies do CRO.<\/p>\n

Obviously, something is holding CRO back.<\/p>\n

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@s_ketharaman<\/a>: CRO #ProTip: While conducting A\/B test, let the chips fall where they might. Don’t prejudge what matters & what doesn’t. Exhibit A: We got a conversion uplift from 5.8% to 16.7% by changing the color of a landing page CTA button.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Going by our experience in the attract and convert phases of digital marketing, there are three factors inhibiting CRO.<\/p>\n

Let’s get into them.<\/p>\n

#1. PUSHBACK FROM AD AGENCIES<\/strong><\/p>\n

The raison d’\u00eatre<\/em> of CRO is to generate more leads \/ deals from the same number of visitors i.e. without spending more money on advertising to attract more visitors.<\/p>\n

If it works, CRO will cut down ad spend. Since ad agencies are typically paid a percentage of ad spend as their fees, it follows that CRO will crimp ad agencies’ revenues.<\/p>\n

Ergo there’s an intrinsic conflict between advertising and CRO, and ad agencies have a vested interest in downplaying CRO.<\/p>\n

Since ATTRACT precedes CONVERT, ad agencies\u00a0have the ears of the advertiser’s C Suite well before the notion of CRO enters there. As a result, they’re able to debunk CRO to client honchos. Ad agencies’ tactic tends to work more often than not since they’re way larger companies than boutique CRO shops.<\/p>\n

This was merely a conspiracy theory in my mind until<\/p>\n

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  1. I saw leading PPC agencies (e.g. WordStream) dunking on CRO in public, and<\/li>\n
  2. I heard from the VP Marketing of a leading advertiser that, as long as his ad agency hits his ROAS benchmark, he doesn’t care about optimizing conversion rate. For the uninitiated, Return on Advertising Spend<\/em>\u00a0is a quantitative measure for the incremental revenue generated by every dollar of ad spend.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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    As long as agencies charge % of ad spend as their fees, CRO's future will be bleak! https:\/\/t.co\/aXA1X2HvMr<\/a><\/p>\n

    — Ketharaman Swaminathan (@s_ketharaman) February 24, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n