Case Background :

In this case study, we have shared highlights of our Conversion Rate Optimization project for Pediatricsboardreview.com

The website offers courses and study materials for doctors who want to get board certified in the USA.

The website is developed on combination of WordPress and InfusionSoft.

The traffic acquisition channels are primarily paid and organic search.

The objective of this project was to optimize the home page of the website as the page is also the top landing page for the company.

Dr. Ashish Goyal, founder of the company, is a huge believer of running experiments to discover high performing variants of the digital assets; and it was fundamental requirement of the project that we optimize the page only after running experiments.

The website uses Google Analytics + Google Optimize combination for analysis and Optimization.

Quantitative Analysis:

The project was commenced with analysis of traffic and user behaviour data for the website using Google Analytics. Following were the key observations:

Very High Bounce Rate
Our first observation was that the site had unusually high bounce rate. Considering the fact that most of the traffic was coming from search channels, the bounce rate should not be so high as the search traffic has better conversion intent than otherwise cold traffic
Sub Par Mobile Performance
Even though share of mobile traffic was considerable, the performance of mobile on all the Key Metrics was inferior compared to the desktop journey. A clear indication that site needs mobile optimization.
Low CTA engagement rate
The engagement rate with the Key CTAs was very low
Top Funnel Leak
It was found that the homepage itself had the top leak in the conversion funnel.

Qualitative Analysis :

For qualitative analysis we have curated a checklist of over 60 parameters that we have developed post exhaustive experimentation across 200+ projects. We have found that only by implementing the guidelines from this qualitative audit, organizations can expect at least 30% bump in their conversion rates with statistical significance.

Following were the key discoveries from qualitative audit :

Outdated look and feel
The first thing that stood out immediately after landing on the site was that it was very out dated compared to modern standards. The choice of font types and colours was not aesthetic and the color combination on the site was very dull.
Weak hook and page copy
The next thing that was negative was the copy of the page was not effective to direct conversions. The page was text heavy with weak focus on providing the audience reasons to take action.
Missing Social Validation
Even though the company has been in business for considerable time, the website was not leveraging the reviews and testimonials from their happy customers.
Weak use of Guarantees
The company offers 100% pass guarantee to its customers. This itself should assure plenty of customers if they are not sure whether the course is for them or not. But, this guarantee was not communicated properly on the site.
Weak communication of course benefits
The course is actually very good and effective in helping the doctors to get board certified. But, the benefits about the course material and structure were not presented in a clear and effective manner for ease of understanding
Author Credentials Missing
The author of the course has remarkable credentials, but it was not communicated effectively on the page.

Solution Delivery :

Since the site has limited traffic, taking the route of experimenting one change at a time would take eons. We rather suggested the company to completely revamp the page and drive a split test between the old and the new variants.

The team at DataVinci then went on drawing board to design a new variant from scratch.

Following is the sequence of steps taken :

UX Design
The team at DataVinci first designed the UX of the page. There were multiple iterations to ensure that the aesthetic and design preferences of the key people at PBR were accomodated
Page Copy Design
Next we created a high impact copy ensuring a high converting flow on the page. The copy was created to communicate the benefits effectively and address the common concerns as clearly as possible. Just like UX design, it was ensured the page copy is also approved by the stakeholders prior to making it live.
Performance Enhacement
Next, the page performance was optimized ensuring optimized image sizes, minifying JS, compressing heavy files, lazy loading etc. This drastically brought down the page load speed.
Google Optimize Installation
We used Google Optimize to drive the split test between the old and challenger variant. It is a great tool for organizations using Google Analytics and wish to run up to 5 tests at a time. We also created goals in Google Analytics based on which the performance of the test in Google Optimize could be analyzed.
Final approval & Launch
We created the Split test in Google Optimize and with one final approval the test was launched to continue till we collect statistically significant data.

Impact :

At the time of creation of this post the home page live on https://www.pediatricsboardreview.com/ is the ouput of this entire assignment.

Here are some key numbers :

90

Days

The test was ran for 90 Days to ensure statistical significance.

258

Percent

The challenger created by DataVinci outperformed default by 258%

98

Percent

Variant declared winner by Google Optimize with 98% probability

NOT BAD!

Closing Notes :

Fundamentally, when we call something an experiment – we cannot be certain of the outcome. Hence, with A/B tests or split tests as well – we must accept that there can be a possibility that the test will not produce a high converting variant.

But, if you want to ensure a consistently high performing digital asset, then testing and optimizing MUST be in the culture of your organization. Having said that, here are few things to consider to improve chances of success :

  • Work with an experienced team. A good team with experience develops decent intuition on what will work and what will not. Saving considerable time as testing can be long sometimes
  • Page speed performance is a low hanging fruit
  • Work on your offer first and then on your website, no amount of CRO can cover up for a bad offer
  • Decide your tests based on your traffic volume, don't do minor tests with low volumes, it will take you ages to disover a better variant
  • Design your page copy based on your key traffic channels. Someone coming through search is perhaps already aware of your product category, while social traffic needs more education

We hope you found this case useful. If you want to discuss any Analytics or CRO project with us, you can use the link below :

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