In the digital world, things don't happen by magic. No matter how invisible all the cogs are that make the changes and improvements to our digital services and products possible, behind every action there is a huge amount of work. And CRO is no different.
But that hard work doesn't just consist of redesigning, reconsidering and relaunching websites. What truly lies behind well-executed CRO is good research. Data, data and more data. That's where everything starts.
In this article we'll explain the importance of thorough research before jumping into optimising your website and services. Why it's necessary to properly analyse your data, the difference between qualitative and quantitative data, how to use them… Everything you need to know so that your CRO has a solid foundation.
CRO goes far beyond A/B tests and UX redesigns. CRO is a complex and comprehensive process that seeks to understand the user, identify frictions within your product and service, and validate a hypothesis that solves that problem. It's a discipline with a method, and every good method must follow certain steps.
Without initial research, the changes you make and decisions you take will always be based on your own intuition and opinion, never on real evidence. That's why it's so important to respect every part of the process. First things first: understanding what's really happening.
But as obvious as it may seem, starting with a solid foundation is not always the norm. 68% of companies lack an organised CRO strategy and all their efforts end up in the same place: the bin. To genuinely improve and draw conclusions from your CRO decisions, you need solid data-driven research.
We'll never stop saying it: good digital analytics is the key to making your CRO deliver real results. And every self-respecting digital analytics setup depends on quantitative data. Data that, in short, measures and quantifies what's happening on your website and indicates where the problem (and the opportunity) might be found.
Quantitative data reflects reality as it is, from different perspectives. Pure analytics, heat maps, conversion funnels… There are various sources of information and all are useful for CRO. In fact, these data points are what should guide every decision you make.
Tools like Google Analytics, Hotjar or even Clarity will help you truly understand what's failing in your business. Is there an excessively high bounce rate at a point in your checkout? Are your visits concentrating heavily on an area of your website with no available CTAs? Quantitative data will tell you where to invest your efforts.
There are no quantitative data without qualitative data. Once the former have helped you identify the source of your problems, it's time to investigate the why behind those problems. Why is what's directly affecting your metrics happening.
User interviews and surveys, usability tests… All these information sources will help you identify key insights that numbers don't reveal. Qualitative data delves into user behaviour, identifying frictions and opportunities that can't be captured in numbers.
Take, for example, a high abandonment rate at a step in your website's checkout. You've identified where the leak is but on the surface everything looks fine. What do you do? Change things for the sake of changing them? Through qualitative research you can identify the reason. An intangible reason like "your users don't trust the returns policy."
To turn CRO into your great lever for growth and results optimisation, you need to genuinely understand its nature (and its complexities). Isolated tests without planning, visual changes just to follow a trend, or intuitive decisions that generate false positives will get you nowhere. You are 100% dependent on your data.
Skipping the research step is like redesigning a shop window without knowing what your customers are looking for. Everything might look very nice, but it could be completely useless.
Wasted time and effort — The most important thing to understand is that without basing your data on decisions you'll be operating in the dark. Maybe you'll get lucky at some point and get it right, but you won't know why you got it right. Every step you take could be a false step and, if you're wrong, you'll end up back at square one.
Web traffic without conversion — CRO without solid analytics and user research can make your web traffic get lost in chaos. You won't be able to identify its flow, which direction it's heading, or which elements are capturing interest. And as we all know, traffic that doesn't find what it's looking for almost never comes back.
Marketing investment without results — Your marketing efforts don't end with the campaigns you run. They end when your users convert. So all the thousands of euros you invest in user acquisition will count for little if, when they land on your website, they feel lost and you can't identify where the problem lies. Data also helps you identify what to communicate in your marketing actions (and what to invest in).
There's no CRO without data. It's that simple. All those agencies and consultancies that propose jumping straight to action, radically redesigning your website based on "aesthetic considerations" or a more "friendly" UX, are selling you snake oil. What you need is to integrate research into your strategy from the very beginning.
Everyone who understands the nature of CRO (that is: understanding what's happening in your digital business and formulating a hypothesis to solve or improve it) knows that integrating web analytics into their strategy is something indispensable. It's a matter of logic.
Combine your quantitative data with your qualitative data — First of all, stop and analyse the data you have at your disposal and define how you can combine them to get the most out of them. You need to make sure you understand how they intertwine and how, with proper analysis, you can draw interesting conclusions for your business.
Formulate hypotheses based 100% on data — It's easy to be overconfident. We often think we know our business inside out, but data never lies. Intuition doesn't always point you in the right direction, so whatever hypothesis you formulate, both the root of the problem and the solution you propose must be backed by data.
Measure results with clear KPIs sustained over time — Data must accompany you throughout the entire process. A hypothesis grounded in data but with a "more or less clear" conclusion is not enough. You need to be clear on how you'll measure the success of your test and how it affects the business as a whole. Data must determine whether each action works or not.
Design a cycle that always repeats (and is guided by data) — CRO doesn't end with one test. CRO is a method that repeats continuously and always, always, always seeks to improve results. How? By following the data. It will guide you through the next optimisation actions.
CRO is not about improvising. It's a method that, without research, becomes wasted money and effort. In the end, to optimise your results you need to closely analyse where they come from. And that, my friends, is research.
With proper use of data, your CRO can become a very useful tool that helps every test you run multiply its value and bring you insights about your digital business. In other words: it helps you grow.
If you want to get off to a good start with CRO and give your data the attention it deserves, reach out to us to put our method into practice. It's proven to work.
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