45 Conversion Rate Optimization Statistics
Table of Contents
We spend plenty of time getting prospects to come to our web pages, but it turns out that getting traffic isn’t a problem for most marketers; conversions is the real pain point. One of the reasons is that the CRO industry is still in its early stages. There is still a long way to go. To make things relatively easier, we thought of compiling 45 conversion rate optimization statistics. These will give you an idea about what you can do or avoid to move the needle to green and eke out more conversions.
Let’s get started.
#1 Pages that rank first on Google search results on desktop have a 34.36% click-through rate.
Source: HubSpot
#In fact, the same is true for mobile devices as well. Web pages that secure first position have a 31.35% CTR. Guess, it’s time you work on SEO if you want conversions.
#2 People are searching Google for the phrase “conversion rate optimization” more than ever before.
Source: Google
This also explains why on an average, companies are spending as much as $2,000 a month on CRO tools. The same VentureBeat study (where 3,000 CRO tool users took part in the survey) revealed that the average ROI of using CRO tools is 223%. Only five percent survey respondents did not generate ROI while 173 marketers said they gain returns higher than 1,000 percent!
#3 68% of small businesses don’t have a documented CRO strategy.
Source: CXL
If you don’t document your strategy with corresponding results, you will never know what you did right and what you should never repeat. No wonder marketers must have a conversion rate optimization strategy in place. Do you have one?
#4 8 out of 10 or 82% of marketers say knowing how to test effectively is “somewhat” or “very challenging”.
Source: Adobe
To understand why it’s so, you need to introspect. Do you have a documented CRO strategy? Do the conversion rate optimizers have enough experience or intent to turn tables in your favor? Are you running ‘ample’ number of tests? Do you have all the necessary CRO tools? Even one of these factors could compound your ‘difficulty’ in boosting conversions.
#5 Using correct targeting and testing methods can boost conversion rates up to 300%.
Source: Marketing Experiments
If you aren’t sure about how to create buyer personas then ask yourself these 20 questions. Once you have a detailed sketch ready, you will be able to target them better and improve your landing page performance.
#6 7 in 10 marketers practicing CRO use the results of experiments to inform offline or other marketing initiatives.
Source: Marketing Sherpa
According to Econsultancy, top 20% of firms are 88% more likely to engage other departments for contribution and expansion of their testing effort. This inclusive optimization approach boost the conversion from the average of 2.6% to 4.3%. It only makes sense that you also adopt this methodology as no department can exist in silo.
#7 Top converting companies spend more than 5% of their budgets on optimization.
Source: EcoConsultancy
The key to meeting revenue goals is giving CRO the importance it deserves. It pretty much explains the next CRO stat.
#8 For every $92 spent acquiring customers, only $1 is spent converting them.
Source: Econsultancy
Digital marketers who allocate more budget to optimization tend to see an improvement in their conversion rates than those who aren’t worried about it at all. Clearly, this lopsided allocation of funds needs correction.
#9 Only about 22 percent of businesses are satisfied with their conversion rates.
Source: Econsultancy
This dissatisfaction is partly because marketers don’t know that the average conversion rates aren’t any higher than 3%. Besides, it varies from industry to industry. Having said that, it doesn’t mean businesses don’t see double digit conversions. This is the reason you must follow conversion rate optimization best practices and learn from industry moguls.
#10 Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales leads at 33% less cost.
Source: Demand Gen
Run lead nurturing campaigns to educate and engage your prospects. Over a period of time, you will position yourself as the ONLY brand they will turn to or buy from. Here’s another promising statistic: nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads.
#11 B2C companies that leverage ‘marketing automation’ have seen conversions as high as 50%.
Source: Emarketer
Marketing automation software make a marketer’s life easy by not only automating repetitive tasks like posting social media content or sending emails but also nurturing prospects based on their behavior and preferences. For instance, if a website visitor abandons his shopping cart with items still in it then a reminder could be sent to ‘complete’ the purchase! It sure is an easy way to bump up conversions.
#12 B2C companies that leverage ‘marketing automation’ have seen conversions as high as 50%.
Source: Saleslion
Clearly, an average internet user doesn’t have either time or patience. The moment a page takes longer to load, they abandon it. In fact, once even Google experienced a 20% drop in traffic because of an extra 0.5 second load time! If you’re facing page abandonment issues try removing elements that are slowing it down.
#13 More than 20 percent of businesses have reported that they do not have an effective strategy for landing page testing.
Source: Business2Community
Not having a strategy is as good as making notes with invisible ink. The result: no notes, no learnings. How about you buckle up and document your landing page testing strategy? Better still, steal these brilliant tips by Neil Patel.
#14 Only 52% of companies and agencies that use landing pages test them to improve conversions.
Source: Marketing Experiments
Testing landing pages is critical, yet it’s shocking to see that the rest 48% don’t use tools to optimize their conversion potential.
#15 61% of companies run five or fewer landing page tests per month.
Source: Econsultancy
This is a sad reality but you shouldn’t forget that testing is the only way to know if your pages will bring conversions or not. Apparently, companies that have been able to improve their conversion rates, perform 50% more tests on an average. Also, to put things in perspective, once Google ran 7,000 A/B tests just to be sure which copy is better. Do you get the drift?
#16 42% of offer-related graphics on landing pages are not clickable.
Source: Marketing Experiments
WHY! Users intuitively click on a graphic. So, if you have a clickable pop-up form for them to fill then make offer-related, clickable graphics. It makes for a pleasant user experience.
#17 Using videos on a landing page can improve conversion rates by 86%.
Source: Wishpond
In fact, Kimberly Snyder saw conversions boost by 144% when they added a sales video before showing the CTA. So, whether you have an explainer video or a customer’s testimonial, experiment and add them to landing pages. They are visual and engaging and hence have a high conversion power. Perhaps, take hints from this blog on how to create a video page landing page that converts at 56%.
#18 44% of clicks to a B2B link direct to the homepage as opposed to a dedicated landing page.
Source: MarketingSherpa’s Landing Page Handbook
This is a clear case of poor ad scent. If your ad is about a particular offer then direct them to a landing page which has more details. If you lead them to your home page you will confuse them and they will bounce away.
#19 Of B2B companies that use landing pages, 62% have six or fewer total landing pages.
Source: Marketing Experiments
The higher the number of landing pages, the more opportunities of conversions. The next statistic proves this point.
#20 48% of marketers create a new landing page template for each marketing campaign.
Source: Marketing Experiments
A landing page represents you and if you don’t experiment with what makes your more likable (read: more conversions), you would never hit the revenue mark.
#21 Companies that have 10-15 landing pages get 55% more leads than companies with fewer than 10.
Source: HubSpot
According to HubSpot, having more number of landing pages is especially beneficial for B2Bs. It obviously gives a chance to run more campaigns, provide more offers and ultimately reach out to a variety of prospects.
Resource: How to Increase the Number of Landing Pages on Your Site
#22 Only 16% of landing pages don’t have a navigation menu.
Source: Marketing Sherpa
Remember: The ONE goal of a landing page is to convert visitors to leads. As a matter of fact, a visitor comes to a landing page with a specific purpose in mind. But, the moment you include a navigation bar it will distract them and obviously kill conversions. Here’s a case study on how Yuppiechief increased conversions by 100% (from 3% to 6%) by choosing not to include a navigation bar.
#23 87% of marketers publish and distribute content on social media.
Source: Marketing Experiments
David Ogilvy says, “Long copy sells more than short copy, particularly when you are asking the reader to spend a lot of money. Only amateurs use the short copy.” Right to a certain extent, especially if you have a whole story and product explanation to give. However, it’s important that before you create a long landing page think about the CTA (do your prospects need all that information to take that action?), demographics, brand voice, industry as well as which stage in the funnel your prospect is.
Moreover, it is important to distribute content on the right social media platform. LinkedIn generates the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate at 2.74%, almost 3x higher than Twitter at 0.69% and Facebook at 0.77%.
#24 Imagescape saw a 160% increase in submissions when they decreased form fields from 11 to a mere four.
Source: LinkedIn
As a responsible marketer, you must know that the length of the form isn’t the only factor that determines conversions. It has much to do with the type of information being requested (telephone number, office address, age etc.), website credibility as well as the offer they will redeem on form submission. The only way to know if a long form will work for you is by A/B testing your landing page. Ask questions such as – do you want more leads or high-quality leads? If it’s the latter, more fields may work its magic because only an engaged visitor will eventually fill the form.
#25 An above-the-fold CTA fold brings more conversion.
Short forms with above-the-fold CTAs do work for brands like Canva, Crazyegg, Moz etc. It reduces friction and also takes care of our short attention span. The only way to find out if it will work for you is by testing it. But, if you’ve been reading the stats carefully, we just quoted a stat that said otherwise! Well, that’s what marketing is all about. There’s no absolute truth and the only way to find out is bending the rules and experimenting.
#26 The average conversion rate of visitors who saw User Generated Content (UGC) is 161% higher than those who didn’t.
Source: Yotpo
Yes! User-generated content is the real deal. People trust other shopper’s experience over what retailers say about their products. In fact, you would be shocked to know that a customer spends 5.4 hours a day sifting through UGC! The lesson? You may write the fanciest product copy, but if there aren’t any reviews, the conversion rate will suffer! So, buck up and ask your customers and fans to review and rate you!
#27 Referrals have the highest conversion rates of all customer acquisition channels at 3.74%.
Source: Marketo
Consider Koodo’s referral programme. They were able to reduce their customer acquisition cost by 167% and got 75,000 new customers within two years. Their success speaks for itself. Here is another encouraging stat – referred customers bring profits as high as 25%! Perhaps, you should give referral apps like ReferralCandy a shot? Or, if budget permits you could hire specialists.
Related Read: An Epic List of 79 Killer Referral Program Examples
#28 96% of marketers say ‘segmentation’ is the most powerful method of improving conversion rate.
Source: Econsultancy
The reason segmentation works is because you can then target your prospects based on the buyer’s persona they fit in. It starts with sending them content or offers that will engage them the most and bring them one step closer to converting.
#29 Customer testimonials have the highest effectiveness rating for content marketing at 89%.
Source: Social Fresh
Add photos to these testimonials to influence your prospect’s decision making and send conversion rates through the roof! That’s because photos tend to increase the believability of those words and establishes that here’s a real person who is vouching for and recommending a product/service they have used.
#30 61% of customers read online reviews before making a purchase.
Source: Econsultancy
Social proof matters. Period. The more your prospects learn about how your products and services benefit real people the better for you. So, ask your customers to write testimonials or drop reviews on product review websites.
#31 Landing pages with multiple offers get 266% fewer leads than single offer pages.
Source: Wishpond
One landing page = one offer. If your goal is that visitors register for a webinar or download an ebook then stick to it. Distracting, multiple offers actually dilute the whole objective of creating a landing page. Despite the standard rule, 48% of the landing pages contain multiple offers and call-to-actions. It’s only natural that such pages result in fewer leads.
#32 The largest percentage of your visitors are bailing (leaving) within 0-8 seconds of briefly viewing your landing page.
Source: WebKnowHow
This explains why headline matters. It’s the first thing people read on the page and is an opportunity you mustn’t miss if you really want conversion rates to skyrocket. When you write the headline make sure it’s a combination of contextual keywords as well as emotion-evoking.
#33 Companies with mobile-optimized sites triple their chances of increasing the mobile conversion rate to 5% or above.
Source: Adobe
Neil Patel says, “Mobile landing pages are no longer a “nice-to-have” feature. They are non-negotiable.” In fact, did you know – 8 out of 10 people surf the internet through their smartphones? Yet, if we are to look at Google benchmarks, most companies are still losing out on business. Are you willing to take that risk? Moreover, mobile-friendly websites always rank higher than those that are not.
Percentage of global web pages served to mobile phones from 2009 to 2018
#34 A/B testing was the highest ranked method planned for improving conversion by 48%.
Source: Marketing Sherpa
Thankfully, A/B testing is becoming more popular. 58% of companies already use it for conversion rate optimization and another 35% want to go for it. If you’re still doubtful, hear this out: even Barack Obama raised an additional $60 million, 2.8 million email subscribers, 288,000 volunteers and 40.6% increase in email sign ups with the help of A/B testing. What’s stopping you?
#35 42% of marketers say analyzing the A/B test results is the hardest part of conversion optimization.
Source: Adobe
If you are sailing in the same boat then here’s a CrazyEgg blog you can refer to.
#36 Personalized call-to-actions convert 42% more visitors into leads than generic CTAs.
Source: HubSpot
“The call-to-action is the tipping point between conversions and bounce”, says Neil Patel. We couldn’t agree more. Call-to-actions should be strong and catchy enough and solicit a click. One way to make them click is by using first-person phrasing. Doing so helped ContentVerve see a 90% increase in click-through rate. They said “Start my free 30-day trial” instead of. “Start your free 30-day trial”, and it did all the magic.
#37 Call-to-actions that are surrounded by more negative space and less clutter increases a company’s conversion rate by 232%.
Source: VWO
Whaaaat? Less clutter boosts conversions, which means makes sense to have more white space around CTAs. It’s less noisy and the focus remains on the offer. The two best examples of white space use are Apple and Google. Both use plenty of white space and guide attention to the most important elements.
#38 More than 90% of visitors who read your headline also read your CTA copy.
Source: Unbounce
One thing is sure that if visitors are captivated with your headline then they will check out what’s in offer. This is why you should always strive to perfect your CTA copy. Perhaps refer to these 31 CTA examples compiled by HubSpot that are guaranteed to get you clicks.
#39 64% users use ad blocker because they believe ads are annoying or intrusive.
Source: WordStream
Mind = blown? Well, if you keep focus on a single goal and don’t distract your prospect with too many CTAs, you will definitely see conversions.
#40 Personalized email messages improve conversions by 10%.
Source: Aberdeen
Apparently, 3-4 of a company’s personas account for 90% of a company’s revenue. So, leverage them and increase your email open rate 2-5 times. Start sending content or offers that appeal to these buyers. Factor in their preferences, past purchases, etc., and there is no way they won’t convert.
#41 Interactive content tends to generate 2x more conversions than passive content.
Source: Kapost
Not just that. It also helps brands understand their target audience better and profile them accordingly. Armed with that knowledge they can then create personalized content and offers. Moreover, because interactive content is immersive there is no scope for them to snooze in-between.
#42 Micro-influencers are capable of generating 22.2X higher conversion rates than other types of influencers.
Source: Experticity
92% of consumers worldwide say that they trust recommendations from individuals over brands. So, your chance of getting the word out is by roping in real, niche influencers who have a stronghold over their followers. With honest, unbiased reviews these micro-influencers can really boost your conversions.
#43 Personalized email messages improve conversions by 10%.
Source: Twitter and Annalect
A brand does not necessarily exercise the same level of influence on their prospect’s decision-making as much as an influencer. This is the reason why influencer marketing is on the rise and 39% of marketers have increased their marketing budgets.
#44 On average, businesses generate $6.50 for every $1 invested in influencer marketing.
Source: Convince&Convert
Influencer marketing is definitely crushing affiliate marketing, paid search and display ads and has become one of the fastest-growing online customer acquisition methods. Perhaps the reason is that 74% of people turn to social networks for guidance on purchase decisions.
#45 Anchor text CTAs (clickable text in a hyperlink) increase conversion rates by a whopping 121%.
Source: HubSpot
The surprising 121% conversion is a result of Hubspot adding an anchor text CTA (see screenshot below) in 80 of their high-traffic blogs. However, don’t assume that’s the only thing that got them to this figure. Apparently, credit goes to a combination of factors like organic searches and email marketing efforts. But, one thing is sure: adding anchor text CTAs does work. Want to give it a shot?
What do you make of these conversion rate optimization stats? Puts things in perspective, we hope! Like we said in the beginning, CRO industry is still evolving. You will grow only if you learn, experiment and stay abreast of latest trends and practices. Do you think you are ready?
