How to Use CRO to Power-Up Your Social Media Traffic

You’ve created a successful Facebook ad campaign and your Instagram audience is highly engaged and generating lots of traffic to your website.

Obtaining traffic from social media is one thing but getting them to take a desired action – such as making a purchase or submitting a form is another.

These actions are often referred to as “conversions” whilst the process of increasing the percentage of visitors who complete a conversion, is known as Conversion Rate Optimisation or CRO for short.

To work out your conversion rate, you would need to divide the number of conversions by the number of website ‘sessions’. If you specifically wish to work out your conversion rate for social media traffic, then in Google Analytics – divide the number of conversions by the number of sessions referred to the website via social media.

Conversions are sometimes broken down into “Macro” and “Micro” conversions.

An example of a “Macro” conversion would be:

– Making a purchase

– Submitting a form to receive more information or a call-back

Examples of micro conversions include:

– Signing up to a newsletter

– Downloading an eBook

Increasing the frequency of macro and micro conversions involves a very similar process. Below we highlight how you can leverage an understanding of human psychology into your website design to improve conversion rate.

Website Speed

People are impatient, very impatient. If your website doesn’t load quickly on both desktop and mobile devices, then your conversion rate will suffer. You can check your website speed using tools such as GTMetrix and the Google page speed checker.

An easy fix in terms of site speed, is to optimise images. Reducing the size of the images in terms of dimensions and data, as well as using modern image formats such as JPEG 2000 can make all the difference in terms of site speed and user experience.

On WordPress websites, a plugin such as Smush-it can be a quick and effective solution.

Clear Propositions & Calls to Action

Each service that you offer and ideally each product that you sell, should have a Unique Selling Point (USP) and ideally, several Strong Selling Points (SSPs). A USP typically relates to the price or the quality of a particular service or product.

A SSP might be free shipping, 24 hour delivery time or a money-back guarantee. Whatever your USP and SSPs are, make sure that you mention them on your webpage.

A Call to Action or CTA, is normally a button on a website – such as an ‘add to cart’ button, or ‘submit form’ button. Using tools such as Google Optimize can allow designers and CRO experts to split test different CTAs and determine which is the most effective.

The position of the CTA is also important. Typically, placing the CTA ‘above the fold’ so that users don’t have to scroll down to find it – works better, but not always – especially when it comes to high value products such as holidays. Again, the position of the CTA should be tested.

The Paradox of Choice

People often believe that the more choice they have – the better! Choice signifies freedom, but giving your website visitors more choice is not always the best strategy when looking to increase your conversion rate.

According to psychologist Barry Schwartz, there are three main reasons: more cognitive costs, more choice deferral and more post-purchase regret.

Another psychologist – George Miller, theorised that people are only able to process a maximum of 7 items or choices at any give time. A significant percentage of people can only process 5. When presented with more choice, people become overwhelmed.

In terms of website design, many CRO experts argue that navigation and purchasing process must be kept as simple as possible. Links to blogs and resources will often lead to hesitation and procrastination, whilst too many options for a given product could lead to indecision.

To overcome the paradox of choice, eCommerce stores should make filtering easy and create logical sub-categories. Also, use a limited number of CTAs to avoid confusing visitors.

Social Proofing & Trust Metrics

“Social proof is the influence that the actions and attitudes of the people around us (either in real life or online) have on our own behavior. The “proof” element is the idea that if other people are doing it (or saying it), it must be correct.”

Ebay was one of the first website to understand and leverage the power of social proof. Adding reviews proved a highly effective way for merchants to gain trust.

Amazon also utilised this with their own review platform before review platforms such as Trustpilot and revoo become available for other websites and businesses.

To use social proof effectively, you must first provide a high quality and cost effective service or product – and then collect as many positive review as possible.

Placing your average review score above the fold, near your CTA button is the standard way to make the most of social proof – assuming your average score is better than your main competitors! Place any industry award icons/badges and other trust metrics near the CTA button too.

The Fear of Missing Out

The Fear of Missing Out or “FOMO” relates to the anxiety that people often feel when they are excluded from an important event or social occasion. People can also feel like they are missing out because they don’t possess an item or product that all, or a number of their peers have.

To harness the power of FOMO, a website should include a product or service with an amazing USP and a number of great reviews. They should highlight how high the demand for the product/service is using statements such as “last few remaining” and something that promotes urgency – such as a countdown timer or an additional statements such as “offer ends tonight”.

When used along side a quick and easy checkout process e.g. Paypal or Amazon Pay – people can make purchases almost purely based on the feeling of FOMO, rather than a logical evaluation of the value of a product or service to them.

When web designers harness the power of human psychology, along with a professional and fast-loading website – the impact upon conversion rate can be dramatic. The key is to test everything, ensuring that data-driven decisions are made, instead of decisions based on personal preference.

Clearly showing your address and telephone number on the website-footer or on a specific contact page can also help to create an additional sense of trust. A local number or vanity telephone number – instead of a mobile number is a must too. Finally, consider adding live chat from a company such as Moneypenny to your website to make it as quick and easy as possible for visitors to find what they are looking for.