Conversion Rate Optimization

In internet marketing, conversion optimization, or conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a system for increasing the percentage of visitors to a website that convert into customers, or more generally, take any desired action on a webpage. It is commonly referred to as CRO.

Online conversion rate optimization (or website optimization) was born out of the need of e-commerce marketers to improve their website's performance in the aftermath of the dot-com bubble. As competition grew on the web during the early 2000s, website analysis tools and an awareness of website usability prompted internet marketers to produce measurables for their tactics and improve their website's user experience.

In 2004, new tools enabled internet marketers to experiment with website design and content variations to determine which layouts, copy text, offers, and images perform best. This form of optimization accelerated in 2007 with the introduction of the free Google Website Optimizer. Today optimization and conversion are key aspects of many digital marketing campaigns. A research study conducted among internet marketers in 2014, for example, showed that 59% of respondents thought that CRO was "crucial to their overall digital marketing strategy".

Conversion rate optimization shares many principles with direct response marketing – a marketing approach that emphasizes tracking, testing, and on-going improvement. Direct marketing was popularized in the early twentieth century and supported by the formation of industry groups such as the Direct Marketing Association, which formed in 1917.

Like modern day conversion rate optimization, direct response marketers also practice A/B split-testing, response tracking, and audience testing to optimize mail, radio, and print campaigns.

Frequently, when marketers study a lift in an ad campaign, they discover customer behavior is not consistent. Online marketing response rates fluctuate widely from hour to hour, segment to segment, and offer to offer.

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