CXL Institute CRO Minidegree Review | Week 4 of 12

Week 4 Overview

 This was a strange week where I was super productive in the first half and then life properly got in the way of my learning in the second half.

 Writing this report, I was actually quite surprised at how much I was able to cover this week.

 There is a lot to cover, so let’s get straight into it. 

Course: Google Tag Manager for Beginners

Instructor: Chris Mercer (https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/chrismerceronline/)

 Total time: 7 hrs

 Difficulty/Skill Level: Basic to Intermediate

 Key Takeaways

 ·     Mercer recommends that we place split testing platform code (e.g. Optimizely) outside of the GTM to prevent an increase in page load speed.

·     There are pre-made tags ready for most platforms/vendors in GTM (e.g. GA, HotJar, Bing, etc.). However, there are certain platforms for whom there aren’t any pre-made tags- for these, you need to create custom tags.

·     Even if your checkout page is on another domain, you can use the same GTM container on that page.

·     Whenever a built-in tag is available, use that rather than create a custom one.

·     Configure scroll tags to be ‘non-interaction hits’ so that bounce rates aren’t skewed in GA.

Course : Fast and Rigorous User Personas

 Instructor: Stefania Mereu (https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/stefania-mereu-01402531/)

 Total time: 47 mins

 Difficulty/Skill Level: Intermediate

 Key Takeaways

·     Ensure that the data you are collecting is relevant and actionable. E.g. it doesn’t add any value for you to know what a user’s favourite colour is if you want to sell them health insurance. 

·     3 steps to developing User Personas: 

1.    Collect the data

2.    Identify groups/clusters

3.    Build Archetypes

·     A large part of the time spent in producing personas is actually in the process of collecting and cleaning the data. The analysis itself does not take as long. Stefania estimates that the last set of user personas she developed took about 4 weeks.

·     Erik says that the last set of user personas he developed also took around 4 weeks. However, he feels that if he had used out of the box data visualisation tools rather than custom builds, he may have been able to complete the personas in about 2 weeks instead.

·     It’s a good idea to test your survey with a small group of respondents first, before rolling it out to the full group.

·     Exploratory Factor Analysis is the process of reviewing survey data and identifying key underlying themes from the responses to categorise/cluster these responses.

Course: Heuristic Analysis Frameworks for Conversion Optimisation Audits

 Instructor: Andre Morys (https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/andremorys/)

Total time: 2hrs 30 mins

Difficulty/Skill Level: Intermediate

Key Takeaways

·     SOR Framework: Stimulus, Organism, Reaction. In the case of a website, the website is the stimulus, the organism is the user’s brain and the reaction is the results we observe through techniques such as A/B tests.

·     ‘Heuristics’ are strategies derived from previous experiences with similar problems.

·     The 7 Levels of Conversion:

 1.    Relevance: Is that the right page for me/my problem?

2.    Trust: Can I trust this company/vendor?

3.    Orientation: Where do I have to click/how do I find the right product?

4.    Stimulance: Why should I buy/click here?

5.    Security: Is it safe to do that here?

6.    Convenience: How easy will everything be?

7.    Confirmation: Did I do the right thing?  

·     According to data collected by Morys’ own company, optimising ad copy for SERPs with emotional triggers improved performance by about 50%. Optimising the landing page improved conversions by about 30%. Combined, however, they led to a 90%+ improvement in conversions.

·     User personas to think about desired values and emotions (mapped against a ‘Lymbic Map’)

·     Find out what works by using A/B testing (‘Decoy Strategy’)

Course: Google Analytics Audit

 Instructor: Unsure (will update once I can confirm!)

Total time: 2hrs 38 mins

 Difficulty/Skill Level: Intermediate-Advanced

 Key Takeaways

This was quite a technical course and somewhat repetitive after the earlier 2 GA courses I have already completed as part of this minidegree. That said, I was able to get a refresher on a number of topics including: 

·     How to begin to use the developer’s console to see all traffic being sent to Google Analytics.

·     How to use Google Tag Assistant to discover how data is being sent to Google Analytics.

·     How to verify some important settings in the Property view: default URL, referral exclusions, custom dimensions, Google Search Console, etc.

·     How to use dataLayer Inspector+ (a Chrome extension) to verify accuracy in reporting page views

·     How traffic ends up in different channels, and how to audit Google Analytics properties to ensure the rules are being applied.

·     And much, much more!

Course: 8 Common Testing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

 Instructor: Justin Christianson (https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/justin-christianson-33b4836/)

Total time: 15 minutes

Difficulty/Skill Level: Intermediate

 Key Takeaways

The 8 most common testing mistakes are:

1. Not letting a test run long enough

You need to run a test for at least a week (get a sample size for each day of the week)

2. Testing too many small elements

Go for larger impact initiatives first before smaller, incremental uplift opportunities

3. Just testing random things

Analyse your users and come up with hypotheses to test (with an aim of instigating positive behavioural change) rather than just randomly testing small elements and hoping something works.

4. False positives

 Use back-up tracking and test the ‘winning’ variation against itself to ensure it is legit.

5. Not knowing when to say when

Cut losing tests early when it is clear that waiting longer won’t change the results.

6. Failing to optimise for each traffic source

Separate landing pages for each traffic source (e.g. Paid Search vs. Facebook Ads) helps to give a truer picture of the user’s interaction with your ad > your landing page > the rest of your conversion funnel

7. Only focusing on conversion rate

Look at the big picture (metrics such as Average Order Value or Customer Lifetime Value)- it is possible to increase conversion rate and lose money (e.g. by slashing prices and bringing in lower quality customers).

8. Treating low traffic websites the same

In this scenario, you would be better off 1) conducting qualitative customer research, and 2) focusing on increasing your traffic

Course: How to Run Tests

 Instructor: Peep Laja (https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/peeplaja/)

 Total time: 5hrs 52 mins

 Difficulty/Skill Level: Intermediate-Advanced

 Key Takeaways

·     An optimiser must categorise and score all the issues on their website based on the ability to impact the business (and the difficulty and effort required to implement). This will help prioritise time and resources.

·     Once you have decided which changes to test, wireframing is a great way to quickly mock up your tests and communicate with designers/developers. Peep recommends Balsamiq as a cheap and cheerful solution.

·     Before you end a test you need 3 things: big enough sample size, long enough test duration (minimum 2 business cycles) and only then statistical significance

·     “The goal of a test is not to get a lift, but rather to get a learning.” – Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, Managing Director and CEO, MECLABS

·     Avoid testing multiple hypotheses at the same time. It makes it much harder for you to be able isolate causes for results, good or bad.

·     You must always test your seemingly conclusive test results against common validity threats such as the History Effect, the Instrumentation Effect and the Selection Effect

Course: Testing Strategies

 Instructor: Peep Laja (https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/peeplaja/)

 Total time: 54 mins

 Difficulty/Skill Level: Intermediate-Advanced

 Key Takeaways

·     “What to test?” is the million dollar question. Testing the wrong things results in wasted time, effort and money. You have to know what actually makes a difference

·     Test more things together rather than less unless you have really high traffic (millions of visitors a month). As far as not being able to isolate lift down to an individual change, ask yourself the question: “are we in the business of science, or are we in the business of making money?”.

·     A/B testing harnesses the power of large changes, not just minor colour or headline tweaks as many Multivariate Tests are usually based on.

·     MVTs require a lot of traffic, although a lack of traffic can usually be made up with high conversion rates. That said, too many changing elements at once can quickly add up to a very large number of possible combinations that must be tested. A/B tests are preferable in most cases from a data accuracy as well as a resource efficiency perspective.

Wrap Up of Week 4

What I Loved

·     Both the Google Tag Manager for Beginners and the Google Analytics Audit courses had excellent, in-depth technical content taught by practitioners who clearly know their stuff. The content was broken down into nice manageable chunks, very easy to follow along with the screencast and explained very well.

·     The Heuristics Analysis Frameworks for CRO Audits course was one of my favourites of the week. The instructor, Andre Morys, finds a great balance between theory, giving the learner an idea of which pitfalls to avoid ‘out in the field’ and delivering it all with a great sense of humour.

·     It was great to have another two courses taught by Peep Laja this week. His motto is to ‘fight sameness’ and this really comes across in his material. He doesn’t just explain best practice which one could find with a few Google searches- he shares his extensive experience and makes an effort to point out non-intuitive things that he has learned over the years. This is great practical value for the learner.

What Could Be Better

·     I don’t believe in criticising just for the sake of it- I honestly don’t think there is much I would change based on this week’s experience.

Plan for Week 5

I would like to complete the following courses:

·     Statistics Fundamentals for Testing

·     Statistics for A/B Testing

·     A/B Testing Mastery

·     Advanced Experimentation Analysis

 About this series

 On 23rd March, 2020, in quarantine indefinitely due to the UK’s (perfectly reasonable) nationwide lockdown, I was lucky enough to gain a scholarship to the CXL Institute’s CRO Minidegree program for 12 weeks.

I am writing a weekly update of my progress through the program. You can find my previous updates below:

 Week 1: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/cxl-institute-cro-minidegree-review-week-1-12-ali-qasim-naqvi/

Week 2: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/cxl-institute-cro-minidegree-review-week-2-12-ali-qasim-naqvi/

Week 3: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/cxl-institute-cro-minidegree-review-week-3-12-ali-qasim-naqvi/?trackingId=Gz1XTlVP8IekGNCrboK71w%3D%3D

The CXL Institute CRO Minidegree Program

 Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) refers to the art and science of converting website/app visitors into customers.

 The CXL Institute Conversion Optimisation Minidegree is an online training program designed to be “the most thorough CRO training in the world”. It is taught by CXL Institute’s in-house staff (including its founder Peep Laja) as well as a collection of the leading marketing practitioners in the business.

In its own words, CXL Institute describes the key objectives for students of this course as being to “learn how to convert your traffic into customers, run more successful experiments, and get the skills to deliver consistent revenue gains on any website you work on.”

 The approximate total time for this course is: 72 hrs 48 mins.

You can find more information here: https://cxl.com/institute/programs/conversion-optimization/

Thanks for taking an interest in my learning experience. I look forward to sharing more next week!

Ali