Testing is the foundation for any successful business — SaaS, eCommerce, or any other kind. It’s essential to understand what works for your customers and what doesn’t.
Testing also allows you to take a step back and analyze your business with a critical eye. This is how the best companies optimize their user experience, leading to more conversions and, ultimately, more revenue.
Google Optimize is one of the best tools for testing different versions of your content. It’s easy to use, and it integrates seamlessly with Google Analytics.
This article will show you how to set up a content experiment using Google Optimize. We’ll also give tips on getting the most out of your experiments.
Let’s start with the basics.
Table of contents
What Is Google Optimize All About?
Google Optimize is a tool that allows you to test different versions of your content. It’s designed to help you understand what works best for your audience.
Google Optimize is part of Google Analytics. That means it’s easy to set up and integrates seamlessly with your Google Analytics account.
Google Optimize allows you to test different versions of your content side-by-side. That way, you can see which version performs better.
For example, let’s say you have a blog post getting a lot of traffic. You want to see if you can increase the conversion rate by adding a CTA at the end of the post.
With Google Optimize, you can create two versions of the post:
- Version A: The original post
- Version B: The original post + CTA
Then, you can run the experiment and see which version performs better.
Google Optimize is a powerful tool that can help you optimize your content for more conversions. But it’s important to note that it’s not a silver bullet.
Google Optimize is only one part of the equation. To really supercharge your conversions, you need to take a holistic approach. That means testing different aspects of your business, from your pricing to your checkout process.
And that’s what we’re going to show you how to do next.
Related reading; How to optimize a landingpage
Why Should You Experiment With Your Content?
There are a few main reasons why you should experiment with your content:
- To understand what works best for your audience: The only way to know what works best for your audience is to test different versions of your content. With Google Optimize, you can do that quickly and efficiently.
- To optimize your user experience: Testing different versions of your content can help you optimize your user experience. Understanding what works best for your audience can make your content more relevant and engaging.
- To increase your conversions: Ultimately, the goal of any business is to increase conversions. By testing different versions of your content, you can find the version that works best for your audience and leads to more conversions.
Content experimentation is a bit like a science experiment. You start with a hypothesis and test it to see if it’s true.
If your experiment proves your hypothesis, you know you’re on the right track. If not, then you can adjust your content accordingly.
The key is to constantly test different hypotheses. That way, you can ensure that your content is as effective as possible.
Learn also about: Intent driven Content Strategy
How to Set Up a Content Experiment With Google Optimize
Now that you know the basics, let’s dive into how to set up a content experiment.
There are two ways to set up a content experiment: Visual Editor or Google Analytics.
We’ll show you how to create a content experiment using Visual Editor. The Visual Editor is the easier of the two methods.
If you want to use Google Analytics, you’ll need to be comfortable with code. We recommend using Visual Editor if you’re not a developer.
To get started, log in to your Google Analytics account and click on the Visual Editor icon.
Once in the Visual Editor, click on the “Google Optimize” tab.
Then, click on the “Create Experiment” button.
Enter the URL of the original page that you want to test. This is the page that users will be redirected to when they enter the experiment.
Then, enter the URL of the variation that you want to test. This is the page you will redirect users if they’re selected for the experiment.
You can also add a third variation if you want to test multiple versions of your content.
Once you’ve entered the URLs, click the “Create” button.
You’ll then be given a code snippet that you need to add to the original page and the variation page.
Adding the code snippet is simple. Just copy and paste it into the header of each page.
Once you’ve added the code snippet, click on the “Start Experiment” button.
Your experiment will now be live, and you’ll start to see results in your Google Analytics account.
3 Steps to Increase Your Conversions Using Google’s Google Optimize
Now that you know how to set up a content experiment let’s take a look at how to increase your conversions.
There are three main steps that you need to take:
- Focus on where visitors are dropping out of your funnel
- Use horizontal funnels in Google Analytics
- Visit the pages to spot obvious issues
Let’s explore each of these steps in more detail.
Step 1. Focus on where visitors are dropping out of your funnel
To increase your conversions, you need to focus on where visitors are dropping out of your funnel.
The first step is to identify which stage of the funnel visitors are dropping out at.
To do this, go to your Google Analytics account and click on “Goals.”
Next, click on “Funnel Visualization.”
This will show you a visual representation of your funnel.
Look at the funnel and identify which stage has the highest drop-off rate.
This is where you need to focus your attention.
For example, if visitors are dropping off at the checkout page, you know there’s an issue with your checkout process.
If you see that visitors are dropping off at the product page, you know that there’s an issue with your product’s descriptions or images.
By focusing on the stage with the highest drop-off rate, you can make changes that will have the most significant impact on your conversions.
Step 2. Use horizontal funnels in Google Analytics
Once you’ve identified where visitors are dropping out of your funnel, you need to use horizontal funnels in Google Analytics to identify which pages are causing the issue.
Horizontal funnels show you the path that visitors take on your site.
For instance, if you have a funnel for your checkout process, the horizontal funnel will show you which pages visitors went to before they arrived at the checkout page.
This is valuable information because it can help you identify which pages are causing visitors to drop off.
You can analyze your funnel based on channel, A/B test variation, browser type, new vs. returning users, and pretty much anything you can think of.
This is where conditional (e.g., potential customers) and sequence (e.g., cart abandoners) segments come into play. You can use them to discover points of friction and plug the leak.
For instance, let’s say that you’ve identified that visitors are dropping off at the checkout page.
You can use a horizontal funnel to see which pages visitors went to before they arrived at the checkout page.
This will help you identify which pages are causing visitors to drop off.
You can then make changes to those pages to improve your conversions.
Instead of focusing on the pages that come after the checkout, concentrate on the pages that come before it.
This will help you identify which pages are causing the issue.
Step 3. Visit the pages to spot obvious issues
Once you identify points of friction, you can visit the pages to spot obvious issues.
For example, if you see that visitors are dropping off at the checkout page, you can visit the page to find any clear reasons why people might be leaving.
- Are the prices too high?
- Is the shipping too slow?
- Is the checkout process too complicated?
By visiting the pages, you can spot any obvious issues that might be causing visitors to drop off.
And once you identify the issues, you can make changes to improve your conversions.
Of course, this is just a starting point.
To really increase your conversions, you need to go further and split-test different versions of your pages.
But we’ll save that for another day.
Conclusion
To increase your conversions, focus on where visitors are dropping out of your funnel. Use horizontal funnels in Google Analytics to identify which pages are causing visitors to drop off. And visit the pages to spot any obvious issues.
Following these three steps, you can supercharge your conversions with Google’s Google Optimize.
Hopefully, this article has given you some valuable insights.