Is a winning AB test one that increases the conversion rate? No.
In CRO, it's common to focus on macro-conversions such as finalized purchases or registrations. However, micro-conversions - those small actions that users perform throughout their journey - are just as crucial to understanding and optimizing your order tunnel.
What is a micro-conversion in a purchase funnel?
In the context of the purchase funnel, a micro-conversion represents a small step taken by the user before finalizing a purchase. Unlike more general actions such as sharing on social networks or downloading a guide, here micro-conversions focus specifically on the purchase journey. They can include:
- Clicking on a product.
- Adding an item to the shopping cart.
- Moving on to the next page in the checkout process.
These steps are not final conversions, but they are essential to guide the user towards the final goal: the purchase.
Why are micro-conversions crucial for optimization?
Optimizing micro-conversions is an excellent solution when you don't have enough traffic to run meaningful tests, or when macro-conversions, such as purchase completion rate, don't have enough impact to give you fast, reliable results.
If you run an AB test on a variation that doesn't directly affect the overall conversion rate, it's still possible to evaluate micro-conversions to identify the best version. For example, if a variation doesn't generate more sales, but increases cart additions or reduces cart abandonment, this is a sign that the variation can be optimized over time for a better conversion rate.
By monitoring these intermediate actions, you get clear indicators of the user's progress through the tunnel. This helps you identify friction points and determine where to focus your optimization efforts.
How micro-conversions can improve your purchase funnel
Micro-conversions are particularly useful for understanding where and why users abandon their orders. Here's how they can help you optimize each stage of the tunnel:
1. Add to cart
Adding to cart is a key step. If your data shows that a large number of users add products to their shopping cart but don't proceed any further, this may indicate obstacles on the shopping cart page or during the checkout process (high delivery costs, complexity of order steps, etc.).
2. Moving on to the next page
An essential micro-conversion in the order tunnel is the transition from one page to the next. If many users leave the tunnel after consulting the shopping cart page, this is a signal that elements such as clarity of information (delivery costs, lead times) or security of the process (payment options, personal information) need to be optimized.
Progressive optimization with micro-conversions
Micro-conversion optimization allows you to divide the process into smaller, easier-to-analyze steps. Rather than trying to optimize the overall conversion rate directly, you can adjust the intermediate steps. For example, if a version of a test doesn't immediately produce more purchases, but does improve the rates of passage to the next step (such as choosing a delivery method), this gives you a solid basis for identifying improvements and refining your tests. In this way, you can track gradual but continuous progress.
The road to online success
Micro-conversions play a decisive role in optimizing the order tunnel. By focusing on these small intermediate steps, you can gradually improve the user experience, reduce friction points, and ultimately increase your macro-conversions.
It's also important to note that a test may not have a direct impact on the overall conversion rate, but may increase the average basket value, the number of items per order, and therefore generate an increase in sales, without necessarily affecting the conversion rate.
In fact, in some cases, it's even possible to observe a slight drop in the conversion rate, while seeing sales increase thanks to a higher average basket. But we'll talk about that another time.