🎉 Conversion Party #47: Conversion Rate is a useless vanity metric

Welcome to Conversion Party. This week, we’ve got…

• CRO Deep Dive: Conversion rate is a useless vanity metric that you should erase from your vocabulary

• heatmap update: Meet Jacob, our new Head of Agency Partnerships

• Goings on: Not nothin’

• CRO Hack: Optimizing your shipping options for BFCM

• Obligatory Roundup™️: Random musings

Let’s ride.

CRO DEEP DIVE
Conversion Rate is Bullsh*t

Have you ever thought to yourself, “geez, my conversion rate is trash.”

The fine folks at Shopify say that, at least where ecom is concerned, 2.5-3% is average. It doesn’t exactly take a logical leap to conclude that worse than 2.5% is BAD, and better than 3% is GOOD… right?

Well… no.

When it comes to conversion rate (CVR), there’s no such thing as good or bad. It’s a vanity metric that…

• ignores other critical metrics

• doesn’t reflect changes in business strategy

• doesn’t adjust for volume

In fact, it’s so significantly impacted by myriad external factors like:

• Ad traffic/quality

• Ad volume (more ads, more cold traffic)

• Seasonality

• Economic climate

• Out-of-stock product

• Competition in market vertical

• Email frequency

• New products added/removed

that heatmap’s fearless leader Dylan says he never once cited global CVR to a client in the course of optimizing nearly $5B in ecommerce revenue at SplitTesting.com.

Never once.

Think about it.

A bad CVR for an $11 supplement might be great for, say, a $11,000 sofa.

Average Order Value (AOV) and CVR are directly correlated. The higher the AOV (see $11k couch), the lower the Conversion Rate. Above the trend on the graph below is good! Below the trend.. not so much.

On its own, it conversion rate tells an incomplete story. At best, it’s directionally misleading, at worst it can get you canned. Combined with a revenue metric, however, it enters the realm of usefulness.

Which is why we dig element-level Revenue Per Session (RPS).

RPS is calculated by dividing total session by total revenue. If 1,000 sessions generated $1,000 in sales, RPS is $1 (math!). Taking things a step further, element-level RPS refers to revenue attributed to specific components on a given page during a session. If a shopper, let’s call them Allen, visited your top-performing PDP, clicked two product images, read a review, and added whatever widget you sling to his cart before ultimately making a purchase…

• Product Image A

• Product Image B

• Review

• Add To Cart Button

Would all be attributed revenue from the sale (unlike the other elements on the page).

In this way, RPS ostensibly outlines the “market share” of an element on a given page.

RPS may appear “low,” but don’t fret. It’s because this is revenue from an element divided by total visits to a page. The more people buy from interacting with an element, the more “marketshare” it drives on the page compared to other elements, helping you optimize for revenue more effectively.

tl;dr… Use RPS to optimize. Please.

HEATMAP UPDATE
Meet Jacob

Meet Jacob. He’s heatmap’s new Head of Agency Partnerships. He lives in Columbus, OH (shoutout Mike’s Grill) and comes to use from a small software company you’ve probably never heard of called Klaviyo.

I asked Jacob for 3-5 interesting facts to share with y’all. He employed the battle-tested strategy I use when ordering wine at a restaurant and gave me 4.

1. My dog, Olive, is the bomb. Ask to see her on calls! Guaranteed to make your day better.

2. Golf is my "hot girl walk.” Don't tell Dylan how much I play.

3. IPA's > domestic (editor’s note: no)

4. I heavily encourage swearing. Let it loose.

If you’re with an agency that’s currently or interested in working with heatmap, you can grab time with Jacob here ⬇️ .

GOINGS ON
Not nothin…

Interested in collaborating? Hit me: allen at heatmap dot com

How to Create a BFCM-Ready Website: From Heatmaps to Conversions

Gear up for the most important shopping season of the year by unlocking essential strategies to optimize your website and drive success at every customer touchpoint during Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM).

In this webinar, we’ll dive deep into the best practices and cutting-edge tools you need to elevate your website’s performance and maximize conversions during peak shopping periods. Whether you’re a seasoned eCommerce professional or just starting out, this session will equip you with actionable insights to enhance your online store’s readiness for BFCM.

BFCM Impact Past, Present, and Future: Leveraging Historical Data and Strategic Tools

The biggest sales event of the year is just around the corner, and brands need to leverage historical data and strategic tools to make this BFCM the best one yet. 
Analyzing your brand’s BFCM performance from last year is essential for many reasons, most notably that you can identify what worked, and replicate or improve upon those strategies that worked.

Better yet, you can specifically identify the mistakes you made so that you don’t repeat them.

Ecom Founders Q4 Summit

A big, crazy, brand-only event at Terminal 5 in NYC on 9/26 featuring an unreal lineup of speakers (including Shopify’s own Harley Finkelstein).

Why Attend?

✔️25+ DTC and retail experts sharing their top Q4 strategies

✔️ Actionable insights to crush BFCM

✔️ Exclusive access to tools and resources

✔️ Connect with peers, industry leaders, and potential partners

(apply to attend and shoot me an email; I’ll get Dylan to pay for your ticket)

CRO HACK: BFCM
#531: Rename your shipping packages

Rename your best (read: fastest) shipping option something BFCM-centric. No, don’t create a new shipping option. Just change the name of your top-tier joint and watch gift-shoppers select it.

A bit cheeky? Sure. Effective? F*ck yeah.

MOSTLY RANDOM
Obligatory Roundup™️

• I have a friend. His name is Zev. Zev built an app. It’s called Threadly. It’s a Slackblaster™️ on steroids. If you use Slack to collaborate with homies in other workspaces, you should check it out.

• Mr. Beast is disrupting the frankenstein-ass lunch industrial complex and the internet is offended.

• CROw gang, stand up.

• North Face hired Paul Kinsey using off-brand Claude (probably) to rip the corniest manifesto of the year.

• RIP Kerrygold, it’s Butt time.