🎉 Conversion Party #50: How to print money with FAQs

Welcome to Conversion Party #0050. This week, we’ve got…

• CRO Deep Dive: How to print money with FAQs

• heatmap update: A big, fat CRO checklist

• Goings on: Not nothin’

• CRO Hack: Try running ads to your home page (let us know what happens)

✌️ 

CRO DEEP DIVE
How to print money with FAQs

FAQ sections are criminally undervalued.

Off the top of my (read: Claude’s) head, here are just a few of the ways an FAQ section might be useful to your brand:

Customer journey insights: FAQs reveal exactly what confuses or concerns customers most. This is valuable market research hiding in plain sight that could inform product descriptions, ad creative, and website design.

SEO : Customers often search using question phrases like "Does X product work with Y?" or "How long does shipping take to Z?" FAQ content matches these natural language queries but many sites don't optimize this content.

Trust building: Proactively addressing concerns (shipping times, return policies, product compatibility) can reduce purchase anxiety. Many sites miss the chance to use FAQs as a trust-building tool.

Sales enablement: Common objections in FAQs can highlight needed features on product pages. For example, if customers frequently ask about dimensions, that information should be more prominent.

Support cost reduction: A well-maintained FAQ can significantly reduce customer service inquiries.

Compelling stuff, Claude!

Unfortunately, these entirely reasonable, valid points often aren’t enough. Many brands view an FAQ section as a static document rather than a dynamic resource worth investing in.

So… what if I told you investing in your FAQ section will make you more money?

We analyzed 50 million sessions that had FAQs in them.

Can you guess the Revenue Per Click (RPC) of FAQs compared to other elements?

Excluding ATC (duh), FAQs have a 12% higher RPC than other elements on homepages, PDPs, and landing pages.

🤯 

Sadly, a mere 11% of customers ever actually see FAQs on a homepage.

Why? Because they’re typically buried down by the footer.

Today, I’m going to show you how to build a killer FAQ section, that people actually see, and that will make you more money.

Some quick rules for a cash-cow FAQ section

1. No question should be less than 4 words

   Short questions (under 4 words) like "How to return?" feel rushed and unprofessional, while properly formed questions like "What is your return policy?" boost credibility and match how customers actually think and search. Clear, complete questions also improve SEO by matching natural search patterns.

2. Max of 6-8 questions

   Limiting to 6-8 questions prevents choice paralysis and ensures customers focus on the most critical information - our testing shows engagement drops significantly beyond this number. This focused approach also makes it easier to maintain high-quality, up-to-date answers.

3. Dedicated FAQ page in the footer for added trust

   A dedicated FAQ page linked in the footer serves as a trust signal since customers expect to find it there, plus it gives search engines a clear hub of valuable content to index. This placement also keeps the main shopping experience clean while still providing easy access to detailed information.

Now, onto the main event.

3 steps to optimize your FAQ section

#1. Target a goal of 30-50% of users on a page to see your FAQs

The 30-50% FAQ visibility target is rooted in conversion psychology - too few views means we're missing opportunities to address purchase blockers, while over 50% suggests the page may not be clear enough in the first place, pushing too many users to seek answers. This sweet spot indicates a well-balanced page that proactively addresses key concerns while maintaining strong primary conversion paths.

#2. Determine highest Revenue Per Session questions

Prioritizing questions by Revenue Per Session is the smartest way to optimize FAQ real estate. Questions that correlate with higher-value purchases (like shipping policies for international orders or bulk pricing explanations) should get prime placement. By tracking which FAQs are viewed before high-value conversions, we can identify and elevate the content that drives revenue.

#3. Remove, rearrange, and rewrite lowest performing questions

FAQ optimization is ruthlessly data-driven - by removing underperforming questions, rearranging based on user behavior patterns, and rewriting to match customer language patterns, we maintain a lean, high-impact section that serves business goals. Each question slot is valuable real estate that must earn its place through demonstrated revenue impact.

Does this actually work?

Your skepticism is entirely understandable.

So here’s how powerful FAQ optimization can be in real life.

Here’s the Revenue Per Click data associated with each FAQ on the home page of a Leather goods brand’s site:

What do you notice? At a glance, how about…

• Question 1 brought in ZERO REVENUE!

• Only 4.7% of customers saw this FAQ at all... Move it up!

• Rearrange the FAQ based on RPS of each question

Which tells me that…

1. Customers don’t care as much about the leather itself, but want to know what makes the COMPANY different.

2. Customers who BUY care about the return policy, a lot.

3. They have a strong fashion sense and matching it to their outfit themselves. They got it covered.

By simply removing the first question, rearranging the remaining questions based on Revenue Per Click, and move the FAQ section further up the page, this brand saw an annual revenue increase of $600,000.

Go forth and print, friend.

HEATMAP UPDATE
The ultimate, 150-point CRO checklist
(just in time for BFCM)

From Dylan’s brain to your desktop.

We found this incredible resource buried deep within the heatmap Google Drive. It’s an 11-section, 50-point CRO checklist to help you optimize your site ahead of BFCM.

Now, the original was a bit dusty.

So we slapped a coat of paint on the thing, and voila:

Here's the deal: Click below, make a copy, and rate each item as either Good (crushing it), Bad (yikes), Room for Improvement (meh), or N/A. Then decide if you want to just Execute the fix (when it's a no-brainer) or Test it (when you're feeling scientific about it).

Start with the "General" section – if anything's marked "Bad," that's like finding money in your couch cushions. Fix it, and watch your conversion rate do this 📈 as we inch closer to the holiday season.

Will we use this as gated content at some point? Of course. But you’re a Conversion Party subscriber. So that button right there ⬇️ will let you dupe the Google Sheet.

No forms, just 🔥.

GOINGS ON
Not nothin’…

Interested in collaborating? Email carina at heatmap dot com

How We Buy #10 (11/12/2024 @ 10:30 AM PST)

I'm excited announce that How We Buy #10 will be on November 11th @ 10:30 am PST.

As always, we're partnering with our dear friends from Oddit for an off-the-cuff stroll down CRO lane. If you care about having a great website and making more money, don't miss it.

New Year Strategy Guide for Health & Wellness Brands

Our friends at adQuadrant just dropped a new guide to help health + wellness brands turn resolutions into revenue.

In it you'll learn how to...

🏃‍♂️ Pump up your paid search and social media campaigns
🤸‍♀️ Flex your skills to identify and engage your target audience
🏋️‍♂️ Strengthen your customer journeys to improve retention
🏊‍♂️ Swim through peak traffic with optimized fulfillment and website performance
🚴‍♀️ Keep your recurring revenue spinning with subscription models
🤼 Pin down customer trust and conversions with stellar reviews

If those corny fitness puns didn't incite a smile and a download, I hope the vengeance you seek against whatever hurt you is both swift and satisfying.

CRO HACK: BFCM
Run ads to your Collections Pages + Home page before BFCM