CP #64: Top 10%

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

• 🔥 Heatmap Update: Shared screen recordings

• 🕳️ CRO Deep Dive: Overcoming Wasted Ad Spend

• 🗺️ Goings On: Not nothin’

• 🔦 Partner Spotlight: Validare

• 👾 CRO Hack: Top 10% (h/t Nate Lagos)

Let’s ride.

🔥 HEATMAP UPDATE
Shared Screen Recordings

Discover the strategies and tactics you need to optimize for more revenue in ecommerce. In this in-depth essay we explore data-driven approaches, real-world examples, and proven best practices to help you drive more sales and revenue.

We just dropped the ability to share screen recordings with non-users.

Whether you're in-house or at an agency, this update will make optimizing your website (and driving more incremental revenue) easier than ever. No more trying to explain “we’re losing conversions here” to your founder or dev team: Just share a link, and they can see exactly what’s happening.

And for agencies? Gone are the days of screenshots and sending looms of videos of videos (yikes). Prove your impact and communicate the efficacy of your efforts with real buyer behavior to compliment, you know, revenue-based heatmaps.

You can even leverage the same filters available to you across the rest of the product (including custom-built options) to home in on, say, your biggest customers. By watching the way they engage with your website, and corroborating with element-level revenue data, you can build more impactful split-testing hypotheses.

To share a screen recording with a non-user, simply hit the icon in the top left of any recording and copy the link using the green button.

🕳️ CRO DEEP DIVE
Overcoming Wasted Ad Spend

Discover the strategies and tactics you need to optimize for more revenue in ecommerce. In this in-depth essay we explore data-driven approaches, real-world examples, and proven best practices to help you drive more sales and revenue.

Ecommerce brands invest thousands (or millions) of dollars in ads each month.

Unfortunately not every click, view, and impression moves the needle.

In reality, marketers inevitably discover significant chunks of their ad budgets vanish with little to show in return. If you’ve ever wondered why you’re driving site visitors yet not seeing proportional revenue growth, the root cause often lies in on-site issues and attribution gaps.

Today, we’re going to focus on the former, because if you can’t correlate on-site user behavior with revenue, you risk investing in ads that aren’t driving measurable results.

The good news is that many of these problems are fixable.

Whether it’s identifying friction in your checkout funnel or learning that a key piece of content is invisible to mobile visitors, improving your site can lead to better ROAS and more revenue.

Here, we’ll walk through common on-site pitfalls, how to address them, and a few real-life case studies of brands that overcame wasted ad spend by refining their websites.

Uncovering Hidden User Behavior

Optimizing a website isn’t just about the things that’re always visible.

Many ecom sites have dynamic elements— pop-ups, dropdown menus, chat widgets, mobile nav, interactive product configurators—that can be easy to overlook when digging into on-site analytics. Standard heatmaps often miss these dynamic interactions because they only capture a snapshot of a page. This is where an Interactive heatmap is invaluable.

It allows you to record and analyze how users interact with dynamic content in real time – things like opening a menu, clicking a carousel, or filling in a pop-up form. By digging into interactive elements, you can capture hidden interactions that might be costing you money.

This reveals how those elements affect user experience and conversion.

If a pop-up is annoying users or a critical dropdown is going unnoticed, you’ll see it in the data. Armed with that insight, you can adjust or redesign those dynamic pieces. The goal is to monitor how dynamic content impacts UX and optimize it for better conversion​, rather than letting an unseen issue silently hurt your sales.

Another powerful approach is using segmentation and contrast different user experiences.

Not all visitors behave the same – a new mobile user might interact with your site very differently than a returning desktop customer. And, of course, the way purchasers and non-purchasers engage is going to look drastically different.

This side-by-side analysis makes it easier to A/B test page changes and see which version performs better​. It also helps pinpoint if certain audiences encounter friction that others don’t.

Real-World Examples of On-Site Optimizations in Action

Sometimes the best way to understand the impact of on-site improvements is through real examples. Here are a couple of brief case studies that show how optimizing on-site elements can boost conversions and make your ad spend more efficient:

24.7% Conversion Lift By Adding a Human Element

JellyBee, a wellness brand, noticed their conversion rate was lagging.

Using a revenue-focused heatmap, they noticed a major drop-off in engagement below the fold on their homepage​. In other words, many visitors lost interest after scrolling past the top section. So they added a human touch to their hero section.

The team swapped in a photo of a middle-aged woman holding the supplement. The result? Almost immediately, engagement and conversions shot up.

In fact, JellyBee saw a 24.7% increase in conversion rate after making this simple on-site change, and their ad efficiency improved in tandem​.

This illustrates how a small tweak on your site can translate into significantly more sales from the same ad traffic.

+13% Revenue by Fixing a Hidden UX Issue

That Works discovered an often-overlooked element that was hindering their client’s conversions.

They observed that users who interacted with a product filter ended up spending 3× more on average – these were high-intent shoppers.

The problem was that this filter was hard to find on the page, so most users weren’t using it​. Essentially, a design issue was blocking a path to higher revenue.

Using session recordings and revenue-based heatmap data, they verified that many users struggled with the filter’s placement, leading to drop-offs before applying it​. Once the issue was clear, they ran an A/B test: the variant made the filter always visible (sticky) and more prominent.

The change was a clear win – the site’s total revenue increased by 13% after making the filter easier to use​.

This directly ties to better ad spend ROI: all the users coming from ads now had a smoother path to find products (via the filter) and make purchases. The key takeaway here is that optimizing interactive site elements (like a product filter) can directly boost revenue, uncovering UX friction that traditional analytics might miss​. It’s a perfect example of closing the attribution gap: a portion of ad-driven traffic wasn’t converting due to a UX flaw, but once fixed, those users turned into attributable sales.

These are just two of an incalculable number of examples that underscore a common theme – by improving the on-site experience, you unlock more revenue from your existing traffic.

Instead of pouring more money into ads to get an extra sale, these brands fixed something on their website and reaped significant gains.

Closing the Loop

By now, it’s clear that a well-optimized site is the linchpin of efficient marketing. Here are some actionable takeaways you can implement to overcome wasted ad spend and attribution gaps:

• Audit Your Site for Conversion Killers: Regularly walk through your landing pages and checkout flow as if you were a first-time visitor. Identify any unclear calls-to-action, unnecessary form fields, or sources of friction. Even small tweaks like clarifying a headline or reducing one click in the checkout can remove barriers that are costing you conversions.

• Leverage Revenue-Based Analytics: Use tools (like revenue-centric heatmaps and tagged links) that connect user actions to dollars. This will help you see which page elements and user paths generate revenue and which don’t. Prioritize fixes that have the biggest potential ROI impact. If a particular page section gets lots of clicks but no sales, investigate why. Conversely, highlight and promote the content that drives sales​.

• Embrace AI and Automation: Take advantage of AI-driven CRO recommendations and even automated personalization. These can quickly suggest optimizations – for example, changing a layout, color, or content positioning – that you might not have spotted. Implementing a few AI-suggested changes could significantly boost your conversion rates with minimal effort​.

• Understand Your User Segments: Dive into how different groups experience your site. Use comparison reports or segment-specific heatmaps to see, for instance, how mobile users navigate versus desktop users, or how new visitors behave versus returning customers. This insight lets you tailor the experience (e.g., simplify for mobile, add more product education for newcomers) to better serve each segment​. When users feel your site is built for them, they’re more likely to convert, validating your ad spend.

• Continuously Test and Optimize: Finally, adopt a mindset of continuous improvement. Every change you make – whether it’s reducing page load time, tweaking a CTA, or redesigning a section – is an opportunity to test impact. Run A/B tests where possible and use qualitative feedback (surveys, session recordings) to understand why people behave as they do. Over time, these incremental gains compound into a significantly more efficient and attribution-friendly funnel.

By implementing these steps, ecom marketers can whittle away at wasted ad spend, transforming their websites into high-converting, insight-rich environments.

Food for thought.

🗺️ GOINGS ON
Not Nothin’

Stay in the loop with our latest partner activations—from webinars and in-person meetups to fresh content collaborations. We’ll highlight upcoming events, share key takeaways from recent gatherings, and give you an inside look at what’s brewing in our network.

🤖 AI-Powered Personalization

Personalization isn't just a trend - it's the key to building lasting customer relationships and driving revenue. In this exclusive DTCx Webinar, industry experts will reveal how AI-powered personalization can transform your shopping experience, increase conversions, and boost customer loyalty.

What You’ll Learn:

• How AI is reshaping the future of eCommerce personalization

• Practical strategies to create hyper-relevant shopping experiences

• Real-world examples of brands successfully leveraging AI

• Actionable insights to increase customer retention and AOV

🔦 PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
Validare

Each week, we shine a light on an outstanding partner—be it an innovative tech platform or an agency doing game-changing work. Learn about their expertise, what sets them apart, and how they can help take your ecommerce strategy to the next level.

Validare helps 8-figure Shopify brands maximize revenue through A/B testing, consumer psychology, and UX optimization. Their unique research process and testing approach have led to an impressive 50% A/B testing win rate over the past year.

What Makes Them Stand Out?

Growth focused strategy – Brands working with Validare often see explosive growth by first optimizing their offer and key revenue drivers.

Trusted by top brands – Clients include Crazy Compression, Silly Santa, Petstore Direct, Pittie Clothing, Kiki+Lulu, and more.

🎁 Exclusive Offer: FREE In-Depth CRO Audit – Book a call with Validare, and their team will provide a free in-depth CRO audit, personally reviewed by their experts.

👾 CRO HACK
Top 10%

Our featured tweet of the week, where we share bite-sized insights or a quick tip that’s making waves in the world of e-commerce. Consider it your fast track to staying updated on what’s trending.