Where to start with an optimisation programme?

So you’ve heard about conversion rate optimisation (CRO) and the benefits it can achieve for your charity, but you don’t quite know where to start. Well this is the guide for you!

Here we’ll discuss:

• How to check where you can realistically test to a statistically valid sample size
• How to generate ideas that win

If you’re unsure about some of the terminology used in this guide, please refer to the CRO glossary as you read along.

It's worth noting at the beginning that there isn’t a quick and easy way to approach website optimisation. Sure, anyone can run a test and hope it wins, but in order to be successful over the long term, CRO requires a background of data and research to inform a strategy that may not see a winning result in months.

How to check where you can test

Before investing time and energy into a CRO programme and everything it encompasses you need to check that the areas you plan on running tests on have the traffic to do so.

We would recommend running minimum detectable effect (MDE) / sample size calculations for your core pages. This may sound complex but in reality is a fairly simple exercise and will show you how long you would have to run an experiment in order to achieve a statistically significant uplift (which in layman’s terms measures whether you can rely on the outcome you see within your test or whether it’s likely just due to chance).