Increasing User Engagement: How one company tested its site navigation and increased clickthrough by over 35%

Increasing User Engagement:How one company tested its site navigation and increased clickthrough by over 35%

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Ben FilipSenior Manager,Data SciencesMECLABS Institute

Today’s speakers

Austin McCrawSenior Director, Content ProductionMECLABS Institute

Taylor KennedySenior Manager,Optimization & Training MECLABS Institute

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Experiment: Background

Background: A tourism commission seeking to enhance visitor interaction with its website content in order to boost appeal for choosing its city over other destinations.

Goal: Test the site navigation to increase visitor engagement with key site content.

Primary Research Question: Which navigation type will increase site engagement?

Secondary Research Question: Which navigation type will lead to the highest lead generation rate?

Test Design: A/B/C split test

Experiment ID: TP 11211Record Location: MECLABS Research LibraryResearch Partner: (Protected)

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Experiment: Control

The Control has:

• Six main categories in the navigation

• A drop-down structure with numerous options under each heading

• A relatively narrow pixel-width compared to site header

*Anonymized

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Experiment: Treatment A

*Anonymized

In Treatment A, we:

• Utilized a new color to bring contrast to the navigation menu

• Reduced the number of categories from six to four

• Increased the font size and legibility of the navigation

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Experiment: Treatment B

*Anonymized

In Treatment B, we:

• Utilized a new color to bring contrast to the navigation menu

• Reduced the number of categories from six to three

• Increased the font size and legibility of the navigation

• Employed images within the navigation to communicate key content groups (visual navigation)

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Experiment: Quick comparison

Audience Question: Which navigation structure will increase site engagement?

?

*Anonymized

Treatment B

Control

Treatment A

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Design Clickthrough Rate Level of Confidence % Relative Change

Control 19.39% ---

Treatment A 26.26% 99% 35.39%

Treatment B 19.58% 55% 0.99%

Experiment: Results

Relative increase in navigation CTR35%Treatment A resulted in a 35.39% relative increase in navigation clickthrough rate.

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Design Pages/Unique Visitors Level of Confidence % Relative Change

Control 3.57 ---

Treatment A 3.75 89% 5.05%

Treatment B 3.63 55% 0.99%

Experiment: Results

No difference in pageviews per visitorThere was no statistical difference in the number of pages viewed per unique visitor.

*Percent relative change and LOC numbers calculated from raw unique visitor and pageview data.

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Design Pages/Unique Visitors Level of Confidence % Relative Change

Control 3.57 ---

Treatment A 3.75 89% 5.05%

Treatment B 3.63 55% 0.99%

No difference in Page Views per VisitorThere was no statistical difference in the number of pages viewed per Unique Visitor

*Percent relative change and LOC numbers calculated from raw unique visitor and pageview data

How do we determine what constitutes meaningful engagement?

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Today’s metric overload

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Today, we are going to help you define meaningful engagement and walk you

through three tactics for helping you boost engagement on your site.

Meaningful engagement

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What is “meaningful engagement”?

1. Engagement – First, we must understand that the term “engagement” is a noun that represents an action set. At its essence, engagement is the fundamental relationship between the subject (the who?) and the predicate (the what?).

2. Meaningful – Next, we must understand that in order to be considered “meaningful,” the relationship between the subject and the object must inform you about the behavior of the visitor on your site (the why?).

“Meaningful Engagement”

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Example: BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed’s Stated Objective:

“To provide the most shareable breaking news, original reporting, entertainment and video across the social web to a global audience”

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Example: BuzzFeed

*Anonymized

Who: Visitors

What: Pageviews per session(average page depth).

The Why: The visitor is (or is not) interested in the type of content.

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Example: BuzzFeed

*Anonymized

Who: Visitors

What: Video events per unique visitor.

The Why: The visitor does (or does not) value video as a medium of communication.

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Example: BuzzFeed

*Anonymized

Who: Visitors

What: Social interaction per page (story).

The Why: The content is (or is not) relevant to the motivations of the visitor. Enables better targeting for additional content or advertising.

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Example: BuzzFeed

*Anonymized

Who: Visitors

What: Social interaction per page (story)

The Why: The content is (or is not) relevant to the motivations of the visitor. Enables better targeting for additional content or advertising.

The goal is not to discover metrics with meaning, but rather to discover the meaning in

the metrics. The value in metrics is not the “what.” It is the “why.”

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Metrics to focus on:• Number of unique visits• Frequency of visit• Recency of visit• Depth of visit• Time on site• Bounce rate (inverse)• Avg. time on page• Open rate• Etc.

Common “engagement” metrics

Metrics to focus on:• Click tracking for key

on-page elements• Comments• Email sign-ups• Feed subscribes• Chats• Social followers• Likes, +1’s• Clickthrough• Etc.

Metrics to focus on:• Total conversions• Lead submissions• Social shares• Retweets• Contact initiations• Direct references• Back-links• Etc.

Interested in Content

Interactive with Content

Influencedby Content

1 2 3

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How can we optimize our website to increase these kind of engagement metrics?

?

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Tactic #1: Actively curate your content

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Background: A tourism commission seeking to enhance visitor interaction with their website content in order to boost appeal for choosing their city over other destinations.

Goal: Test the site navigation to increase visitor engagement with key site content.

Primary Research Question: Which navigation type will increase site engagement?

Secondary Research Question: Which navigation type will lead to the highest lead generation rate?

Test Design: A/B/C split test

Experiment ID: TP 11211Record Location: MECLABS Research LibraryResearch Partner: (Protected)

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Experiment: Control

• Navigation increases friction by including an almost-overwhelming amount of options.

• As marketers, we must determine which content or category of content is most valuable to the visitor.

*Anonymized

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Experiment: Treatment creation

• To create each treatment, our research team used analytics data to identify the most popular content on the site.

*Anonymized

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Experiment: Treatments

*Anonymized

Treatment A

Treatment B

• Primary navigation tabs were streamlined based upon visitor interaction data with site content over a calendar year.

• The most engaged-with category content and secondary content were prioritized and emphasized, while less popular content was removed in order to reduce friction.

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Design Clickthrough Rate Level of Confidence % Relative Change

Control 19.39% ---

Treatment A 26.26% 99% 35.39%

Treatment B 19.58% 55% 0.99%

Experiment: Results

Relative increase in navigation CTR35%Treatment A resulted in a 35.39% relative increase in navigation clickthrough rate.

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F

Design Lead Gen Rate Level of Confidence % Relative Change

Control 1.01% ---

Treatment A 1.36% 99% 34.93%

Treatment B 1.19% 91% 18.67%

Experiment: Results

Relative increase in total leads34%Treatment A resulted in a 34.93% relative increase in total leads.

What you need to understand:Navigation content was curated based upon visitor behavior with the control nav.

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F

Design Lead Gen Rate Level of Confidence % Relative Change

Control 1.01% ---

Treatment A 1.36% 99% 34.93%

Treatment B 1.19% 91% 18.67%

Experiment: Results

Relative increase in total leads34%Treatment A resulted in a 34.93% relative increase in total leads

What you need to understand:Navigation content was curated based upon visitor behavior with the control nav.

Do not simply rely on your marketer’s intuition to determine which content is valuable to your visitors. Actively leverage existing “interest” data to deliver

the most relevant content to your visitors.

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Tactic #2: Clarify the presentation of your content

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Background: Dr. McGlaughlin's personal website, which utilizes email to increase viewership and audience engagement.

Goal: To utilize responsive email to increase audience engagement with email sends.

Research Question: Which email type will generate the highest read rate?

Test Design: A/B split test

Experiment ID: InternalRecord Location: MECLABS Research LibraryResearch Partner: FlintsNotes.com

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Experiment: Control

• The copy of the email is barely legible on mobile phones, requiring excessive resizing by the recipient.

• Is this the ideal experience for a message type that is supposed to be read?

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Experiment: Treatment

• The treatment utilizes a responsive format that simplifies the presentation of the core email component — the message.

• Font size automatically adjusts to the screen width of the mobile device.

• Secondary elements are moved into the single column and remain at the bottom of the email.

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Experiment: Side-by-side comparisonControl Treatment

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Design Read Rate % Relative Change

Control 55.67%

Treatment 72.33% 29.9%

Experiment: Results

Relative increase in read rate29%The Treatment resulted in a 29.9% relative increase in email read rate.

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Control 55.67%


Experiment: Results

Relative increase in read rate29%The treatment resulted in a 29.9% relative increase in email read rate

Having relevant content is not enough. We must learn to not only optimize the essence (focus) of our

content, but also it’s expression (form).

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Tactic #3: Connect your content to the next logical action

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Background: Migraine Treatment Centers of America offers an innovative long-term migraine treatment solution to people suffering from migraines.

Goal: To increase leads from the microsite.

Primary Research Question: Which value exchange strategy will result in a higher conversion rate?

Approach: A/B multifactor split

Experiment ID: TP 1560Record Location: MarketingExperiments Research LibraryResearch Partner: Migraine Treatment Centers of America

Research Notes:

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Experiment: Control

• There are several things wrong with this Control, but one of the biggest problems is that this site does not effectively connect the momentum created by its content to the next logical step.

• There are CTAs on the site, but they are disconnected from content. There is content on the site, but it is disconnected from the CTAs.

Control: Site Map

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Experiment: Treatment

Notice a few key things in the Treatment:

• The site is not simply organized by content types, but rather by action-oriented engagement.

• The main CTA is now directly connected to the momentum created by the content.

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Control Treatment

Experiment: Side-by-side

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Experiment: Results


Control 1.167%


Relative increase in lead rate331%The Treatment generated 330.6% more conversions than the Control.

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Experiment: Results


Control 1.167%


Relative increase in Lead rate331%The Treatment generated 330.6% more conversions than the ControlThe goal of all marketing is to influence choice.

Every piece of content on your site should clearly lead the visitor to the next logical step in the

cognitive journey.

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Maximizing subscription revenue

Tactics for Increasing Engagement:

1. Actively curate your content: Do not simply rely on your marketer’s intuition to determine which content is valuable to your visitors. Actively leverage existing “interest” data to deliver the most relevant content to your visitors.

1. Clarify your presentation: Having relevant content is not enough. We must learn to not only optimize the essence (focus) of our content, but also it’s expression (form).

2. Connect your content to the next logical action: The goal of all marketing is to influence choice. Every piece of content on your site should clearly lead the visitor to the next logical step in the cognitive journey.

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Live optimization

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Live Optimization: Scottrade

Primary Audience: Prospective customers of Scottrade investment products.

Page Purpose: Open a Scottrade investment account.

Top of Page

Middle of Page

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Live Optimization: Skillsera

Primary Audience: Visitors looking to enhance their career skills using online training.

Page Purpose: Request more information on a specific training or certification.

Homepage

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Live Optimization: Medgate

Primary Audience: Prospects interested in more information around safety management software.

Page Purpose: Request more information directly via phone or contact form.

Services Page

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Live Optimization: Strayer University

Primary Audience: Visitors searching for online education services.

Page Purpose: Obtain contact and other important information about prospective students.

Landing Page

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Live Optimization: Home Science Tools

Primary Audience: Visitors searching for safe, accessible science tools and materials.

Page Purpose: Purchase science equipment.

Top of Page

Bottom of Page

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Interested in optimizing your online business?

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