In a recent test we noticed that although a client had a decent site, his funnel’s Total Abandonment Rate needed reduction as it was off the scale, circa 70% plus, so we decided to investigate…

The site had been responding well to our changes but the Total Abandonment Rate (TAR) was a real head scratcher. TAR is a function within Google Goals, where you can see where the user is leaving your funnel. Reducing your Total Abandonment Rate is key to a succsful sales process whther you have a single sale spage or a shopping cart, so if your “funnel” is

Landing page> Sign up page> Thank you page

and you put a lot of PPC traffic onto the landing page but 70 out of every 100 left the site completely then you’re the proud owner of a 70% TAR! Eeek, almost more painful than a bounce rate because this is a refusal at the first hurdle of your sales pitch. Time to get pitching better…

Initially we tweaked and tuned the message and the images, and had some effect but we realised it was a more fundamental structural change that was required. So we created a new treatment on the page in line with the learnings we’ve had on other sites. We then launched this new sales landing page on 27th of September. What our image shows in the top graph is an overall look at days in September prior to the change and the 3 weeks after the change went live. The blended average of the TAR is 55.16%. However the actual drop is more dramatic.

To understand how effective this change is we have shown in the two graphs below a comparison both before and after launch:
73.07% TAR prior to launch
2.30% TAR post launch

That’s a net reduction in TAR of 96.85% – so, in practical terms what does this mean? A helluva lot of sign ups now subscribing to the site!

So what did we do? We removed distractions, made the page a lot less clutters BUT put in very distinct areas that showed the user what they should do next. The sign up was not “above the fold”, a common mistake – wrong place to put it as the user is yet to decide if they will commit. Imagine as a salesman you asked for the users details BEFORE you had even told them what the product was…

We then introduced lots of simple and easy to follow commands and led down to the sign up box. The re-enforced the offer with “social proof” and other value led imagery.

Net result? One happy customer and a lot more  sign ups.

And if you want to succeed like this then give us a call 01420 398080