Four videos worth watching from Conversions@Google 2018
I was lucky enough to be able to attend Conversions@Google again this year in Dublin. For two days hundreds of people who were eager to learn about conversion rate optimization (CRO) got together to do just that. Just like in previous years, the focus was about mobile conversions. Google really believes in this whole “mobile thing”, don’t they? ;-)
In this first article of mine I’ll cover four talks from Conversions@Google 2018 that I enjoyed. I’ll briefly summarize each presentation and review the video at hand.
Hopefully this will give you a quick idea of what could be interesting for you!
Crash course in Conversion Rate Optimization by Lina Hansson
Summary
Lina starts off by covering basics of conversion rate optimization work flows and qualitative user research methods, such as remote user testing. She encourages her listeners to celebrate any exposed flaws because they are evidence that there is room for improvement.
With the LIFT model and “the four behavior types” Lina is covering some best practices and past projects she has been working on as a conversion specialist at Google. There are also a few recordings of user tests sprinkled into the presentation.
Throughout the talk Lina is sharing conversion rate optimization guidelines and processes.
Review
Newcomers to conversion rate optimization will benefit from watching this the most. There are some interesting concepts and models that even more advanced practitioners will find interesting. For example you could try evaluating your product based on the four behavior types to see if all types are served well.
At first I wasn’t sure about Lina’s quirkiness, but in the end I enjoyed it. I guess she won me over? I particularly liked that Lina emphasized the importance of qualitative user research methods relatively early in the talk. It feels like many “CRO gurus” wanted to sell A/B testing as the holy grail to build better products for the longest time. Instead it should be clear when watching her talk that conversion rate optimization suffers heavily from a lack of qualitative research. In my opinion, this is a much more realistic stance.
Meaningful Data by Simo Ahava
Summary
Simo talks about a key point when it comes to conversion rate optimization: data. Topics include, but are not limited to validity of the data, vanity metrics, setup of tracking tools such as Google Analytics, Optimizely, VWO and the likes.
According to Simo these tools are easy to get running, but there’s too much potentially misleading data and most of it isn’t meaningful until you provide it with meaning. Vanity metrics such as “conversion rate”, sessions, pageviews, bounce rates and so on don’t tell you very much about the health of your digital product out of the box.
Simo goes into detail about the default setup of Google Analytics, seemingly strange constraints, edge cases and certain factors that might not be common knowledge to CRO practitioners. He also provides suggestions on how to improve “uninformative metrics” to become more meaningful.
Review
Simo was the biggest surprise for me at this event. I didn’t expect much, but his presentation felt like a breath of fresh air. Everywhere you go you’ll hear the gospel of A/B testing and how amazing and easy it is. “Just run an A/B test and see what works best!”, right?
As someone who has struggled a lot over the years when it comes to data accuracy, validity and vanity metrics this felt like a much appreciated “real talk” to me. Simo manages to speak about a variety of “inconvenient truths” and also offers suggestion on how to fix these immensely common issues.
Some who easily get bored by data and analytics might not like this talk. To me it was easily one of the best I’ve seen for a long time, not just at Conversions@Google 2018.
Mobile Planet by Luke Wroblewski
Summary
In this talk Luke, in his own words, summarized recent years focusing on mobile experiences, developments and trends. In 105 minutes he provided countless statistics and examples of how the world evolved and will continue to develop in the upcoming years. Due to the length of the presentation I will simply highlight a few parts, instead of trying to summarize the whole thing.
For quite some time Luke shares insights about how many mobile devices are active on planet earth in comparison to the total population. Statistics about mobile device penetration, estimated growth in various areas and how many times users touch, use or unlock their devices are discussed in detail.
Another focus in Luke’s talk is the onboarding flow of mobile experiences. Tutorials, tooltips, guided tours and other onboarding techniques were evaluated. Examples in this part included mobile experiences of Google photos, Vevo, Hotel Tonight, Flickr and others.
Approaching the end of his talk Luke mentions the product lifecycle in regards to desktop computers, mobile devices, voice interfaces, smart watches, virtual reality headsets and where we‘re at right now.
Review
Luke manages to give an immensely holistic overview of the “mobile world” we live in. While there might not be that many actionable steps for you here, there’s just too much valuable information packed into this 105 minute talk that you shouldn’t miss out on.
Like most of Luke’s talks, this is a must watch for anybody who is working on digital products. Some might find the statistics a bit dry after a while, but to me every piece of information was thoughtfully put into the presentation and felt of value to me.
The only thing which becomes apparent after following Luke for years is that some content will be reused among his many presentations. I don’t really think of this as a negative point though, since most content is still new in comparison to the rehashed bits.
The 15 Minute Model for Optimising Device Experiences by Craig Sullivan
Summary
Craig starts off with a poor mobile user experience example of British Airways website. He makes a point that no matter how many marketing dollars you spend on advertising, if the site’s experience is broken on your user’s devices, you’re not going to be very effective.
Craig emphasizes that bugs are leading to lost revenue and most organizations don’t have a great bug hunting mindset. Often times companies don’t care about bugs they’re simply unaware of. If nobody calls customer support to complain about it, then surely said organization doesn’t have a problem, right?
Besides all the laughs and giggles, Craig manages to provide actionable steps to improve your Google Analytics setup. The whole 15 minute model is about setting up conversion funnels for different mobile device types and models. According to Craig this enables you to spot poor conversion rates on all relevant devices, which makes spotting and squashing bugs easier, therefore increasing conversion rates and revenue.
Review
To me Craig is funny and informative! When have you ever laughed that hard during a presentation on conversion rate optimization and learned some valuable insights at the same time? For that reason alone, I can fully recommend this video.
This talk can also be a terrific tool to convince reluctant stakeholders if they enjoy this kind of humor. If they don’t like people using strong language and profanities, this video isn’t for them though.
Setting up device funnels in Google Analytics was one of the few things that made it on my post conference task list. Rarely will you find speakers who actually provide you with such simple and actionable step by step instructions to follow. Kudos to you, Craig!
Thank you for reading.
