The document discusses conversion rate optimization (CRO) strategies framed as "The Four Riders of the Apocalypse: War, Famine, Plague & Death." Each rider represents an area of focus: winning the war involves targeting competitors' keywords; feeding the famine focuses on customer retention; pawning the plague reduces distractions on landing pages; and cheating death improves page speed. Specific tactics are provided under each rider, such as brandjacking keywords, remarketing to past customers, simplifying choices on pages, and optimizing for mobile speeds.
TAM AdEx 2023 Cross Media Advertising Recap - Auto Sector
How to Conversion Rate Optimize Like There's No Tomorrow
1. Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
How to
CRO Like There’s No Tomorrow
Conversion Rate Optimization as
The Four Riders of the Apocalypse:
War, Famine, Plague & Death
2. Michael Stricker
Lead Consultant, MSDesign
• Former US Marketing Director, leading competitive research tool
for digital marketing
• Agency, consulting and web design studio experience
• 367+ successful digital marketing campaigns
• 1,000,000s of impressions for web-based businesses
• Speaker: LinkedIn, PubCon, HEROconf, Etail, SMX East.
• Author: blogs CIO.com, Business2Community, SEMrush.com
Publications Philadelphia Inquirer and Philly Ad News.
• Worked with Enterprise Brands AeroPostale, BET, GolfSmith, Dell,
JGWentworth, Johns Hopkins U Carey, RE/MAX, Toshiba, Verizon
Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
4. The 4 Riders of the Apocalypse
1. War
2. Famine
3. Plague
4. Death
Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
5. The 4 Riders of the Apocalypse
Win the War
Feed the Famine
Pwn the Plague
Cheat Death
Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
6. The 4 Riders of the Apocalypse
Win the War
Feed the Famine
Pwn the Plague
Cheat Death
Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
7. Win the War
• High Commercial Intent Terms
(CPC Google AdWords & Semantically via Google Search
Console or SEMrush)
• Competitor’s Productive KWs
(SEMrush Domain VS Domain )
Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
9. Win the War
Brandjack via
Paid Search,
and Defend
Brand Terms
~ Lori Weiman
Competitor’s Brand in URL,
not in Title or Description
Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
10. Win the War
Brandjack invoke 3rd parties and legit
comparisons
~ Lori Weiman
Competitor’s Brand in URL,
not in Title or Description
Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
11. Win the War
Brandjack via SEO
Branded keyword phrases are 3.5x more
likely to convert visitors to leads, yet…
Visitors arriving by select, non-branded
phrases are 10X more likely to convert
~ Chad Pollitt, Relevance
Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
12. Win the War
Brandjack with Care
How to Rank for Your Competitor’s Keywords: What We Learned by Analyzing 62.6
Million Ecommerce Keywords ~ NeilPatel.com
Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
13. Win the War
Brandjack with Care
How to Rank for Your Competitor’s Keywords: ~ NeilPatel.com
Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
Brandjack…
…w/ Care
14. Win the War
Brandjack with Helpful Utility Modifiers
Brand A VS Brand B, _ & _ comparison,
_ reviews, _ ratings, _ testimonials,
_ cheap, _ coupon, _ discount
http://neilpatel.com/2016/12/01/how-to-rank-for-your-competitors-keywords-what-we-learned-by-
analyzing-62-6-million-ecommerce-keywords ~ NeilPatel.com
Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
16. The 4 Riders of the Apocalypse
Win the War
Feed the Famine
Pwn the Plague
Cheat Death
Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
17. Feed the Famine
Highly engaged customers=3X more value
• buy 90% more frequently
• spend 60% more in each transaction
~ Rosetta/Publicis Groupe/Razorfish Global
Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
18. Feed the Famine
Prospects 7X more responsive to
promotions after a brand interacts
meaningfully
~ Rosetta/Publicis Groupe/Razorfish Global
Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
19. Feed the Famine
Remarket…
• with a specific, relevant special offer
• resubscription • supplies • accessories
Network Default Duration Max. Duration
Display 30 days 540 days
Search 30 days 540 days
Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
20. Feed the Famine
Retention • Cross-sell • Up-sell • Discount
Referrals • Betas • Trials to dispense
Loyalty • Anniversary • Birthday • Survey
Costs 6-7X more for companies to attract
new customers than to keep existing.
Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
30. Pwn the Plague
Measles = Analysis Paralysis
• Too many options & choices
• Too many distractions
• Lacks urgency
• Lacks scarcity
Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
31. Pwn the Plague
Inoculate your Landing Pages
x Reduce options & choices
x Simplify distractions
x Add urgency
x Hawk scarcity
Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
32. The 4 Riders of the Apocalypse
Win the War
Feed the Famine
Pwn the Plague
Cheat Death
Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
33. Cheat Death
“…judge the quick and the dead.”
~ King James Bible
“Faster!”
~ UX
“Faster!”
~ Conversions & AOV
Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
34. Cheat Death
77% of webpages take up to 10 seconds
to load. 19 seconds is the average. ~ DoubleClick
2–3 second page load times have the
lowest bounce rate.
~ Maile Ohyeh, Google
Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
35. Cheat Death
“Mobile traffic has surpassed desktop.”
~ Maile Ohyeh, Google
US Mobile search is roughly 58% of overall
~ Hitwise 2016
The Mobile-First Google Index is coming.
~ Google
Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
36. Cheat Death
A 1 second delay in page response can
result in a 7% reduction in conversions.
A 1 second page delay could cost $2.5
million in lost sales every year
~ KissMetrics on Ecommerce sites with revenues of $100K/day
Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
39. Cheat Death
Google Mobile Website Speed Test Tool
https://testmysite.thinkwithgoogle.com/
Firebug Plug-in
WebDeveloper Browser Plug-in
PageSpeed Tools | Google Developers
https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/
Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
40. Thank you
CRO Like There’s No Tomorrow
Conversion Rate Optimization as
The Four Riders of the Apocalypse:
War, Famine, Plague & Death
Michael Stricker @RadioMS #DigitalOlympus
- 5% to 95% – the amount of increased profits that can come from boosting customer retention rates by as little as 5 percent. Source: Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company