Large changes in conversions with consistent traffic

[Twist360]

Hi Everyone,

I am looking for some help, I have just taken over a campaign for a client and we are seeing huge changes in conversion rates overnight.

The client is selling a health product and is consistently getting around 1-2k visitors per day. We are getting about 6% of the traffic to the buy page consistently.

However, we have found that one day the order process may convert 1/20 of these visitors and another day it could be 1/80.

We are only talking about 5-20 sales per day, but I am really confused why one day it can convert so well and another so poorly. The traffic being sent is the same and all other factors are the same (no split testing).

There seems to be no logic, the day of the week does not seem to impact, it almost seems random.

If anybody has any recommended places to look that would be very helpful as at the moment I am at a loss.

Example:

Sunday 15th Visitors: 1,279
Order Page: 240
Sales: 3
Declines: 3

Monday 16th Visitors: 1,407
Order Page: 323
Sales: 17
Declines: 5

[Ray-pp]

Hi Andy,

It looks like you need to do some Web Analytics due diligence to identify what caused that spike in conversions. Here is a list of things you can do to help identify the root cause:

- Setup Google Analytics Custom Alerts

GA's custom alerts do a great job of alerting us of unusual spikes / valleys from our traffic. I would suggest setting up custom alerts around your KPIs and business objectives. If you Google about GAs custom alerts, many of the recommended initial alerts are a great place to begin finding some to setup for your website.

- Use GA to find the differences in traffic and conversions

Although your conversions and traffic are relatively low (we may want to gather more data before concluding that there was a statistical difference in the conversion data), we could begin to analyze the traffic through understanding the sources it came from, specific campaigns that converted (make sure to be tagging your links accordingly!), qty of products ordered, maybe a new referral source contributed to the new conversions, ect.

- Do some keyword analysis

Did your new customers come from a specific source on a related topic? Did specific terms send new traffic to your sales page that converted well that day?

In order to find insights into changes, we need to make sure that we're properly tracking and measuring our traffic and acquisition strategies. Many times when there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer, it's because we haven't set ourselves up for success when measuring our campaigns and goals.

[EGOL]

If anybody has any recommended places to look that would be very helpful as at the moment I am at a loss.

Go look at the SERPs.  Did rankings change?   Did adwords change?  Did google products change?  These are just examples.  You can probably think of more.

Go look at competitors.   Did they change prices?   Did they change shipping?   Are they sold out?  These are just examples.   You can probably think of more.

Go ask the client.   Is manufacturer running ads?   Did manufacturer change MSRP and client didn't?   Was celebrity seen on TV using product?   Did client change HIS price?   Did client change HIS shipping?

There are dozens of other reasons.  And then this could just be one of those "mysteries of life".

Most likely, I think that the answer to this question is going to be found by knowing the business rather than lookin' at tools.