Hey {{first_name}},
Last week, I read a post on LinkedIn (maybe X, who knows) that sent me into a rage.
I nearly replied.
Then I remembered how the internet works.
If I comment, I feed the beast, and they get more views.
If I disagree (as an agency owner), I come across as defensive.
Lose-lose.
So I did an adult thing…
I muttered to myself for a while, then decided to tell you about it.
Below is the summary of the part that really got under my skin.
“Don’t do CRO unless you have 200k+ visitors and $100k+ revenue a month.”
That’s like saying:
“Don’t go to the gym unless you’ve already got abs.”
Or:
“Don’t learn to cook unless you already own a restaurant.”
It’s backwards.
Now, to be fair, the post had two reasons, so let me speak to both.
Reason 1: You need a lot of traffic for A/B testing
This part is fair.
If you have low traffic volumes, it is difficult to get to statistical significance in a reasonable time frame.
Tests will drag out.
Agreed.
But it is flawed to say that just because you shouldn’t do A/B testing, you shouldn’t do CRO.
A/B testing is just one small part of CRO, testing the hypothesis of a solution to a problem.
And even then, it’s only one way to do that test.
There are many more ways to get feedback on changes than just A/B testing.
Furthermore, not everything needs to be tested.
If you had a sign on your physical retail store door that said "push," but to get inside, you needed to "pull"…
You'd just change the sign, wouldn’t you?
You wouldn’t test whether people entered your store faster by changing the sign.
Reason 2: There is no point because Agency fees will eat your ROI
This one is the real stinker.
Because it assumes:
The only way to do CRO is to pay an agency every month forever
The only ROI that matters is this month
Both are wrong.
First, CRO doesn’t have to be an ongoing retainer with an agency
It can be an audit, a roadmap, and then you implement it yourself.
You don't even have to do the audit; if you have the time, you can do it all yourself.
Second, ROI compounds.
Let’s use their logic for a second.
If a store does $100k in monthly revenue with a 30% profit margin, that’s $30k in profit.
A 5% uplift in revenue is $5k.
At 30% profit, that’s $1.5k profit.
And yes, $1.5k might not cover an agency fee in month one.
But CRO is not a one-month party trick.
Those improvements compound, the maths gets mathing, and quickly…
5% growth each month for 12 months would increase your monthly profit from 30k to circa 54k.
And I can assure you that it is well above 99% of CRO agencies’ fees.
This all makes it seem like CRO is just for upside.
CRO is also a defensive tactic.
It’s also essential to maintain and upgrade the machine that is making you money.
And it helps against ever-increasing Customer Acquisition Costs.
So, if you’re under 200k sessions a month, you should not avoid CRO.
You should avoid people who give reckless advice ;)
Chat soon,
Peter
P.S. Tomorrow, I’ll send over a way to break down one of your core growth metrics to get some very unique insights into your business.
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