When traffic slows, focus on increasing revenue per visitor.
3 steps to GROW revenue when traffic declines.
Imagine you’re a well-established 8-figure apparel brand.
You have a loyal following and great products.
But, you can no longer scale advertising profitably.
Growth has plateaued, and you’re forced to reduce ad spend. Traffic volume is soon to follow.
For one of our apparel clients, this was their exact situation.
But, by focusing on driving more revenue from each site visitor, we were able to grow the business (despite a 23% traffic decline).
What We Did
After 90 days of testing, they saw a 37% conversion rate increase and a 39% lift in average revenue per user.
Here are the exact steps we took to increase the revenue from each site visitor (ARPU):
- 1) Identified the site’s top customer pathways.
We mapped each of the site’s top traffic sources and the pathways customers moved through the site.
From here, we found leaks – the weak spots with high bounce rates, low conversions, low AOV, and low average revenue per user.
- 2) Ran weekly A/B tests addressing each weak spot on the site with the goal metric of increasing Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).
Our tests focused on:
- Optimizing navigation toward higher revenue collections
- Calls-to-action and messaging to improve conversions
- Product filtering on collections to reduce bounce rates
- Simplifying the mobile shopping experience to increase speed to product page views
Two standout tests you can use:
1️⃣ CLARIFY COLLECTION TITLES
This apparel brand sells products to two distinct target audiences: children & mothers.
On the homepage, when we clarified a popular collection’s title, traffic more than doubled, boosting homepage sales by 17%.
- Before: “Everyday Dresses”
- After: “Everyday Dresses for Mom”
Specificity reduced confusion.
2️⃣ ADD SOCIAL PROOF ON MOBILE PRODUCT PAGE BUY BOX
By highlighting social proof in the buy box, conversions increased by 11%.
Once we understood the specific benefits that drove sales for their customer, we used their testimonials as social proof to tell that story for us — right where it counts.
Here’s Why It Worked
For this brand, mobile and collections pages were underperforming compared to our benchmarks.
A quick, streamlined mobile experience resonated well with their customers, and adding reviews and brand values into the shopping flow boosted buyer motivation.
When we learned their specific buyer’s behavior, we filled the gaps.
It paid off.
What Most Brands Do Wrong
Most brands focus too much on scaling traffic.
And not enough time increasing revenue for each site visitor (through increases in conversions and AOV).
Steps to Try Today
- Religiously track your average revenue per visitor from each of your main traffic channels.
- Run monthly and weekly tests focusing on conversion and AOV increases. BUT, ensure that each test winner increases Average Revenue Per Site visitor.
Not only will this increase revenue, but it will make it easier to scale paid advertising.
