Website Optimiser (beta)

Doba.com increased conversions 70% and member sign-ups 50% with Google Website Optimiser

Company

Located in Orem, Utah, Doba.com specialises in product sourcing, which links small businesses with wholesale products to resell. The company is an online gateway through which retailers have access to more than 1,000,000 wholesale products from hundreds of suppliers. More than 40,000 small businesses subscribe to Doba.com, and the site's partners include eBay, Network Solutions, ValueWeb, and MarketPlace Pro. "Suppliers don't have to juggle little accounts, and retailers don't have to order from several different suppliers," notes Online Marketing Specialist Ryan Roberts. "We streamline the process."

Approach

Since Doba.com started in 2002, the company has used Google AdWords™ search-based advertising to build its business - "That's how we got retailers to sign up for the service," Roberts says. Over time, the company has gotten more sophisticated with AdWords use. "We did A/B testing on our landing pages and would tweak them to see if we could improve response," says Roberts.

Doba.com wanted to do more in-depth multivariate testing, but as a still-growing company, could not afford the pricey offerings that were the only choice. Roberts and the Doba team heard about Google Website Optimiser on Google's Inside AdWords blog. After getting more information from an AdWords rep, the company signed up for Website Optimiser a few weeks later, in December 2006. "It's free, and we could easily implement the pages and see the results in our AdWords reporting," Roberts says. "We were excited about that."

Doba.com focused first on paid search conversion. The company tested 36 combinations of the landing page with Website Optimiser, with emphasis on the main call-to-action button, the navigation link and the headline of the page. Website Optimiser helped the company test various combinations with its users and track the results.

Result

Within three weeks, Doba.com had significant data on which combinations worked best. "It was excellent," Roberts says, adding that "A/B testing would have taken from one-and-a-half to three years." With the changes in the landing page that Doba.com made with feedback from Website Optimiser, the company showed a 70% increase in conversions during a single month (January 2007). Sign-ups by retailers increased 50%. "With individual elements, we could only see a 6% increase in on one element, or 14% on another," Roberts says. "But with Website Optimiser, we could see that the synergy of certain elements caused a 50 to 70% increase in conversion."

Doba.com hopes to continue to increase conversions with Website Optimiser, aiming for higher natural search conversions and continued improvements of graphic elements. "I'm spending the same money on advertising but getting 50% more out of it by decreasing my testing costs and increasing conversions," Roberts says. "It's about letting your users guide you."

About Google Website Optimiser

Google Website Optimiser offers free A/B and multivariate testing that helps you take action to convert visitors to customers. Graphical reports show which content engages your audience and results in the highest conversions. The Website Optimiser is integrated into Google AdWords, but it tests all traffic to your site - including traffic from your AdWords ads, Google search results and any other source of traffic to your site. For more information, visit http://services.google.com/en_AU/websiteoptimizer.