How would you optimize a social commerce post?

"The key performance indicators for social posts are reach, engagement, and purchase. I'd test and optimize each independently."

This question is simply asking about how to test organic traffic channels. You can respond the same way you would to questions about testing blog posts. Set a key performance indicator and measure it.

Do you have any questions for me?

"Which are your best-performing landing pages or advertisements? What do you like about them?"

CRO specialists always slot into a larger organizations and often are replacing an outgoing optimizer. This is a good chance for you to get an idea about what kind of optimization work has already been done at the organization. Ask questions to get a better feel for how your role will affect the larger organization.

What is your statistical background?

"I took statistics in college and have worked with SPSS to perform statistical analysis on data."

At its core, conversion rate optimization is a statistical discipline. While a number of software suites or platforms will abstract away the statistics for end-users, they might do so erroneously, leading to errors in judgment. A strong background in statistics will help you to understand what the deluge of data actually means.

Do you have a background in eCommerce/Amazon/eBay/etc?

"I've managed Amazon listings and worked in traditional eCommerce for a brand with over 400 SKUs."

Traditionally, CRO has been more concerned with lead generation than eCommerce. More and more, CRO specialists are being tasked with managing eCommerce listings. Many of the same principles apply, so if you've worked with any of retail eCommerce, aggregators like Amazon, or social commerce, be sure to mention the platforms during your interview.

Do you have a background in HTML/CSS?

"Yes, I've worked with light HTML/CSS throughout my career. While I'm not a developer, I can make changes to an existing template."

Light HTML/CSS is expected from a CRO specialist, since it would be far too expensive/time consuming to bring in a developer to do things like moving a block of text around on the page. If you don't have an HTML/CSS experience, you can hopefully lean on your experience working with landing page design software.

Do you have a background in copywriting/editing?

"I used to work in PPC marketing, where I wrote the headline and subhead for all our ads. In just days after I joined the team, the variation I wrote on our most popular ad increased their results by 10%."

It's not uncommon for a conversion rate optimization specialist to rewrite headlines or body copy during tests. If you have experience writing headlines, particularly as a copywriter, definitely lean on that during the interview. If you have results from headlines you've rewritten, those are a nice share, too.

How would you structure a conversion rate audit of our entire marketing department?

"I can assure you that my process of conversion rate auditing is sufficient to audit an entire marketing department. I'd start by researching and building an inventory of your marketing assets. Then, I'd identify KPIs for each of the assets and ensure that the KPI is being tracked. Then, I'd use industry benchmarks to determine which, if any of the assets are obviously underperforming. I'd start testing with the most obvious candidates and use what we learn to inform our tests going forward."

This is a big question. It's likely intended to qualify you for a senior or director-level position. It'd be impossible to dive into the details in an interview, so keep your answer focused on the process of doing an audit.

Describe some microconversions that you might use inside a shopping cart.

"Some common microconversions for shopping cart optimization would be things like setting product quantity, adding shipping or billing information, or adding a payment method. These actions directly indicate that the user is closer to purchase than they were before, so they're microconversions."

This question is intended to tease out your deeper understanding of conversion rate optimization. Microconversions are actions-which-lead-to-conversion. For example, if your customer receives an email with a link in it to a purchase page, clicking the link and making a purchase would be conversions. In this case, a microconversion might be scrolling the page (e.g. not immediately bouncing) or submitting payment information.

What is your technical background?

"I'm proficient in basic Javascript and have experience with dozens of different software platforms."

As with any digital marketing specialty, CRO practitioners are often doing some advanced computing to gather the data they need. This most often includes installing or troubleshooting javascript tracking snippets. You might also need to perform more unique tasks like logging in remotely to a specialized data processing computer.

How do you stay organized?

"Excel is my number one tool for managing ongoing tests. After assigning every test a number, I log the duration, results, and relevant links into Excel."

A conversion rate optimization job requires a high level of organization and attention to detail. It's not uncommon for a CRO specialist to be running twenty or thirty tests at any given time, so keeping track of these tests is paramount. Not to mention, all the tests you've run have data and analysis to support them, and these results should inform your future decisions. Explain your strategy for keeping on top of so much data.

Describe the pros and cons of using shorter call-to-action forms vs. longer CTA forms.

"Typically, shorter CTA forms see higher completion, but longer CTA forms offer more information that we can use to qualify leads early."

The interviewer asks questions like this to test your strategic knowledge within your role. Different employees may have different needs within the organization. Being able to explain the pros and cons of a change can help you to find compromises that keep everyone happy.

Describe the elements of a perfect landing page.

"The elements of a perfect landing page are a strong headline, unique selling proposition, features/benefits that answer a consumer's pain points, a video showing use, social proof, a closing argument, and a call to action."

If you can't describe all the elements of a landing page, how will you know how to break up your tests? Typically, you won't see any conversion lift from changing two or three words in a single feature or benefit on the page, but you might very-well see a conversion list by reorganizing your entire features and benefits section. It's common practice to test each of these elements independently.

How would you report the results of a conversion test?

"I usually track the results of day-to-day tests in an Excel document and prepare a monthly report of all tests and their conversion lifts."

In Conversion Rate Optimization jobs, it's your responsibility to prove your value. Becoming an expert at organizing and reporting results from tests is the key to keeping the corporate beancounters happy. Give a description here about how you'd report individual test results as well as collate tests into a digestible dashboard.

What sort of results can we expect from Conversion Rate Optimization?

"For a company of your size with no previous conversion rate optimization, we would expect to see a conversion rate lift across the board, from email opens to landing page conversions to shopping cart value. This usually results in a 20% to 40% compounded annual growth rate."

Conversion Rate Optimization tends to be a revenue-generating function. Business leaders weigh the cost of your employment against the projected increase in conversion rate. If the increase in conversion rate you can bring is higher than your cost of employment, you'll be hired. If not, you won't.

How would you test a page intended to qualify leads?

"On a page with the goal of qualifying leads, there are a few key metrics to look at. Obviously, the number of people who complete the page is important. Beyond that, the accuracy of the qualification process would be the second thing I would test: how many marketing-qualified leads became sales-qualified?"

This question asks about marketing-qualified leads, or MQLs. This is typically the final stage in marketing before a sales team actively takes the reins on managing the lead. After the sales team gets the lead, they'll either agree that the lead is qualified (it becomes a SQL) or they'll disagree. A strong and accurate qualification page ensures a high MQL:SQL ratio.

How would you test the earliest stages of a marketing funnel?

"What's most important in the earliest stages of the marketing funnel, which are generally responsible for collecting warm, unqualified leads, is the quality of leads. I'd test the earliest stages of the marketing funnel using a performance indicator like the percentage of new leads that became qualified leads."

This question tests your understanding of marketing funnels. The first question being asked is, 'what's the earliest stage of a marketing funnel?' The second question is, 'what would you test for there?'

What are some types of ROI that wouldn't commonly show up in your data?

"There are dozens of hidden metrics that we can't easily test. For example, a longer landing page might lead to more brand identification or understanding. In cases like this, if going to a shorter page doesn't show hard data of a significantly increased ROI, we can use our intuition to select between two otherwise-equal pages."

This question aims to understand your strategic chops. Marketing often bends the metrics we aren't watching. Explain your understanding of these other benefits to conversion optimization.

Have you done any design work?

"I've worked with designers my whole career, but I don't design landing pages. I can work with and edit templates and completed designs."

This question is intended to inform the interviewer about your understanding of UI/UX for landing pages. While Conversion Rate Optimizers rarely, if ever, do the design for landing pages, it's critical that you can communicate changes with a designer. You may be expected to do light design, particularly image selection and editing.

Have you tested PPC ads?

"In addition to Google Ads Search and Display, I've tested and optimized Sponsored Amazon Listings."

In almost every case, conversion rate optimization includes optimizing pay-per-click and other traffic-generating channels. If you've got a process for testing Google Ads, that's a bonus. If you have worked with other ad networks and tested ad creative across several types of media, you're a home run candidate.

What research tools do you use to determine what to test?

"I use CrazyEgg, Zarget, HotJar and similar tools to monitor heatmaps and interaction prior to and during A/B tests. It's very important to qualitatively analyze pages prior to testing so that we're not analyzing parts of the page that seem to be performing adequately."

Conversion Rate Optimization often requires a lot of software. Questions like these help the interviewer determine what additional expenses might be associated with your hire and whether or not you have experience in the tools they already use. Explaining how you'd use these tools to enhance your performance is crucial.

How do you pre-test conversion rate on pages not yet receiving traffic?

"When pretesting concepts for landing pages, I like to do one-on-one interviews and focus groups on the above-the-fold content. Getting feedback about copy and graphics prior to launching can save a lot of time and effort."

The interviewer wants to see what your process for concept and creative testing is. Since it's expensive and time consuming to approve a public landing page in a large organization, as much testing as possible happens before the page ever goes public. If you've done concept and creative testing before, now's the time to shine.

How many tests do you run on a landing page to ensure its optimized?

"As long as tests are still producing results, we'll continue running them. Typically, there are seven major elements on a landing page that need to be tested. I typically recommend seven tests as a minimum and an average between 15 and 20. It's not worth continuing if you can't achieve better than 5 or 10% lift from your previous conversion rate in two consecutive tests."

This question dives into the methodology behind your conversion rate optimization. Being able to answer this question sufficiently doesn't necessarily mean giving the correct number of tests, but, instead, showing that you have a plan. Knowing your own process for conversion rate optimization, and explaining it here, will ensure that you don't 'float' between projects that are showing increasingly diminishing returns.

Do you use a swipe file?

"I have a swipe file for email headlines and landing page headlines that have shown a consistently high open rate and conversion rate throughout my career."

A swipe file is copy industry jargon for 'headlines that work.' Copywriters and marketers tend to assemble a swipe file over the course of a career, and you'll see these same headlines over and over. For example, 'New Year, New You' is a common headline that marketers will use around the turn of the year in a variety of industries. The interviewer wants to know if you've been creating a swipe file over the course of your career.

What software do you use to perform A/B tests?

"In the past, I've worked exclusively with startups and SMBs on conversion rate optimization, so the software I recommend includes a combination of Google Experiments and Unbounce, along with the A/B testing platform provided by your email service provider. That should let us test the key components of your marketing strategy without breaking the bank."

This question usually gets one of two specific groups of answers. In the first group, you have what I'd call the 'enterprise' platforms: Adobe Target, FullStory, Optimize, etc. In the second group, you have the 'startup' platforms: ClickFunnels, Google Experiments, Unbounce, and other freemium platforms. The interviewing is trying to understand if your background in CRO software matches what they have or can afford.

Where do you typically look for low hanging fruit to optimize?

"I took a look at several of your landing pages, and I noticed a lot of non-critical information being captured on your forms. For instance, your sign-up form asks for the user's age and gender. Unless your profitability depends heavily on these two factors, you could collect this information later, when the user is more engaged."

CRO tends to be the sort of role where your value increases with time. It's likely your employer will be taking a loss on your costs initially that they hope to recoup in the future as their advertising budgets increase. Offering some immediate benefits that can start earning them money with little or no spin-up will help soften the blow of your cost.

CRO Specialist Interview Questions

Go Back

1. How would you optimize a social commerce post?
2. Do you have any questions for me?
3. What is your statistical background?
4. Do you have a background in eCommerce/Amazon/eBay/etc?
5. Do you have a background in HTML/CSS?
6. Do you have a background in copywriting/editing?
7. How would you structure a conversion rate audit of our entire marketing department?
8. Describe some microconversions that you might use inside a shopping cart.
9. What is your technical background?
10. How do you stay organized?
11. Describe the pros and cons of using shorter call-to-action forms vs. longer CTA forms.
12. Describe the elements of a perfect landing page.
13. How would you report the results of a conversion test?
14. What sort of results can we expect from Conversion Rate Optimization?
15. How would you test a page intended to qualify leads?
16. How would you test the earliest stages of a marketing funnel?
17. What are some types of ROI that wouldn't commonly show up in your data?
18. Have you done any design work?
19. Have you tested PPC ads?
20. What research tools do you use to determine what to test?
21. How do you pre-test conversion rate on pages not yet receiving traffic?
22. How many tests do you run on a landing page to ensure its optimized?
23. Do you use a swipe file?
24. What software do you use to perform A/B tests?
25. Where do you typically look for low hanging fruit to optimize?

CRO Specialist Interview Questions

1. How would you optimize a social commerce post?

2. Do you have any questions for me?

3. What is your statistical background?

4. Do you have a background in eCommerce/Amazon/eBay/etc?

5. Do you have a background in HTML/CSS?

6. Do you have a background in copywriting/editing?

7. How would you structure a conversion rate audit of our entire marketing department?

8. Describe some microconversions that you might use inside a shopping cart.

9. What is your technical background?

10. How do you stay organized?

11. Describe the pros and cons of using shorter call-to-action forms vs. longer CTA forms.

12. Describe the elements of a perfect landing page.

13. How would you report the results of a conversion test?

14. What sort of results can we expect from Conversion Rate Optimization?

15. How would you test a page intended to qualify leads?

16. How would you test the earliest stages of a marketing funnel?

17. What are some types of ROI that wouldn't commonly show up in your data?

18. Have you done any design work?

19. Have you tested PPC ads?

20. What research tools do you use to determine what to test?

21. How do you pre-test conversion rate on pages not yet receiving traffic?

22. How many tests do you run on a landing page to ensure its optimized?

23. Do you use a swipe file?

24. What software do you use to perform A/B tests?

25. Where do you typically look for low hanging fruit to optimize?