AI Conversion Rate Optimization — What Are the Benefits & How to Use It in Your Business
Being a marketer is hard — I feel it’s always been this way, but now the pressure to deliver results is even higher. Companies are cutting their marketing budgets and watching every penny before deciding what to spend it on.
Fortunately, we now have access to many tools, including AI, which can make our work a little bit easier.
While some of these tools can take over routine, time-consuming tasks, others provide valuable insights that can aid us in decision-making. I think that AI is a real lifesaver when it comes to conversion rate optimization.
In this post, I am going to explain why you should give it a shot, as well as cover the main use cases.
Table of Contents
- Why use AI for conversion rate optimization?
- How to Apply AI to Your CRO Strategy
Why use AI for conversion rate optimization?
Understand customers better — and faster.
If you’ve ever had to sift through hundreds of CRM records to identify common customer behaviors, then you know how much time (and brainpower!) it requires to reach conclusions.
Luckily, anyone working on CRO can now use AI to analyze customer data rapidly and at scale. I’d even go so far as to say that this AI application is quickly becoming the new standard for data-driven teams.
A survey run as part of HubSpot’s and The Next Wave’s 2024 “How AI Is Driving Personal Productivity and Business Growth” report found that 70% of marketers already use AI to conduct more data analyses, while 64% use it specifically to understand their customers’ profiles better.
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Naturally, I’m not suggesting that AI replaces all the customer data analysis work — you still need a CRO specialist. Still, equipping them with AI-powered tools lets them focus their manual efforts on areas that truly need human expertise.
React to “anomalies” quicker.
People are great at spotting patterns — including those in data. But, if given a vast database, they can’t go through it as quickly as AI can.
When it comes to subtle yet potentially significant trends in customer behavior, it can take a human days, if not weeks, to spot them. And, by the time they do, they could already be causing massive problems, like a drop in conversion rates from one channel or a lower average order value (AOV).
AI tools can analyze your leads and sales data round the clock, seven days a week. If they spot any disturbing, recurring user behavior, it can send you an alert straight away. This way, you can take action ASAP to address the problem.
This shows that people and AI can work in synergy — AI’s efficiency allows for real-time insights, while humans can work on adopting new business strategies.
Focus more on critical tasks.
Marketers are busy, with dozens of tasks they need to handle at once and a few meetings in between.
No wonder that as many as 73% of those surveyed by HubSpot admit to using AI for conversion rate optimization as it gives them more time to focus on creative work, which demands human attention.
By “outsourcing” routine tasks to AI, marketers can get a few extra hours in their workday and dedicate them to more strategic work, like brand positioning or market research.
Optimizes your conversion points — even if you lack real-life data.
I believe that this AI CRO mechanism doesn’t receive the recognition it deserves.
You can have AI analyze your assets, like landing pages or emails, even before you launch a product or campaign.
A great example is one of VWO’s free tools, i.e., their AI-powered heatmap generator. While it doesn’t cross-reference your customer data, it tells you if there are any usability issues that could block leads from converting.
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Gavin Yi, Founder & CEO of Yijin Hardware, told me that he used AI-driven heatmap analyses to check if their mobile app’s existing design promotes conversions.
Yi told me he found out that certain CTAs and buttons were placed too low on the layout.
This meant lost opportunities because users wouldn’t scroll far enough to see them.
“By using the insights from the heatmap, I successfully repositioned crucial elements higher up on the mobile layout, resulting in an instant spike of conversions from this platform,” he says.
Yi also adds that this AI CRO strategy showed the company how they can adjust the user interface for those accessing their product on various devices.
How to Apply AI to Your CRO Strategy
1. Collect data and segment your customers.
Before you start with AI conversion rate optimization, you need to figure out the basics, i.e. gather the data and split your customers into segments. The good news is, AI can help you with the latter.
It can analyze data from various sources like your website, app, social media, etc., and turn it into insights that will aid you in categorizing users into specific groups.
You can then start personalizing your marketing efforts, which will hopefully improve your conversion rate.
This kind of approach works nicely for InboxAlly. Their Head of Partnership, John Simmons, told me they use AI to understand each customer’s unique needs and preferences. By doing so, they can deliver hyper-relevant experiences that speak to them directly, which has proven game-changing when it comes to CRO.
“When we implemented AI-powered personalization on our product pages, we saw a 12% increase in add-to-cart rates. The system was able to discern each visitor‘s preferences based on their on-site behavior and serve them the optimal product imagery, content, promotions, etc., to compel a purchase.
We’ve since rolled this out across our site, leading to over $2 million in incremental revenue annually,” says Simmons.
What’s the secret to making AI work for CRO? Simmons suggests starting small and identifying a few quick-win use cases where AI can enhance relevance.
“As you demonstrate success, you can expand into more advanced applications. The key is pairing the technology with clear business objectives. Used strategically, AI can have an outsized impact on your CRO and customer experience efforts,” he adds.
2. Analyze customer data to personalize their experience.
These days customers expect personalization; it’s been the norm for quite some time. However, AI brings personalization to a whole new level.
It can analyze browsing patterns and provide customized website content, product recommendations, and offers in real-time.
By serving content that is relevant to the target audience, brands can not only enhance engagement but also improve conversion rates.
Imagine you run an ecommerce store selling electronics. One of the visitors searches for eco-friendly products and buys a smart thermostat.
The next time they visit your site, you could add a banner featuring the latest solar-powered gadgets or provide recommendations for energy-efficient home appliances to improve your chances of conversion.
3. Automate A/B tests in your customer acquisition funnel.
If there is one thing I’ve learned during my marketing career, it is that effective marketing is all about testing. If you want to boost your conversion rate, you need to befriend A/B testing. Luckily, you can now fully automate it with AI, which significantly speeds up the process.
Rather than manually creating and monitoring split tests, you can turn to tools like Optimizely or VWO to run multivariate tests. You can then analyze tons of variations to pick the one that drives the most conversions.
AI is really incredible at analyzing data in real-time. It can literally detect minute differences in user interaction patterns and make instant adjustments — something that a human could never do.
It can help you optimize your landing pages, CTAs, and user flows.
4. Use predictive analytics tools.
These AI conversion rate optimization tools let you forecast user behavior — or even market trends. As a result, you have more time to ideate how you can optimize your strategy.
Think, predicting what types of products will be a “hit” this upcoming Christmas season and stocking up in advance. Or knowing with high probability that a client will need to upgrade to a higher plan soon, and sending them a discount offer.
Mary Zhang, Head of Marketing and Finance at Dgtl Infra, told me that her company developed an entire AI-powered client success prediction model to optimize its customer acquisition funnel.
The algorithm analyzes three types of data, i.e., historical records, user engagement patterns, and industry trends to predict which leads are most likely to become successful long-term clients.
“This model goes beyond traditional lead scoring, because we focus on forecasting potential client lifetime value and alignment with our services,” Zhang says. “The results have been remarkable: Our sales team’s efficiency increased by 35%, client retention rate improved by 28%, and the average deal size grew by 40%.”
5. Visualize your customers’ journey.
Customer journeys can be complicated. And it’s hard to spot a bottleneck without visualizing every single step that a user must take. So, why not use AI to analyze data from each channel to identify places where users drop or are less engaged? This is what Securiti.ai did.
Adil Advani, their Associate Product Owner, told me they decided to dig into the data to fine-tune their customer journey. They were aware that every click and every scroll tells a story, so they started analyzing behavior patterns on their site.
“We realized our potential customers were getting stuck at the same points, so we reshaped our site’s navigation to make it more intuitive. By simplifying the journey from the homepage to the contact form, we saw our bounce rate drop by 18%, and our leads shoot up by 23%,” says Advani.
The team didn’t stop there; they kept testing different layouts and messages on their main landing pages, which boosted their conversions by another 15%. “It’s all about making the experience as smooth as possible for our visitors, and the numbers really do speak for themselves,” adds Advani.
6. Consider implementing dynamic pricing and limited-time offers.
I already briefly mentioned this method when discussing prediction models, but it’s a topic that calls for a separate point.
I worked at a few startups in the mid-2010s, and I recall that their pricing schemes were almost “set in stone.” One of the companies had a “custom” pricing option with a CTA to reach out, which hinted at the company’s openness to tailor the offer or discuss discounts.
Still, it doesn’t compare to the level of proactivity AI enables when it comes to negotiating prices.
Depending on your company, you can either create rules for all customers, or specific segments, as to when the AI should send over a discount or display a limited time promo. Recently, my favorite example of this AI conversion rate optimization strategy (albeit, from the perspective of a buyer) comes from Etsy.
I’ve picked up sewing as a hobby and started purchasing printable patterns through the platform. As you’d expect, a lot of sellers use upselling techniques like “Buy 2, Get 1 free.” However, the platform also offers them intelligent conversion optimization methods.
After I added some patterns to the cart and then went on with my day without finalizing the offer, I received an automatic, time-sensitive discount code from the seller.
This type of AI can act on your behalf, with agreed minimal prices or maximum discount rules, and react to even the subtlest user activity — like clicking on an image or watching a video.
I love how it helps sellers offer the perfect deal at the right moment, without any direct human oversight.
7. AI-powered email campaigns.
Email is still one of the most effective communication channels. And I believe that creating an attention grabbing email is both art and science.
If this is something that you struggle with, then I highly recommend using AI to not only personalize your content and optimize your send times, but also segment your users more accurately.
AI tools can help you decide on the best subject line, format, and content to maximize both your open and click-through rates. Journaling Supplies use AI-driven customer segmentation.
Their manager, Karen Chen, says that “by analyzing user behavior and demographics, we’re able to spot those who are more likely to convert. For instance, we implemented AI to segment our email marketing campaigns based on user engagement.”
What was the result?
After personalizing content for these segments, they saw a 25% increase in click-through rates and a 15% boost in conversions over three months.
This targeted approach allowed the brand to deliver relevant content, significantly enhancing user engagement and, ultimately, driving sales.
8. Use a co-pilot with many AI capabilities.
After reading the previous sections, you might be thinking that you’ll need to subscribe to a whole ton of different AI software.
The good news is you don’t have to — instead, I suggest that you try out a co-pilot, which will serve as your all-in-one AI CRO tool.
For example, HubSpot’s Breeze is a platform that has everything you need to boost your customer-facing teams’ productivity and scale growth. Among others, you can use it to automate repetitive tasks, pull real-time insights on buyer intent, and run better conversion rate prognostics.
These are just a few of the possible use cases. Take a look at the different ways HubSpot users apply Breeze in their CRO strategy.
AI gives your CRO specialists what they need to grow revenue.
There are so many areas where AI can support your customer-facing teams — from running large-scale data analyses at a fraction of the time needed for human work to predicting demand and optimizing your email campaigns and landing pages.
It’s the resourceful assistant whom I think most of us need, particularly if we want to stand out from our competitors.
Once you decide which tasks should be completed manually and which ones can be automated, there will be no looking back — you’ll love how much CRO creativity you’ll unlock.
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