CRO consulting
A CRO consultant works out why your visitors leave without converting and directs the fixes and tests your team builds. Convertica's CRO advisory puts a senior CRO consultant beside your team after your free CRO audit: founder Kurt Philip, who leads every advisory client personally.
Conversion for humans and AI agents. Advisory led personally by founder Kurt Philip. More than 2,000 clients since 2017.
A CRO consultant is a conversion rate optimization specialist who works out why a website's visitors are not buying, signing up or getting in touch, and directs the changes and tests that address it. Unlike an agency, a consultant usually advises and plans while your team builds. Convertica's CRO advisory, led by Kurt Philip, starts after the free CRO audit.
A CRO consultant is a conversion rate optimization specialist who works out why a website's visitors are not buying, signing up or getting in touch, and directs the changes and tests that fix it. Unlike an agency, a CRO consultant usually does not design or code the changes. They decide what should change and why, and your team builds it.
You will see the same role called a conversion rate optimization consultant, a conversion optimization consultant, a CRO expert, a website conversion expert or, in British spelling, a conversion rate optimisation consultant. Firms of conversion rate optimization experts sell the same work under the name CRO consulting services.
Convertica offers CRO consulting as ongoing advisory after the free CRO audit, led personally by founder Kurt Philip, with Convertica's CRO team. It suits site owners who have a team or a developer and need an experienced person setting the direction.
The three titles describe the same skills. "Specialist" is the usual job title for an employee, "consultant" for someone who advises several companies, and "expert" is how either one describes themselves. Judge the person by their process and their evidence, not by the title.
CRO also stands for contract research organization in medicine, and for Chief Revenue Officer in sales, which is why some results for "CRO consultant" are about clinical trials. This page is about conversion rate optimization.
A CRO consultant turns your analytics and your visitors' behavior into a short, ranked list of changes, then makes sure each change is tested or shipped properly.
CRO consulting services usually produce six things: a tracking check, an audit of findings, a ranked backlog, briefs for each change, a review of every test before launch, and a written read of each result. Scope varies by consultant, so ask to see an example of each before you sign.
| Deliverable | What it is | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Tracking check | Confirms that conversions in analytics match real orders, sign-ups or leads | Every gap is named, with how much it distorts the numbers |
| Audit findings | Where visitors drop off and why | Each finding cites its evidence: a report, a recording, a survey answer |
| Ranked backlog | Every fix and test idea in one ordered list | The ranking method is written down, so you can argue with it |
| Change and test briefs | What to build, for which pages, and why | A developer can build from it without a meeting |
| Test setup review | A check of each test before it goes live | Hypothesis, primary metric, sample size and stop date agreed in advance |
| Results read | What each test showed and what happens next | Losses and inconclusive tests are reported as plainly as wins |
Free CRO audits and one-off reviews cover the first two or three rows. Ongoing advisory covers the rest, because test review and reading results only happen once tests are running. Convertica's CRO audit page explains how an audit works step by step.
Hire a CRO consultant when you have steady traffic, someone who can build changes, and no clear answer to why more visitors do not convert. You probably need one if several of these are true.
If the last one is you, start with an audit before the redesign, not after.
A CRO consultant is the wrong first hire in a few situations. Saying so is part of the job.
A CRO consultant gives you direction, an agency gives you direction and a team that builds, an in-house specialist gives you one full-time person, and a fractional CRO consultant gives you senior direction part-time on an ongoing basis. Be honest about which one you are missing: direction, people, or both.
| CRO consultant | CRO agency | In-house specialist | Fractional CRO consultant | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | Senior direction, a roadmap and review of results | A team that plans, designs, builds and runs tests | A full-time person on your team | A senior specialist for part of each month, ongoing |
| Who builds changes | Your team | The agency | Your team | Your team |
| Speed to start | Usually fast | Longer, for onboarding | Slowest, including hiring | Usually fast |
| Commitment | A project or ongoing | Usually several months | Permanent | Ongoing, flexible |
| How it is paid | Hourly, per project or retainer | Project fees or a retainer | A salary | A retainer |
| Works best when | You have people who can build and need direction | You have budget and no capacity | Testing is constant and central to the business | You want senior oversight without a full-time hire |
| Main risk | Advice that nobody implements | Paying for capacity you do not use | One person with no senior peer to check their thinking | Too few hours if your team needs daily help |
The most common mistake is hiring an agency when the real gap is direction, or hiring a consultant when nobody is available to build what they recommend. Convertica's CRO services page sets out Convertica's three offers, including full implementation for teams with nobody to build. If you run an agency and want to offer CRO direction to your own clients, see white label CRO.
A fractional CRO consultant is a senior conversion specialist who works with your team part-time on an ongoing basis, instead of as a full-time hire. In practice, fractional CRO in this sense is the same thing as a CRO advisory retainer, which is how Convertica's advisory works.
Most searches for "fractional CRO" are about something else: a part-time Chief Revenue Officer, who runs sales and revenue strategy. That is a sales leadership hire. If a provider offers "fractional CRO", check which one they mean before you book a call.
To choose a CRO consultant, look at real work, ask how they handle tracking, testing and losing tests, and confirm who will do the work. Whether you want a conversion rate optimization consultant, a CRO expert or a full team of conversion rate optimization experts, these eight questions sort the good from the rest.
Good CRO advisory does three things well: it keeps one ranked list of what to work on, it checks every test before launch, and it reads results honestly, including the losses. Most wasted CRO budgets fail at one of these three, not for want of ideas.
Every idea, from the audit, the team or the CEO, goes into one backlog and is scored the same way. Simple models such as ICE (impact, confidence, ease) or PIE (potential, importance, ease) are enough, as long as the scoring is written down. The prioritization section of the CRO audit guide shows both. Clear fixes, such as a broken form field, skip the queue: they get fixed, not tested. After each test, the list is re-ranked with what you learned.
Most failed tests were decided before launch. A consultant reviewing a test should be able to tick every line of this list.
An inconclusive test is a result: it tells you the change did not matter much, which frees the team to try something bigger. Losing tests are reported as plainly as winners. Slicing results by device or source until something looks significant is not a finding; a segment worth trusting is one named before the test.
Good advisory also reports more than one number. In Convertica's dScryb case study, paid membership sign-ups rose 49.4% and revenue per visitor rose 23.8% in the same 17-day test. Both are true, they are not the same number, and the decision depends on which one the business needs.
The best sign of good advisory is a team that writes better hypotheses and spots a broken test on its own after a few months. If your team is no more capable than when you started, the advice was not landing.
Most CRO consulting services follow the same broad order, whoever provides them: measure, find the problems, fix the obvious ones, then test the rest and learn from each result.
How fast this moves depends on your traffic. A busy store can finish a test much sooner than a site with few conversions, and a consultant should say so at the start. The sample size calculator shows how long a test on your site would need.
The advisory
Advisory is the consulting side of Convertica: ongoing direction after your free audit, from the founder.
Who leads the advisory
I have worked in SEO since the early 2000s, I have more than 15 years of experience, and I founded Convertica in 2017. I lead every advisory client personally, with Convertica's CRO team. Advisory is where I stay with you after your free audit and help your team decide what to fix, what to test and what to do next.
| Led by | Kurt Philip, Founder |
|---|---|
| Starts | After your free CRO audit |
| Price | Priced after your audit |
| Places | Limited. Capacity: Up to 10 advisory clients at a time |
Advisory assumes your team builds. If nobody on your side can, Convertica also offers full implementation: Convertica's team builds the fixes from your audit for you. Like advisory, it is priced after your audit.
A CRO consultant's cost depends on how they charge, how experienced they are and how much of the work they cover. They charge in one of three ways.
| Model | How it works | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly | You pay for time used | Short questions and second opinions |
| Per project | A fixed fee for a defined piece of work, such as an audit | Getting a clear answer to "what should we fix" |
| Retainer | A fixed fee for ongoing direction | Teams running tests continuously |
Many consultants do not publish their rates. Convertica explains how its pricing works instead: the CRO audit is free, and advisory and full implementation are priced after your audit, based on what the audit finds. The pricing page sets it out.
When you compare quotes, compare what is included: whether test setup review and results analysis are part of it, who does the work, and how often you can reach them. A badly set up test wastes weeks of traffic whatever the fee.
More product research now starts in an AI assistant, and some assistants browse and act on a person's behalf. A conversion optimization consultant now has to ask whether those agents can read your products, prices and policies, and whether anything on your site blocks them.
Questions worth asking any CRO consultant about this:
Agent readiness, how AI shopping agents and AI search read your site, is one of the eight checks in Convertica's free CRO audit, and in advisory Kurt Philip reviews it with you. This is a young field with little long-term data, and we say so.
Proof
Kurt Philip founded Convertica in 2017. He has worked in SEO since the early 2000s, has 15+ years of experience, and has appeared on the Authority Hacker podcast (#124). More than 2,000 clients since 2017, across eCommerce, lead generation, SaaS, affiliate sites and agencies. Kurt Philip leads every advisory client personally. More on the founder page.
Three published results, each with its metric, timeframe and source:
Lead generation
+51.6%
Conversions (valuation tool submissions), 47 days
Source: Empire Flippers, valuation tool submissions, 47 days, split-URL test then rollout
Read the case study: Empire Flippers: a valuation tool submission process rebuilt
eCommerce
+101.82%
Revenue, cumulative across two sequential split tests, 7 December to 24 March
Source: JustThrive, revenue, two sequential split tests, Dec to Mar
Read the case study: JustThrive: two sequential split tests on a supplement store
Membership eCommerce
+49.4%
Paid membership sign-ups, 17-day A/B test
Source: dScryb, paid membership sign-ups, 17-day A/B test, 98% confidence
Read the case study: dScryb: more paid membership sign-ups from search results
From Convertica's Trustpilot reviews, word for word. More on the testimonials page.
Perhaps the best CRO company in the biz.
Scientific approach, testing is methodical, and changes are pragmatically made, based on reliable data.
Process is also very quick, only takes a few months in order to ramp up conversion rates and make better use out of existing traffic.
Kurt made it easy to understand what I was getting involved in, and Ayumi was very professional in handling the campaign thereafter.
I've worked with Kurt and the team at Convertica for a couple of years now, across various projects.
I can sum them up in just one word.
Exceptional!
These guys have the CRO process down. Fast, responsive, knowledgable, and the results are, quite frankly, unbelievable.
I've also learned a TON about CRO since working with the team and can wholeheartedly recommend them without even a second thought.
If you need help increasing conversions for your site, or landing pages, then Convertica are the best of the best. Highly recommended.
If you're looking to increase conversions, then you need to get in touch folks at Convertica. Kurt was a pioneer in the CRO space and team that he's built are quick and efficient. Can't recommend them highly enough!
Fantastic service from Kurt's team. Really made me look at my sites differently. If your site has traffic but it is not converting into new sales or business I would recommend contacting Convertica.
A CRO consultant finds why website visitors are not converting and directs the fixes and tests that address it. They check the tracking, audit the site, rank what to change, review each test before launch and read the results. They usually advise and plan, and your team builds the changes.
In marketing, CRO stands for conversion rate optimization: improving the share of visitors who buy, sign up or get in touch. The same letters also mean contract research organization in medicine and Chief Revenue Officer in sales, which is why some search results for CRO consultant are about clinical trials.
It depends on the model: hourly, per project or an ongoing retainer, and rates vary with experience and scope. Convertica's CRO audit is free, and its advisory is priced after your audit, based on what the audit finds. The pricing page explains how that works.
Hire a consultant if you have people who can build changes and you need direction. Hire an agency if you need the whole team supplied. After its free CRO audit, Convertica offers both routes: CRO advisory, where your team builds, and full implementation, where Convertica's team builds the fixes. Convertica's CRO services page sets out what each includes.
Founder Kurt Philip leads every advisory client personally, with Convertica's CRO team. Advisory starts after your free CRO audit.
It depends on traffic. Clear fixes can show up quickly. A/B test results take longer, because each test has to reach the sample size set before it started, and lower-traffic sites need longer per test.
Yes, within limits. Testing is slow or impossible at low traffic, but an audit still finds clear problems, and many of those can be fixed without a test. A good consultant will tell you which kind of help your traffic supports.
Usually a tracking check, an audit of findings with the evidence for each, a ranked list of fixes and test ideas, a brief for each change or test, and a written read of every test result. The exact scope varies by consultant, so ask to see examples before you hire.
Usually an analytics tool such as Google Analytics 4, a heatmap and session recording tool, an A/B testing tool, a form analytics tool and a survey tool. Past Convertica case studies used VWO for testing and Formisimo for form analytics.
In most cases, yes, or at least someone who can edit your site. A consultant's plan only pays off if the changes get built. If nobody on your side can build them, Convertica's full implementation has its team build the fixes from your audit.
No. An SEO consultant works on getting visitors from search. A CRO consultant works on what those visitors do once they arrive. The two overlap on page speed, content and page structure, and the work goes best when both look at the same pages.
Nothing meaningful. The terms describe the same role. Consultant usually signals someone who works with several clients rather than an employee, and specialist is more common in job titles.
Fractional CRO usually means a part-time Chief Revenue Officer, a sales leadership role. In conversion work, a fractional CRO consultant is a senior conversion specialist who works with you part-time on an ongoing basis, which is the same as a CRO advisory retainer.