What is a conversion rate optimization (CRO) agency?
A conversion rate optimization agency, or CRO agency, is a company that specializes in raising the share of website visitors who take a desired action, such as buying, signing up or getting in touch. Unlike a general marketing agency, it does not bring more traffic. It works on what happens after visitors arrive, using research and A/B tests to decide what to change.
What does a CRO agency do?
A traditional conversion rate optimization agency supplies a full team and runs the whole program for you. The usual roles are:
- A strategist, who sets goals with you and decides what gets tested next.
- A researcher or analyst, who checks the tracking, studies the funnel and the recordings, and reads test results.
- A designer, who turns each hypothesis into a variation.
- A developer, who builds the variation in the testing tool and checks it works on every browser and device.
Some agencies also build the winning changes into your site. Others hand the winners back to your developers.
What does an ecommerce CRO agency do?
An ecommerce CRO agency does the same work for an online store, where most sales are won or lost on product pages, the cart and checkout, and where AI shopping agents may now read the catalog. Convertica's store work includes the JustThrive and dScryb case studies; the ecommerce conversion optimization guide covers the fixes that matter most for a store, and the ecommerce CRO audit explains how a store is checked.
CRO agency, CRO company or CRO consultancy?
The names overlap, and people search for all three. In practice, a CRO agency or CRO company usually sells a done-for-you team, while a CRO consultancy diagnoses, prioritizes and directs, and your own people build. Convertica is a conversion rate optimization company with fixed prices: an audit that says what to change, and rebuilds in which its team builds it. Agencies can offer the same work to their own clients, under their own brand, through white label conversion rate optimization. One more thing worth knowing: in medicine, a "CRO company" is a contract research organization that runs clinical trials, which has nothing to do with websites.
Agency, consultant or do it yourself?
A done-for-you agency suits a business with no one to build changes. A consultant suits a business that can build but needs to know what to build. Doing it yourself suits a smaller site, or anyone learning. The right choice depends on who in your business can design, code and launch a change.