Let's say you're a good post-click marketer and you're using multipage conversion paths. Now what? How do you know how well they're working? How do you know where and how to iterate?

Sure you look at your conversion rate. But if that's not all it can be, how can you tell what the problem is? The path's page-by-page performance can tell you everything you need to know.

1: Engagement
The first metric you need to look at is initial engagement. In conversion paths we typically measure initial engagement by looking at the percentage of respondents who segment on the first page of the path. This key percentage tells us how matched the first impression of our conversion path is to its click source. You should be seeing segmentation percentages of 40-80%. If you can get it above 60%, you're doing well.

• If your initial engagement is low, then your first impression doesn't match with respondent expectations.
• If your initial engagement is high, then your first impression matches well and you're on the right path.

2: Time Spent
In many conversion paths the next step after the initial segmentation is an offer page. These pages usually speak very specifically to the segmented respondent and have the potential to retain a significant percentage of the people who come into them. If this page also features a form for conversion, then it also has many potential ways that it can alienate the respondent. We have to be careful not to jump to conclusions when evaluating the performance of a multifaceted page.

Your assessment of this page should start with an objective look at its performance. If you segmented 60% of your respondents and got them to engage in your path, then you know that you're speaking to the right people about something that interests them. So your offer page has a huge opportunity. But if it's only converting at 2%, then something's very wrong with the page. But what?

Your first clue as to where your offer page is going wrong could be time-spent. If respondents are spending just a few seconds on the page you can look for these obvious problems:

• Content disconnect—doesn't match previous page or promise
• Overwhelming—too much text or content
• Distractions (non-conversion links, navigation, off-task video, etc.)
• Offensive form (too long, poorly designed, etc.)

The problems above are easier to spot if you can divorce yourself of your internal view of the page to 'see it like a respondent does'. Landing and bailing (quickly) means you alienated them (quickly). Take a subjective, impartial look at your page through the lens of your respondent and you'll likely see the problem.

But what if time-spent is longer, say 30+ seconds? That's good in that you have them more deeply engaged, but it's bad in that you have them interested, but then blow it. If you're seeing deep engagement in time invested by respondents, you need to look more closely at your page:

• Is there something technically standing in the way of conversion?
• Is there one question on the form that's difficult or uncomfortable for people to answer?
• Are you adequately addressing privacy concerns with a clear, simple statement?

I'll get into evaluating your 'trust moments' tomorrow. Suffice to say that you have to look long and hard at certain make-or-break moments in your landing experiences.

Stop in and see ion interactive's 'Now what?' booth at SES New York (#1016). Scott, Anna, Jeff, Megan, Susan and Richard are all there for you.

—Justin Talerico