The Conversion Conference was held in Las Vegas from May 12 to 14. A large number of American toppers and a few European prominent figures from the conversion optimization world gathered in ‘Sin City’. What became clear once again: the way Americans optimize their websites and mobile websites is totally different than we are used to in Europe.

The Conversion Conference was bigger than ever before. Tim Ash had merged his three conferences, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco, into one conference in Las Vegas. With 540 attendees, the conference was sold out. Workshops were held Tuesday and the conference was scheduled Wednesday and Thursday.

The American SME

The American market is somewhat different from the Dutch market. This already became clear on Tuesday where Ton and Bart conducted a workshop for about thirty mostly American interested parties.

Yes, there were a few ‘bankers,’ a lot of people from the agency side, but the vast majority of visitors represented a company that Americans would classify under medium-sized SMEs.

That medium-sized is a bit different from what we are used to in the Netherlands. A local competitor who was a dealer in swimming pools (and there are a lot of those in Las Vegas), quietly does an annual turnover of 30 million dollars a year and employs one marketer who may ensure that more business comes in online.

So many all-round marketers at this conference and fewer specialists in the audience. Ton noticed this during his keynote on Wednesday . He explained to the packed audience that A/B testing is also a question of running enough tests. His opening question was therefore very apt: ‘Who has more than 10,000 conversions per month?’. A number of visitors raised their hands. When asked who runs more than 70 tests per year, no one raised their hand.

A/B testing knowledge and the lack thereof

The point was made: no one tests at their maximum capacity. Ton then explained perfectly that testing is mainly a matter of following the right statistical method, enough power in the test to false negatives avoid and especially not let tests go on too long in order to sample pollution counter.

Ton emphasized again that it takes at least 1,000 conversions per test to run an A/B test. Although fairly subjective and mainly intended as a ‘soundbite,’ that statement did stick with the audience and hands quickly went up. ‘So you're saying that with 200 conversions a month I can't test?’ ‘Nope’ said Ton after which he lovingly and happily explained the story again.

Also discussing A/B methodology and processes were Peep Laja, an Estonian native but living in America, and Theresa Baiocco, an American. A sign that this niche is slowly maturing.

Again, at Peep Laja's session, he was able to answer questions about significance and power of testing. It turned out to be a part of experimentation that Americans had not yet fully mastered or knew at all.

LPO

In Europe, our corporate website is our sanctuary. That's where it all happens. That's where we introduce ourselves, showcase our products, post our press releases. Very occasionally we have a separate landing page. Especially if the advertising agency requests it. But most e-commerce departments are not fans of that.

In the USA, it is completely different. There they love LPO. Landing Page Optimization! Your own website is there purely for information, but selling and optimizing your offer is done on an LP, a landing page. Hence, men like Oli Gardner and Tom Bowen were given space to tell their stories. Americans love it. Bringing in traffic, not always testing, but mostly improving.

Psychology

Whereas the charming British Nathalie Nahai, closed the first evening with a story on consumer psychology, on the second day there was a real block devoted to psychologists. Bart retold the Willem and Maxima story with his familiar humor. Then he seamlessly bent the story to mobile. Because that was the assignment Bart had been given by organizer Tim Ash: what influences people's behavior on mobile?

Bart could flawlessly demonstrate through a number of client cases that mobile and attention are two competitors of each other. People are easily distracted, but in the train where everyone around you is cackling with each other, where Whatsapp, Twitter and Facebook messages constantly demand your attention, it is important to keep the tasks on your mobile as short , clear and simple as possible.

Bart's story rang like a bell again but where Ton collected many tweets of compliments on Wednesday morning, Bart's was a bit quieter on Thursday late afternoon. Was everyone tired from the congress or were the Americans completely surprised by Bart's system 1 and 2 story? Perhaps the latter. The questions from the audience showed that applying psychology to online optimization was also not yet a logical combination for the audience.

✓ View the presentations of the first day
✓ View the presentations of the second day