Top 20 CRO Terms You Need to Know (Explained Like You’re 5)

Nikolett Lorincz
December 19, 2023
Conversion
6 min read

If you’re a fan of The Office, you probably remember Michael Scott’s famous line, “Why don’t you explain this to me like I’m five.”

Remember how brilliantly Oscar explained a budget surplus to Michael? While we might not all have an Oscar in our lives, we do have ChatGPT.

We were curious to see how ChatGPT would explain some of the most frequently used conversion rate optimization (CRO) terms to a 5-year-old, so we asked it and here are the answers.

If you’re really new to these terms, these explanations will definitely make it easy for you to understand. And if you’re already familiar with these terms, you might have a good laugh. So keep reading!

1. A/B testing

Imagine you have two kinds of ice cream flavors: chocolate and vanilla. You want to know which flavor is yummier, so you ask your friends to help you decide.

Here’s how it works: You give one friend a scoop of chocolate ice cream and another friend a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Then, you watch their faces to see which one they like more. If more friends smile when they taste chocolate, you might think, “Hmm, chocolate ice cream is really popular!”

That’s a bit like A/B testing. Instead of ice cream, companies try out two different things, like two colors for a button on a website. They show one version to some people and the other version to different people. Then, they see which version makes people happier or helps them do things better. It’s a fun way to figure out what works best!

If you’d like to learn more about this topic, we have a complete A/B testing guide with examples.

2. Conversion rate

Let’s pretend you have a toy box in your room. Every time you show your friends the box and they say, “I want that toy!” and then take a toy from the box, that’s called a conversion.

Now, let’s talk about conversion rate. It’s like counting how many friends you showed the magic toy box to, and out of those friends, how many actually took a toy. If you showed the box to 10 friends and 2 of them took toys, your conversion rate is 2 out of 10.

So, the conversion rate helps you know how many friends really liked the toys enough to take them from the toy box. It’s like figuring out how well your toy box is working to make your friends happy!

If your problem is that your “friends” are not interested enough in your “toys,” here’s a guide on what to do if your conversion rate is low.

3. Landing page

Let’s say you’re having a big picnic, and you want to invite your friends to come. You make a special invitation with all the details about the picnic: where it is, when it is, and how much fun it’s going to be.

Now, think of that invitation as a landing page. Landing pages are special pages on the internet that you make to invite people to learn about something cool, just like your picnic. Instead of giving out paper cards, you can send a web link to your friends, and when they click on it, they see all the important information about your picnic on that landing page.

So, a landing page is like a digital invitation that you create on the computer to tell your friends about something exciting and give them all the details they need to know!

Here are 9 landing page best practices to boost your conversions.

4. Call-to-action

A call-to-action is like when you tell your friend, “Hey, let’s play together with this awesome toy! Come join me now!”

It’s like asking your friend to do something fun or important after you tell them about it. So, a call-to-action is when you invite someone to do something specific, like playing, reading a book, or sharing something exciting.

Still confused? Check out these 76 email call-to-action examples for inspiration.

5. User behavior

User behavior is the way you and your friends act and do things when you use toys or play games. Sometimes you might want to share your toys, and sometimes you might want to play by yourself. Sometimes you’re happy, and sometimes you’re sad.

User behavior is all about the different ways you and your friends do things and how you feel when you’re playing together or using things like toys, games, or even a tablet.

6. Shopping cart abandonment

Imagine you’re at a pretend store, and you have a little cart where you put all the things you want to buy, like toys and candies. But sometimes, when you’re almost ready to pay for everything and take it home, you decide to leave the store without buying anything in your cart. That’s called “shopping cart abandonment.”

It’s a bit like if you took out some toys you wanted to play with at home but then suddenly decided you didn’t want to play with them anymore and left them on the floor instead of putting them back in their toy box. So, shopping cart abandonment is when people put things in their online cart to buy but then change their minds and don’t actually buy them.

Read our ultimate guide to shopping cart abandonment to learn why people abandon shopping carts and discover 19 proven ways to reduce cart abandonment.

7. User testing

Let’s pretend you made a really cool drawing, and you want to make sure it’s the best drawing it can be. So, you show it to your friends and family and watch how they react. You’re looking to see if they understand what your drawing is about and whether they like it.

User testing is a bit like that, but for things like toys, games, or even websites. When people make new things, like a game or a website, they ask other people to try it out and see how they feel when they use it. They watch to see if the people can understand how to use it easily and if they enjoy using it.

This helps the makers know if they need to make any changes to make their creation even better for everyone who wants to use it.

8. Statistical significance

You’re playing a game with your friend, and you want to know if your friend is really good at it or if it’s just luck that they won a few times. So, you decide to play the game many, many times and count how many times each of you wins.

Statistical significance is like a special way to figure out if the results you see are because of what you’re testing or just by chance. It helps you know if your friend is really good at the game or if the wins happened just by luck. It’s like making sure that the game’s score is fair and not just a random outcome.

9. Primary conversion

Let’s say you have a special job to do. Your job is to collect colorful shells on the beach. The main thing you want to do is gather as many shells as you can. That’s your primary goal: to collect lots of pretty shells.

In things like websites or games, there’s something similar called a “primary conversion.” It’s the main thing that the website or game wants you to do. Just like your main goal is to collect shells, the primary conversion is the main thing website makers want people to do.

It could be signing up for something, buying a toy, or clicking a special button. It’s the most important task the website or game wants you to complete.

10. Website popups

Imagine you’re visiting a magical castle in a game where there are fun things to see and do. Sometimes, when you go inside the castle, a little window might pop up, just like a surprise door opening! This window could show you a message or a picture. It’s like the castle’s way of saying, “Hey, look at this cool thing!”

Sometimes these popups ask if you want to join a game, or if you want to sign up for a newsletter about your favorite toys or animals. They’re like friendly messengers that appear for a moment and then let you go back to exploring the castle.

Just like how you might open a special door to find something interesting, these popups are special windows that show you something extra while you’re exploring the castle.

We have a guide for popups too, in case you’d like to learn more.

11. Personalization

Personalization is like having a magic toy box that knows exactly what you like. Imagine that your toy box can change its toys and colors based on what makes you happy. So, if you love blue teddy bears and red cars, the box will fill up with those just for you.

It’s like having things made just the way you like them, so you always have your favorite stuff around to play with and enjoy!

If you want to convert more website visitors into customers, website personalization is the way to go.

12. Above the fold

Let’s say you have a big piece of paper with a fun drawing on it. If you fold the paper in half, the part you can see without unfolding it is “above the fold.” It’s like the top part that you can easily see when the paper is still folded.

So, when people talk about “above the fold” on a website, they mean the part you can see without scrolling down. It’s like the important stuff that’s right there when you visit a web page, just like your favorite part of the drawing that you can see without opening the whole paper.

You can find more information about the “above the fold” section here: What Is Above the Fold and Why Is It Important? (+10 Compelling Examples).

13. Visitor segment

Imagine you have a big box of colorful crayons. Now, some crayons might be your favorites to use when you’re drawing pictures of animals, and other crayons might be the ones you like for drawing things like cars or buildings.

In the same way, when we talk about “website visitor segments,” we’re talking about groups of people who come to a special place, like a website, to look at things. Just like you have different crayons for different kinds of drawings, a website can have different groups of people who are interested in different things.

Some people might like to read about animals, while others might like to read about cars. These groups of people are “visitor segments” because they’re like the different sets of friends you have, each with their own favorite things to do and look at!

14. Targeting

Imagine you just got a new lego set and you’d like to invite some of your friends to help you build it. In your kindergarten class, there’s one group of kids who loves building things, another group of kids who loves drawing, and a third group who only like to play house.

If you ask the kids who only like to play house or the ones who love drawing to help you build, they probably won’t be interested. But if you ask your “builder buddies,” their eyes will light up and they’ll be super excited to build with you!

When we talk about “targeting,” we’re talking about showing your “invitation” to the right groups of people—the people who will be interested in your offer (and more likely to do what you want them to do). Targeting is all about showing the right stuff to the right people!

15. Value proposition

A value proposition is like telling your friend why your toy is the best and why they should play with it.

You might say, “My toy can light up, make funny sounds, and even spin around! It’s so much fun to play with, and you’ll have a great time using it. That’s why you should play with my toy instead of any other toys.”

So, a value proposition is simply explaining why something is awesome and why someone would want to use or have it.

16. Bounce rate

Imagine you have a fun trampoline. When your friends come to jump on it and then leave quickly without jumping much, that’s like a bounce rate. It’s the number of friends who don’t stay and play on the trampoline for very long.

If a lot of friends bounce away quickly, the bounce rate is high. But if they stay and jump for a while, the bounce rate is low. So, bounce rate tells us if people are having a lot of fun on the website or if they’re leaving really fast.

17. Market research

Market research is like being a detective who wants to know what toys kids like to play with.

The detective asks lots of kids and their families about their favorite toys, colors, and games. Then, the detective uses all the answers to figure out which toys might be super popular and which ones might not be as much fun.

Market research helps companies understand what people want so they can make really cool things that lots of people will love!

18. Customer lifetime value

Imagine you have a special friend who loves to play with your toys and always comes over to play. Customer lifetime value is like thinking about how much fun your friend will bring over all the years you play together.

If your friend keeps coming to play and having fun with you and your toys for a long, long time, that’s like a high customer lifetime value. But if your friend only comes over to play once and then never comes back, that’s like a low customer lifetime value.

So, it’s about how much happiness and fun your friend brings to your playtime over a really long time.

19. Qualitative data

Qualitative data is like the stories and feelings your toys share with you when you play.

You know how your teddy bear might tell you about a pretend adventure it had, or your toy car might show you how fast it can zoom. This kind of data is about the special things your toys can share with you, like their personalities and the fun things they do.

It’s not about numbers, like how many toys you have, but about the interesting and exciting things they can tell you when you spend time with them.

20. Conversion funnel

Imagine you have a cool slide at the playground. The conversion funnel is like watching how many friends start climbing up the ladder to slide down and how many actually go all the way down.

At the beginning, lots of friends might start climbing up the ladder. That’s like the first step when people learn about something new. But as they climb up, some might decide they don’t want to slide down after all, and they might climb back down.

The friends that do slide down all the way to the bottom are like the customers that make it all the way through your conversion funnel.

So, the conversion funnel is about seeing how many friends stay excited and actually slide down, like how many people stay interested and do what you want them to do. It helps us understand how many people really like what you’re offering!

Wrapping up

While this article was written mostly for fun, it does show us that understanding conversion optimization terms can be really simple. The next time your family asks you about what you’re doing for a living, you’ll be able to explain it to them without any trouble!

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Written by

Nikolett Lorincz

Nikolett is the Head of Content at OptiMonk. She is obsessed with content marketing and loves creating educational content for ecommerce store owners. She truly believes in the importance of quality over quantity.

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