CRO for Mobile: How to Boost Mobile Conversions (2024)

Are you reading this on your phone? Statistically, you probably are, as most internet traffic today comes from mobile devices.

Your target customers likely engage with your website and content through their mobile phones too. Have you optimized your site’s mobile experience to increase customer satisfaction and conversions? If not, it might be time.

The mobile experience is unique. Smaller screen sizes and touchscreen interfaces require tailored solutions to drive conversions. High-performing online businesses apply conversion rate optimization practices to measure and improve their mobile marketing efforts.

Here’s how to improve your mobile conversion rate with a data-driven approach.

What is mobile conversion rate optimization?

Mobile conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the process of improving your mobile website’s user experience to increase desired actions like making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, and filling out a form. Effective mobile CRO involves analyzing mobile user behavior, identifying barriers to conversion, and then improving the site’s navigation, landing page design, site speed, and more to reduce friction points.

The ultimate goal of mobile CRO is to increase mobile traffic to your site and encourage conversions.

Benefits of mobile conversion rate optimization (CRO)

The main benefit of mobile CRO is a higher conversion rate, which means more customers and more revenue.

Optimizing your website’s mobile experience can also result in:

• Improved customer insights. A/B testing and analytics data—two key aspects of CRO—can help you learn more about your target customers, including their needs, preferences, and what influences their buying decisions.

• Improved user experience. Enhancing mobile websites for conversions creates a smoother, more enjoyable user experience. This keeps visitors satisfied and more likely to return.

9 tips for boosting mobile conversion rates

1. Design your site for mobile first
2. Optimize page load speed
3. Design for thumbs and fingers
4. Offer easy checkout and payment options
5. Write for mobile
6. Simplify mobile forms
7. Use pop-ups sparingly
8. Review your data
9. Establish a mobile-first A/B testing practice

Here are nine ways to optimize your mobile experience:

1. Design your site for mobile first

Both mobile and desktop users are five times more likely to leave your site if it’s hard to navigate. Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning mobile-friendly websites appear higher in search results than non-mobile-friendly ones, because desktop-first sites often lead to crowded layouts and missing elements in the mobile version. Essentially, it’s easier to expand than to shrink.

To ensure your site is truly mobile-friendly, start by designing your pages for mobile devices first, then iterate on a desktop version. You can approach this with:

• Responsive design. Responsive design means your site adjusts itself according to the user’s screen size.

• Simple navigation. Include mobile-first UI elements like hamburger menus and focus links on the necessities, like core product pages.

2. Optimize page load speed

Users expect instant load times. If they wait too long for your mobile website to load, they might take their business elsewhere.

When designing your mobile website, ensure it loads quickly. Google recommends under one second. To achieve this, you should:

• Optimize image sizes
• Use lazy loading to defer content until it comes into view
• Show only essential content on mobile
• Optimize your plug-ins
• Remove unnecessary JavaScript and CSS

Then, test your site’s speed with Google’s free PageSpeed Insights tool for more recommendations.

3. Design for thumbs and fingers

Mobile device users navigate on a smartphone using their thumbs or fingers to scroll, tap, and pinch. Interactive elements and calls to action (CTAs) on your site or app should be at least 48 pixels by 48 pixels.

Clickable or selectable elements should also be within easy reach of a user’s thumb or finger, usually around the middle or bottom of the screen. A/B test different placements of buttons and measure which results in more conversions.

4. Offer easy checkout and payment options

Analyze checkout behavior to identify factors that make mobile checkout easier and faster than on a desktop. Mobile users generally expect a simpler checkout process, including streamlined payment information entry forms.

Consider these optimizations:

• Allow shoppers to save payment information or addresses so repeat purchasers don’t have to reenter information.

• For mobile purchases, collect only essential information, like payment info and shipping details.

• Integrate the Shop Pay app into the checkout process for one-tap checkouts, installment payments, and rewards, available for both Shopify and many non-Shopify stores.

5. Write for mobile

Is your written content optimized for mobile? Desktop users have a full screen to read on, but the width is minimized on phones. A paragraph that takes up five lines on a computer screen may take up ten or more on a phone, overwhelming the reader.

Helpful writing tips for mobile include:

• Write shorter paragraphs (no more than two to three short sentences).
• Keep headlines between three to five words.
• Use bullet points and numbered lists.

6. Simplify your mobile forms

Typing on mobile devices is often slower than typing on a computer keyboard, which can make filling out forms on mobile take longer. This delay might deter mobile users from completing the task.

For mobile users, present simpler, shorter forms to encourage form completions. Here are some examples:

• In a lead gen form (information-collection forms you can make with Shopify Forms), ask for only the customer’s first name and email on mobile.

• Use a single-column design.

• If the form is longer, include a progress bar to set expectations.

• Allow auto-fill in form fields.

7. Use pop-ups sparingly

Desktop pop-ups disrupt the browsing experience. They’re even more despised on mobile devices, where they tend to take up the whole screen and are harder to close. But pop-ups aren’t inherently bad; you can use them to capture emails and other relevant customer information, or encourage sales through discounts and other offers.

When adding pop-ups, consider triggers like the time on page, scroll depth, or page location so visitors aren’t immediately bombarded with pop-ups. Make pop-ups easy to close to avoid frustrating your mobile visitors.

8. Review your data

Web analytics tools, like Google Analytics, provide insight into how your visitors interact with your pages. You can segment reports to only show mobile visitors for deeper, mobile-specific research and use this data to inform design updates or conduct A/B tests.

Some of the most common reports for mobile CRO include:

• Traffic reports to understand which pages to prioritize.

• Landing page reports to compare which landing pages engage and convert best on mobile.

• Funnel reports to see where users most commonly drop off.

• Mobile device usage reports to analyze how many users use mobile, and what mobile devices they use.

9. Establish a mobile-first A/B testing practice

Test and validate new ideas and hypotheses within your specific context, as user preferences and behavior can vary across industries and audiences.

Here are a few testing ideas:

• CTA placement, colors, and sizes
• Single-step vs. multi-step lead gen forms
• Pop-up triggers and messaging
• Product page image sizes and button placements
• Payment options at checkout