Engagement ratios, also known as engagement scores, vary in definition across businesses. For a uniform understanding, we can define it as the active time users spend on a website, encompassing activities like scrolling, clicking, typing, and media playback among others.
Clicking and scrolling, along with other actions, act as indicators of users’ attention and involvement in a product.
For example, a user might click on a product image for a better view, click on a button to purchase, or click a link to navigate to another page. Clicking is associated with exploration, navigation, and interaction with a website.
Users may play a video or audio file by clicking on it. This action is driven by a desire to consume content, such as watching a tutorial, listening to music, or viewing product demonstrations.
Ultimately, a positive user experience is achieved when users face little to no challenges and show sustained attention throughout their journey.
Why is engagement ratio important?
An increasing number of businesses are recognizing the importance of prioritizing engagement ratio on their websites. Let’s explore the top reasons why it is crucial.
Capitalize on the strengths
The engagement score recognizes and leverages existing strengths on a website. By pinpointing where users are most engaged, businesses gain insights into the compelling aspects of their digital experience. This understanding is crucial for strategic optimization that allows businesses to build on their strengths and create a more successful online presence.
Allocate resources smartly
Identifying high-engagement areas helps businesses wisely allocate resources. For example, a high engagement score on a specific product page may encourage you to spend more money on ads or create more content for that product. This targeted approach maximizes the impact of your marketing efforts and ensures resources are used efficiently, contributing to overall success.
Personalize offerings
Past engagement scores offer insights for tailoring experiences for future user actions. Let’s say, if a key page suddenly gets less engagement, it could mean it’s not working well. This signals a need to optimize the page for sustained engagement and conversions. Alternatively, if users engage more with a banner promotion, show them more related content later to push them down the funnel.
Building customer loyalty
High engagement scores not only boost the chances of visitors converting but also create an environment where existing customers are more likely to become loyal advocates for your brand. This positive influence gradually extends to a broader circle, forming a positive ripple effect.
Key tips to improve engagement score on your website
Here are some tips to boost your website’s engagement score and cultivate lasting connections with your users for improved conversions.
Gather user feedback
The first step is to be truly interested in understanding your users’ needs, behavior, and preferences, so you can serve them better. Make the most of on-page surveys, live chats, and exit pop-ups to get their feedback so you can continuously improve your website and align it to their likes and interests.
Craft user-focused content
To truly capture attention and drive engagement, you need to make your content all about the users. Ensure your website focuses more on them, their problems, and solutions rather than highlighting your achievements. Create content that’s easy to consume and inspires audiences to take action.
Humanize messaging
Establishing a unique connection with your target audience by incorporating empathy into your messages is essential. Avoid jargon-heavy content if you want users to derive true value from it. Authenticity resonates with users, amplifying the engagement score on your website.
Personalize experiences
In today’s business world, customer experiences are personalized at every touchpoint, from social media content to email offers and website product recommendations. This personalization approach ensures that your marketing strategies align with users’ interests, securing their increased satisfaction.
A roadmap for better tracking of engagement score
At VWO, we plan to create a dashboard displaying top metrics aligning with the growth of our data infrastructure for improved tracking of engagement scores.
We plan to use a scoring method based on heuristics. The scoring algorithm will consider these factors:
Media Playback (Start-Stop): Indicates a user’s interest in multimedia content, showcasing active involvement. High engagement during media playback shows the effectiveness of visual elements, helping assess the appeal of multimedia content.
Copy: This reflects a user’s interest in textual content, indicating their willingness to consume information.
Mouse Movement: Active mouse movement helps uncover user interaction patterns and areas of interest, signaling improvements for a more user-friendly experience.
Scroll: Users scrolling through content show they’re keen to explore more. It’s a helpful way to see what they find interesting and guides us in arranging content for a better experience.
Right clicks: When users right-click, it shows they’re exploring more options or information through context menus. This helps us understand what users prefer, guiding us to improve the interface for a better experience.
Typing: Typing activities reveal how users engage with input fields or forms. This helps you gauge user engagement with interactive elements and plan for form optimization accordingly.
Taps: Tapping gives insights into how users interact with their touchscreens, revealing room for improvement in mobile interfaces.
Zooming: Zooming is a clear sign that users want a closer look at specific content. This is important because it shows their keen interest in details, providing valuable insights to improve visuals and layouts.
We’ll mark all the important moments of engagement on a timeline and measure the time between them. If it’s less than 5 seconds, we’ll count it as active engagement; otherwise, it’s considered non-engagement.
How can VWO help you improve your engagement score?
To boost your website’s engagement score, you can leverage VWO Insights to analyze visitor behavior on your website. Heatmaps and session recordings help you assess clicks, scrolls, and typing, enabling you to set engagement scores. Moreover, you can harness the power of website surveys and form analytics to gather user feedback and improve form performance respectively.
Further, based on these insights, you can conduct tests using VWO Testing to validate hypotheses and improve user experiences. For instance, if heatmaps reveal low clicks on the primary CTA button of your landing page, you can test to see if introducing changes enhances the engagement score, subsequently improving the conversion rate.
How did increased engagement lead to more sign-ups for Ubisoft?
Ubisoft Entertainment, based in Paris, is a renowned French video game publisher known for hit series like Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Just Dance.
For Ubisoft, the conversion on the Buy Now page was the main performance indicator of user experience. They resorted to A/B testing to improve lead generation for the game, For Honor, on the same page. However, before that, the Ubisoft team leveraged heatmaps, scrollmaps, and on-page surveys to gauge the current level of user engagement on the Buy Now page.
From the observed insights, it was hypothesized that it would be better if the up and down scroll could be reduced and the buying process simplified.
In the revamped test layout, the section for selecting the edition and console, along with the Order Now step, was relocated to the upper part of the left column, accompanied by an edition comparison feature.
This redesign effectively eliminated the need for scrolling and led to an enhanced engagement on the Buy Now page. As a result, the variation was a clear winner with a 12% increase in order sign-ups.
Are you inspired by this success story? Aim for high engagement scores to ensure optimal conversions on your website. Take a free trial to get started with VWO today.
