Heuristics Analysis Frameworks for CO Audits, Google Analytics Audits, How to Run Tests Review

6 min readNov 18, 2020

This article is part 7 of 12 reviewing the CRO Minidegree at the CXL Institute.

More CXL Institute reviews. Take a look! 1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12

This week I finished the Conversion Research module studying Heuristic Analysis Frameworks for Conversion Optimization Audits taught by André Morys. He shares tips for finding conversion opportunities via heuristics.

Next, Fred Pike teaches how to audit and propose solutions pertaining to Google Analytics.

Finally, I began the Testing module starting with Peep Laja’s, Testing Strategies course where he shares everything you need to know regarding A/B/n testing and how to achieve optimal results from doing it the right way.

Heuristic Analysis frameworks for Conversion Optimization Audits

This course begins with André Morys explaining the need for heuristic analysis audits:

“Most optimizers focus on the website (stimulus). But we need to understand what happens in the brain of the users of our customers.” -André Morys

As optimizers, we aim to achieve the following with heuristics:

A method that focuses on user behavior to facilitate the expert evaluation
High validity of insights
Answers on “Why are our users, not clicking/buying?”
Focus on the user's reality
Conscious level
Subconscious level (cognitive Biases)
Low effort/high agility

Heuristics are strategies that derive from previous experience with similar problems.

In this course we re-visited the in’s and out’s of the:

The 7 Levels of Conversions

Relevant (Is this the right page for me/my problem?)
Trust (Can I trust this company/vendor?)
Orientation (Where do I have to click/how do I find the right product?)
Stimulance (Where should I buy/click here?)
Security (Is it safe to do that here?)
Convenience (How easy will everything be?)
Confirmation (Did I do the right thing?)

Each lesson in the course dives further into the 7 levels of conversion with a detailed explanation of each concept and a checklist to successfully accomplish each task in the evaluation.

Google Analytics Audits

Me running Google Analytics audits | Image credit: Giphy

In this course, Fred Pike shares valuable nuggets on using Google Analytics audits to both find and fix any problem in the e-commerce sales funnel. This course builds heavily off of the knowledge learned in the Google Analytics for Beginners course. Without this foundational course (and no prior knowledge of Google Analytics) I strongly believe the student would be lost.

3 valuable Google Analytics auditing nuggets:

Custom Dimensions

Custom dimensions in Google Analytics give us the opportunity to view data more granularly. There can be up to 20 custom dimensions added, Pike strongly recommends at least having the following six:

Client ID
Session ID
Hit timestamp
Hit type
For referrer
GTM Container and Version ID

Note: For debugging issues within GA use, Client ID and/or Hit Timestamp.

2. Raw data view

The raw data view serves as your backup in the event that anything were to happen to your other views In most cases you do not exclude URL Query Parameters in this view also do not check Bot Filtering.

Makes sure that the Site Search tracking is turned on and Google Ads Accounts are linked. While you don’t want filters applied to the raw data view you do want all of the data that is being sent to the main view.

3. Google Analytic Events

Pike heavily emphasizes:

“Any real GA view/ property needs to have events to track if there are none then mark this important and Urgent” -Fred Pike

In general, there should be no more than 10 to 20 events being tracked in total (25 at the absolute most!).

Essential Event Categories to Track

Outbound links
PDF Downloads (or other downloadable files)

In the primary dimension events are broken down into:

Event Category
Event Action
Event Label

Note: We DO NOT want duplicate info in any of the events mentioned above. If you find during your audit that they have been duplicated, mark important and urgent on your spreadsheet.

How to Run Tests

Image credit: GIPHY

How to Run Tests is a series of long-form style blog posts and a few videos lightly sprinkled throughout the course ranging from a little over one to three minutes on average. This course contained an abundance of knowledge introducing testing. Here two concepts that stood out to me:

How to formulate a hypothesis in 3 steps:

Because we saw (data/feedback).
We expect that (change) will cause (impact).
We’ll measure this using (metric).

Forming a Good Hypothesis: Advanced

Because we saw (qualitative + quantitative data).
We expect that (change) for (population) will cause (impacts).
We expect to see (metrics change) over a period of (x business cycles).

Buyer Personas

When it comes to creating buyer/user personas Laja strongly suggests that they should not be based on demographics (age, sex, income, etc) only because this information alone can be skewed or incorrect. Instead, conversion optimizers should be focused on the following three characteristics instead:

Intent (motivation, goals)
Concerns and fears (friction)
Mode of Persuasion

There is a lot of information in this course, the two discussed above are literally just scraping the iceberg!

My Thoughts

Image credit: GIPHY

A lot of very useful information is shared in the Heuristics Analysis Frameworks for Conversion Optimization Audits course. There is a very useful Benchmark Google Doc template shared in this course. I mentioned earlier that each lesson is based around the 7 levels of conversions with a checklist of questions that should be addressed. I do wish that the checklist was in a Google Doc spreadsheet for easy access. But it is included in the lesson slide decks for future reference. I am happy that I received yet another certificate to hang proudly in my office!

Google Analytics Audits is the winner for me this week. As I have mentioned in a previous review, I used to be terrified of Google Analytics (literally!) after having to really learn what it is really all about, I have grown to love Analytics and their effectiveness if implemented correctly. I really liked this course because it really helps you ‘tell the story’ of what is really going on behind the screen so to speak. I have learned how to really tell a website story (or lack thereof and I am so happy to have this valuable skill and earned another ego boosting certificate! {Check out all my CXL institute certificates on LinkedIn}

The course How to Run Tests was a lot of reading! I like this because I can read at my own pace and the visuals and links to additional resources are great!. I do wish that some of the content has spreadsheets and templates to accompany some of the content.

So far I have completed 19 of the 31 Conversion Optimization courses at CXL institute for a total of 229 lessons! I am amazed at all of the information that I have learned this far. I am really excited to continue learning and get finished with the course so that I can get started helping companies achieve huge wins with conversion optimization!

My dancing after I complete another CXL Institute course | Image credit: GIPHY

Would you like to join me by learning from the top 1% of digital marketers in the whole entire world? Check out more of my in-depth reviews of CXL Institute’s CRO Minidegree courses: