How to analyze conversion data and turn them into actionable improvements

Interpreting conversion study feedback like a boss.

You’ve run an intentional Conversion Study and are now sitting with a mound of useful data from your target market.

Some insights & the subsequent action steps will be obvious, but others won’t be. And just because it came up during your study doesn’t mean it’s a pattern nor does it mean you need to make any change necessarily.

Parsing qualitative data is a science and an art. We’re going to break down how to navigate it.

1. What to look for in your conversion study results

Once your Conversion Study is complete, it’s time to analyze the responses and figure out what they mean for your business. Here’s what to focus on.

For more: Want to structure a thoughtful, effective, and quick Conversion Study? We got you.

Key patterns & recurring issues

As you’re assessing data, you want to be on the hunt for patterns, as that’s often where the meatiest insights lie. Ask yourself:

Did multiple reviewers get confused at the same point?
Are there repeated complaints about missing information?
Do multiple people struggle with navigation, product details, or checkout? etc.

This may require reading between the lines; the reviewer won’t always spell out their thoughts precisely, but their actions will tell the story.

Friction points & hesitations

Where did reviewers hesitate or second-guess themselves?
Did they seem unsure about product quality, pricing, or return policies? etc
Did they struggle to find key information like shipping costs?

Unmet customer needs

What questions did reviewers have that weren’t answered on the site?
What information did they search for but couldn’t find?
Did they mention anything that would have made them feel more confident buying?

2. Organizing your findings for clarity

To make sense of the results, it’s helpful to categorize your findings into buckets to help center where your biggest opportunities are. While there isn’t a perfect roundup of categories, where’s what we often use:

Navigation Issues: Users couldn’t find the size guide.
Product Page Confusion: Unclear product descriptions, missing material info.
Checkout Problems: Unexpected shipping costs, payment issues.
Trust Issues: Unclear return policy, lack of customer reviews.
Miscellaneous: Any other patterns that arose that impacted their decisions and purchase process.

Here’s an example of a study we developed and parsed for a client.

3. Prioritizing what to fix using a “severity vs. effort” framework

Some issues are quick wins, while others require bigger changes. Use this framework to decide what to tackle first:

You don’t need to spend weeks analyzing which category your action items fall into. However, it’s vastly helpful to put this lens on when you’re sitting down to prioritize all the new work that’s on your plate.

💡 Example: If multiple reviewers struggled to find the “Add to Cart” button, that’s likely a high severity, low effort fix (easy to adjust and has a big impact) that you could make in a day.

Here’s an example of how we prioritized the action items that came from research for a real client. If they wanted to dig deeper into one action step, they simply open up the ‘Initiative’ card.

4. Turning insights into website improvements

Now that you know what’s broken, how to prioritize it, it’s time to fix it.

If you have design and development teams in-house, great. We can work with them to ensure they understand the research we did and the plan to tackle the changes.

If you don’t, we have partners that we’re happy to connect with you.

5. Testing again: when & how to iterate

🔁 Test again when:

You make major site updates.
Conversions or other metrics drop suddenly and you’re unsure why.
You’ve fixed key issues and want to validate improvements.

🛠 How to iterate:

Run another conversion study to confirm the fixes worked.
If needed, refine further based on new insights.
Keep improving over time rather than waiting for a “perfect” site.

6. Summary

✅ Identify the top 3-5 patterns & issues from your study.
✅ Use the Severity vs. Effort table to decide what to fix first.
✅ Implement the easiest high-impact changes ASAP.
✅ Plan for bigger fixes.
✅ Schedule the next round of testing.

By following this process, you’ll turn raw feedback into real website improvements that drive conversions! Good luck!