AMP is good for conversion. Fact.

However, we thought we’d look a little closer and discover exactly why AMP is good for conversion and how it can improve the overall customer experience.

Read on, see what you think, and we’ll even give you some tips on how to incorporate AMP into your own strategy.

What is AMP?

Another fun digital marketing acronym to learn, AMP means ‘Accelerated Mobile Pages’.

Now, you don’t need to be a genius to work out that the aim of AMP technology is to make pages on mobile devices load faster. However, that’s a pretty simplistic view, and definitely doesn’t do justice to this game-changing technology!

The aim of AMP technology is to improve the web experience for mobile visitors. And, we have to say, it works! Anyone who has browsed on their phone in the last few months has probably encountered AMP at some point. They just didn’t realise it...

Mobile audiences expect faster pages, so they aren’t surprised when these expectations are met. However, for digital marketers, this technology has really changed the playing field.

Google now has over 150 million AMP docs in its index and estimates that 4 million new ones are being added each week. It’s got to get you thinking – maybe this bandwagon's worth jumping on?!

How does it work?

We won’t delve too deep into the technical stuff, but we’re guessing you might want to know a little more than “it makes mobile pages load faster”.

To speed up mobile load times, pages use a stripped-back form of HTML to make them ‘lighter’. Developers do this by only using the JavaScript library and avoiding third party tags. Plus, a little technical jiggery-pokery goes on that we won’t even pretend to understand!

So, how do you spot an AMP page on your mobile search results? We can talk you through it.

1. Whip out your phone (unless your boss is nearby, we don’t want you getting in trouble)!
2. Search something random in Google. We’re going with “toad in the hole” as I’m hungry and that’s what I’m having for dinner.
3. Take a look at the results. If it’s an AMP page, it will have a grey lightning bolt next to the URL.

 

It’s that simple! If there’s no lightning bolt, the page won’t load very quickly (unless you have fantastically fast broadband speed).

Why AMP is good for conversion

Slow load times is one of the main reasons mobile sites have high bounce rates. 53% of all visits are abandoned if a mobile takes more than three seconds to load … that’s pretty bad news, and something all marketers need to be aware of.

However, get this: a one-second delay on a mobile page can reduce conversions by up to 20%!

The average mobile page takes 22 seconds to load, so the chance of conversion on most mobile pages is less than zero. In fact, according to that last stat it reduces conversion by up to 440%.

Slow loading sites deprive visitors of high-quality content (that’s bad). They stop publishers gaining visitors (that’s worse). They also remove all possibility of conversion which is worse still because you’ve probably spent money on PPC, SEO, paid advertising and social media to get visitors to your site!

AMP is good for conversion because it cuts down loading time, brings more people to the page and therefore increases the likelihood of click-throughs, or other conversions. It’s the best solution to this mobile-load problem, so you really should think about trying it today.

A switch to AMP should lead to real improvements in ROI. It will also help with SEO, as faster pages will appear at the top of the search rankings when the mobile-first index rolls in.

Also, the lightning bolt may bring conversions of its own. Once internet users catch on to this trend, they’ll start seeking out AMP-formatted pages because they'll know they deliver a fast-mobile experience. It’s kind of like the little blue verification tick on Twitter, or the Google Authorship Markup – users will know they’re getting the real deal!

The best thing about AMP? It’s not just for normal web pages. Google recently announced that AMP landing pages would be available for search ads as a beta feature.

This is important for marketers because it operates on a pay-per-click, not pay-per-visit model. If people bounce off your page before looking at your content, you must still pay for that click. Hopefully, it will save you money and you’ll see a positive effect on paid traffic as well as organic.

3 tips on how to use AMP to improve your conversion rate

Focus on browsing pages first

Customers usually start their journey on a home page or product page, so you should start there too.

Formatting these pages for AMP is good for conversion because they’re static pages and showcase the best available products. They can make a great first impression, and lead visitors nicely to other areas of your site.

Don’t think because it’s static the page must be boring

Just because you’re trying to ramp-up the speed by using a static page, it doesn’t mean you can’t make it interesting for the visitor.

You still have a level of functionality that makes the page engaging, it’s just the coding that’s stripped-back to speed things up. Here are a few examples of what you can do:

• <amp-carousel> - Allows visitors to browse through products
• <amp-video> - Hooks visitors
• <amp-accordion> - Gives room for more extended descriptions, without affecting speed
• <amp-social-share tag> - Enables audience to share with friends and family, a key part of eCommerce that shouldn’t be missed

AMP-up AdWord landing pages

Set AMP pages as mobile final URLs at the ad-level and you’re done. It’s really that simple to speed up your AdWord landing pages.

It’s trickier to make changes to your website, so why not start off with this to kick-start your AMP adventures?

So, there you have it; AMP is good for conversion because it improves the user experience. We've even given you a few tips on how to use it! It’s funny to think that something as simple as improving your mobile speed can have such a huge impact on user experience.

However, we’re not so shocked because that’s exactly what CRO does too! We test elements within sites to figure out what users want and then we meet (or exceed) their expectations. Site speed is already a huge part of this, but now we know AMP is good for conversions, we’re going to crank things up a notch. Watch this space!