How smart marketers use summer to upgrade their conversion strategy

• Conversion rate: Jumped from 0.49% to 1.88%—a +286% increase.
• Conversions: Increased from 71 orders to 277 during the A/B test period.
• Funnel lift: Every stage of the customer journey improved:
  • +172% more engagement in the awareness phase.
  • +200% lift in the consideration phase.
  • +229% more conversions at the decision stage.

No additional traffic or paid media was needed, this was purely the result of testing how personalized experiences outperformed static content.

Once the team reviewed the data, they felt confident enough to ramp up Pathmonk’s exposure to 95% of all visitors, making personalization their new default approach.

This is exactly what makes Pathmonk’s A/B testing so powerful: you don’t have to guess whether personalization works. You can measure it in a controlled, transparent way—side by side with your existing experience—and see real numbers before you decide to scale.

FAQs

1. Why does conversion rate often dip during the summer months?

It’s normal to see a noticeable dip in conversions during summer—especially in July and August. This slowdown is largely driven by shifts in buyer behavior. Decision-makers are out of office, procurement processes get delayed, and even motivated prospects may put off non-urgent purchases until after vacations. In B2B environments, buying committees often require multiple approvals, so when even one stakeholder is away, deals stall. In B2C, people spend more time traveling or focusing on leisure activities, which naturally reduces engagement with products and services outside of seasonal purchases.

Importantly, this decline doesn’t necessarily mean your campaigns or website have stopped working. It’s simply a reflection of predictable seasonality. That’s why smart marketing teams prepare for it in advance and adjust expectations. If you treat the summer slowdown as an opportunity rather than a crisis, you can focus on long-term improvements—like fine-tuning messaging, optimizing the customer journey, and testing new experiences—so you’re ready to capture demand when activity rebounds in September.

2. Which industries are most affected by the summer slowdown?

The summer slowdown tends to hit B2B industries the hardest, especially those with long sales cycles or complex decision-making processes. Sectors like software-as-a-service (SaaS), consulting, enterprise technology, and industrial services often experience a pronounced dip in activity. This is because B2B purchases typically involve multiple stakeholders—procurement managers, legal teams, budget approvers—and when even a few of them are out on vacation, deals stall. You’ll often see longer email response times, delayed meetings, and prospects going quiet until September. Even in well-established funnels with consistent traffic, conversions can temporarily drop as priorities shift toward internal planning or simply taking time off.

On the B2C side, it depends heavily on the product category. Businesses selling back-to-school supplies, travel services, outdoor equipment, and summer apparel often see a seasonal boost. In contrast, brands offering products that feel less urgent—like home improvement services, financial products, or enterprise learning tools—may experience lower engagement during the warmer months. That’s why it’s so important to benchmark your performance against historical trends rather than panic if conversions dip. If you know your industry is prone to seasonal swings, you can proactively plan by using the quieter period for optimization, testing, and refreshing your marketing strategy so you’re prepared when demand inevitably returns.

3. What makes summer a good time to work on conversion improvements?

Summer is often the only time in the year when marketing teams finally have the breathing room to focus on strategic projects that get deprioritized the rest of the year. With fewer launches, fewer urgent deadlines, and less day-to-day chaos, you can step back and objectively review what’s working in your conversion funnel—and what isn’t. This clarity is hard to find when you’re in the middle of high-traffic seasons and constantly reacting to campaign performance.

Another reason summer is ideal is that any improvements you make now will compound over time. For example, if you discover and fix friction points in your checkout flow or update your messaging to better match customer expectations, those changes will pay off when demand surges again in Q3 and Q4. Instead of scrambling to optimize under pressure, you’ll already have a stronger foundation in place. In other words, investing in your website experience during the slower months helps ensure you don’t just recover when traffic returns—you accelerate.

4. How long should I run A/B tests when traffic is lower?

When traffic is lighter, A/B tests naturally take longer to reach statistical significance. That’s because you need enough visitors in each variant group to produce reliable results. For example, if a test would normally run for two weeks during your peak season, you should expect it to take four to six weeks over the summer. This slower pace can feel frustrating, but it’s critical not to call winners too early—doing so increases the risk of making decisions based on random fluctuations rather than actual performance differences.

The good news is that summer gives you the time and space to let these tests run properly. Because you’re not under pressure to hit immediate revenue goals, you can focus on collecting clean, trustworthy data. This is especially valuable when you’re testing bigger ideas—like whether personalization drives more conversions than static experiences. Using tools like Pathmonk, you can split your audience evenly, measure performance over an extended period, and build confidence in the results. When traffic picks up again, you’ll know exactly which improvements deserve to be scaled.

5. What are some low-effort ways to improve conversions during summer?

If your team is smaller or you don’t have the capacity for big projects, there are still plenty of quick wins you can tackle during the summer. Start by refreshing your messaging—review your headlines and calls to action to make sure they clearly communicate value and feel current. Updating testimonials, customer logos, and product images can also boost credibility without requiring design resources. Even small tweaks, like simplifying your navigation menu or improving how you present pricing, can reduce friction and help visitors make faster decisions.

Another low-effort strategy is to set up basic personalization. For example, with Pathmonk, you can automatically adapt content to each visitor’s intent and journey stage without manual rule-building or development work. This can be as simple as showing returning users a more direct call to action or highlighting a limited-time incentive. These kinds of changes don’t require months of planning but can have an outsized impact on engagement and conversions—especially when traffic picks up again.

6. Is it worth investing in personalization if I don’t have a lot of traffic right now?

Yes—summer is actually one of the best times to start experimenting with personalization, even if your traffic volume is lower. The reason is simple: lower stakes mean you have the freedom to learn without risking significant revenue disruption. If you wait until your busiest quarter to roll out personalization, you’ll likely feel pressured to see immediate results, which can lead to rushed decisions or incomplete testing.

By starting during the slower season, you give yourself time to understand what resonates with different audience segments. You can A/B test personalization against your usual experience and build confidence in the results before scaling up. Tools like Pathmonk make this process easy by automating both the personalization and the measurement. So when your high-traffic periods return, you’ll already have proven, optimized experiences ready to go—setting you up for a stronger finish to the year.