Ad spend is up, orders aren’t. The leak sits on the page a new visitor sees before they buy. A bad CRO contract turns that leak into a subscription. Before you commit, choose pricing that pays for page outcomes and puts the first win in scope.

Pick a Pricing Model That Buys Real Change

Most agreements fall into three buckets. One protects your downside.

• Pilot + expansion. Two weeks aimed at one page outcome, then expand if the numbers move. (Use the plan in How to Hire a CRO Consultant: Run a 2-Week Pilot.)
• Fixed-fee package with page targets. Clear deliverables tied to specific screens (e.g., product page + first checkout step), with before/after artifacts.
• Open retainer. Flexible but risky—without page targets, effort drifts to decks and dashboards.

If a proposal doesn’t anchor to product, cart, or checkout screens, you’ll fund research while the leak keeps draining revenue. For what the first screen must show to convert, see Win the First Screen to Increase Ecommerce Sales.

Put the First Win in the Scope

Write the outcome you expect as one sentence you could say in a demo:
“Lift add-to-cart on [product] by making the first screen answer price, delivery, and the next step.”
If the consultant can’t reduce the work to that sentence, the scope will sprawl.

Contract Guardrails That Protect Your Budget

Add these lines before you sign:

• Artifacts, not slides. Require before/after screenshots and short change logs for every shipped edit.
• Proof near the button. Copy changes must place one verified proof element within eye-line of the primary CTA (delivery window, returns line, or verified review).
• Detour removal. Popups and cross-sells cannot appear before the first primary click on target pages.
• Measurement loop. Define success as comprehension in 5–7 seconds, CTA visibility on mobile, and a lift in add-to-cart or checkout continuation.

A concise checklist like this keeps effort pinned to the screens that decide revenue. If cart and pay screens are your leak, borrow the fixes from Turn Cart Into Cash: Repair the Three Screens That Lose Orders.

What You Should See in the First Month

You’re buying visible change and verified signals:

• Cleaner first screens (headline, price framing, primary CTA, one proof element).
• Fewer detours before action.
• Shared scorecard showing comprehension, CTA visibility, and movement in add-to-cart or step-through rate.

“What gets measured gets managed.” — Peter Drucker

When to Walk Away

• The scope lists “sitewide audit” and dashboards, but no named pages.
• The plan delays shipping until a long research phase.
• The consultant can’t show past before/after artifacts tied to order flow.

Why BluePing Helps You Hire Better—and Win Faster

You don’t have to guess which page wastes the most money. BluePing reads a live product or checkout page in ~30 seconds and returns a tight preview with 2–3 strengths and one visible red-flag to fix now—private to your team. Use it to pick the pilot target, then measure what moves. Join the waitlist; scan your highest-traffic page; the preview locks after 10 minutes to protect your data. Early access is limited.