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A conversion rate is a marketing metric that shows the percentage of times a user took a desired action.
A conversion rate is used to measure the effectiveness of a campaign or piece of content. Specifically, it shows how often viewers took a desired action such as clicking a link, registering for an event, or making a purchase.
A conversion rate is always expressed as a percentage: the higher it is, the more successful your campaign. Average conversion rates vary by industry, but they usually hover in the low single digits. For instance, just 2% of app downloads typically lead to a purchase. This means a small change in your conversion rate can have a big impact.
Your conversion rate is valuable because it shows you how effective a page or piece of content is.
After all, you don’t produce content for fun — it all has a purpose as part of your marketing plan, whether that’s getting users to buy, sign up, or complete another action. While metrics like page views or impressions are informative, they don’t tell you if your content is doing its job of driving users to act.
Let’s take the example of running a digital ad campaign with the conversion goal of growing app downloads. You may have a good click-through rate (CTR) to the app listing, but if few people download the app, your campaign isn’t performing as it should.
Conversion rates help marketers understand where there may be weaknesses in their marketing funnel. In the example above, the ad itself is performing well (it’s clearly grabbing people’s attention), but the landing page or promotional offer may have issues you need to address.
Many analytics platforms like Google Analytics or AppsFlyer calculate the conversion rate for you once you set up your goals. But you can calculate it yourself using a simple formula.
Just take your number of conversions (users who completed the desired action) and divide it by the number of interactions with your content (views, opens, or clicks, for example). Then, multiply this fractional number by 100 to get your percentage:
For instance, if a landing page has 1,000 views and 25 of those sessions resulted in a purchase, you have a 2.5% conversion rate (25 / 1,000 = 0.025 or 2.5%).
Think about the complexity of the average buying decision online. Do I like the product? Will it work with the space or device I have in mind? What do the reviews say? Is it worth the money? Can I buy it somewhere else for less? Can I trust this company? You need to capture a user’s attention and overcome objections in a very short window of time.
Of course, you need to show the value of your product or service with strong messaging and images. But that’s not enough by itself. You also need a powerful call to action and a seamless user experience. Here are the top factors that impact conversion rates.
6. CTA format and placement. The most common type of CTA is a button, but it’s certainly not the only one. Banners, pop-ups, slide-ins, forms, and in-line links are all options to prompt a user to act. If you stick with the tried-and-true button, pay attention to its design (color contrast and spacing) and placement on the page. For longer content, for example, you may want to include one CTA above the fold and another at the very end.
No one wants a leaking marketing funnel. Follow these tips for optimizing your conversion rate to help you grow revenue and return on investment (ROI) for your marketing spend.
So, your conversion rate is lagging behind your peers. Now what? Make sure you aren’t falling prey to these rookie conversion-rate missteps.
If you’ve built a solid content strategy, each ad or piece of content should lead toward a goal. However, the goal shouldn’t be the same for all content. Of course, your ultimate goal in marketing is for someone to complete a purchase. For bottom-of-the-funnel content, this is what you’ll measure.
For top- or middle-of-the-funnel content, however, this may not be the goal that will define a conversion. You may want to look at lead generation and lead nurturing conversions instead. Examples include a user downloading a resource, subscribing to a newsletter, or liking your social media page.
Once you’ve achieved the valuable step of adding someone to your email list, you can measure conversions according to your next goal — which might be someone signing up for a free trial, for example.
Consumers abandon nearly 70% of eCommerce shopping carts. The likely culprit? Cumbersome checkout processes. The average online checkout process has 23 elements, twice the number the Baymard Institute found to be optimal.
Lengthy lead generation forms can also cause people to abandon them before completing them. Customers abandon conversions when they feel that the time investment or experience outweighs the benefit they anticipate.
Finding the right amount of information to share can be a delicate balance. However, customers need to clearly see the value before taking the next step. You can accomplish this by:
People are also cautious in how they give out their personal information. If you’re asking them to subscribe to an email list, for example, tell them how often they can expect to be contacted and what your privacy policy is (so they can trust that you won’t sell their data).
If you’re encouraging users to take advantage of a free trial or special offer, you may want to add the word “free” in your CTA or use other reassurances like “no purchase necessary” or “no credit card required”. This removes objections and helps people feel more comfortable taking advantage of an offer.
Once you’ve targeted the right conversion action and built your lead generation or purchase link, optimize your content to convince more users to convert. Follow these conversion-rate tips to help you grow revenue and boost ROI for your marketing spend.
Imagine clicking on an ad only to discover that the landing page is in another language, contains cultural references you don’t understand, or lists its price in another currency.
It’s essential to localize your content if you have a global audience, especially if you’re running paid campaigns in multiple countries. First, localize your messaging to account for language, dialect differences, and cultural references. Creating country-specific web pages and app listings can help you accomplish this.
Next, localize your images to ensure they’ll resonate with the demographic you’re talking to.
Last, ensure that the functional aspects of your conversion like currency, shipping, and product availability are localized upfront. It’s a poor experience for a customer to get to the end of a checkout experience only to find that shipping will be significantly more expensive or that a product isn’t available in their area.
If your ad is seeing good engagement but your conversion rate is lagging behind, take a closer look at your landing page content. Does it grab attention? Is the value of your offering clear? Or could there be a disconnect between your ad message and your landing page message?
The best content positions the problem and how your product or service will solve it. If there’s no need or no clear solution, there’s no reason to buy.
It’s smart to hire a professional copywriter or agency to optimize your page content. Use market research or A/B testing through dynamic content to uncover which message resonates best with your audience.
There’s a reason why sales give us such a buzz: they make us feel like we’ve won something. By creating a sense of urgency, you make people feel like they’re winning by saving money or getting something for free. Inversely, you create a sense of scarcity that they may miss out on something by not acting. Take a look at these examples:
Even if you don’t have a discount or freebie to offer, you can still use this tactic. In a B2C example, you can highlight when inventory is low (“Going fast!” or “Last few remaining”). In B2B SaaS, you can position value in a very direct way. If you’ve built an argument that a service saves time, for instance, use a CTA like “Save 2 hours of admin work this week”.
A conversion rate measures the effectiveness of marketing efforts, indicating the percentage of users who take a desired action, such as making a purchase or registering for an event. It’s a crucial metric for assessing the success of campaigns or content.
Understanding your conversion rate is important because it shows how effectively your content drives users to act. It offers insights into the performance of marketing strategies and helps you identify areas for optimization within the marketing funnel.
To calculate your conversion rate, divide the number of conversions (users who completed the desired action) by the total number of interactions with your content (such as views or clicks), then multiply by 100 to get the percentage. This formula helps track the success rate of marketing actions.
A good conversion rate depends on the specific industry and the type of action being measured. For example, eCommerce websites might consider rates around 2-3% as average, while lead generation sites could see higher averages.
Several factors can affect conversion rates, including page load time, design, differentiation, pricing, and the effectiveness of the call to action. Optimizing these elements can significantly improve your conversion rate.
Improving your conversion rate involves addressing common mistakes like targeting the wrong actions, asking for too much information, or not providing enough. Additionally, strategies such as localizing content, refining messaging, and creating a sense of urgency can boost conversions.
Your conversion rate may be a small number, but it packs a powerful punch. With this metric, you can strip away less meaningful ones like traffic to find out how effective your content is at driving users to act. With tools and strategies for optimization at your fingertips, you can inch your percentage up and drive more leads and sales.
Just remember these principles:
