Conversion

A conversion is the moment a visitor completes a predefined, desired action on a website — makes a purchase, fills in a contact form, subscribes to a newsletter, downloads a resource or places a call. It is the fundamental measure of a website's and a marketing effort's effectiveness: conversions are what turn raw traffic into real business results.

How a conversion works

A conversion is defined by the site owner according to the business goal. Not every conversion is a sale — two levels are commonly distinguished:

• macro-conversions — primary goals, such as a store transaction or a request for a quote;
• micro-conversions — smaller steps on the way to the goal, e.g. adding a product to the cart, creating an account or registering for a webinar.

Effectiveness is measured by the conversion rate (CR) — the share of users who complete the desired action. Improving that figure is the job of conversion rate optimization (CRO), which tests page layout, copy and calls to action to squeeze more results out of the same traffic.

Practical application

Conversions are tracked in analytics tools, where each is assigned a value and a goal. On that basis you can assess the profitability of ad campaigns and the performance of individual landing pages and stages of the sales funnel. Typical actions that lift conversions include a clear call to action, simpler forms, trust signals (reviews, certificates) and — often overlooked — a faster page, because every extra second of waiting lowers the share of completed actions.