What is a Conversion?

A conversion is a desired action a visitor takes on your website: a purchase, a completed form, a phone call or a download. Conversions are at the heart of every performance-driven online marketing strategy and the ultimate goal of SEA, SEO and CRO.

Types of conversions

There are macro and micro conversions. A macro conversion is the primary goal: a purchase or a quote request. A micro conversion is a valuable intermediate step that signals purchase intent, such as adding something to the basket or viewing a contact page. Both can be measured with conversion tracking.

Measuring conversions in Google Ads

With Google Ads conversion tracking you link a specific action to an ad click. Google then automatically calculates the CPA and the ROAS. Use Google Analytics 4 alongside it for a complete picture of the customer journey.

Improving the conversion rate

Improvements to the landing page, loading time and call to action have a direct effect on the conversion rate. This is the domain of CRO: every percentage point of improvement lowers your CPA for good.

What is a good conversion rate?

On average, the conversion rate for e-commerce is 1 to 3 percent. For B2B lead generation it ranges from 2 to 10 percent, depending on the sector and the quality of the traffic.

Does adding to the basket count as a conversion?

Adding to the basket is a micro conversion; a purchase is the macro conversion. Both are worth measuring and optimising.

Can one visitor count for several conversions in one session?

In Google Ads you can set whether each conversion action counts as unique or repeated. More at developers.google.com/search.