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Your conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to your app or website that complete a desired goal (a conversion), out of the total number of visitors.
A conversion rate shows you what percentage of people exposed to your content took the action you wanted. On your app or website, it might be how many visitors downloaded the report you’re promoting. Or in a digital marketing campaign, it could be how many impressions of your ad resulted in a purchase.
A conversion can be any action that you want the user to take — from clicking a call to action button, to making a purchase and becoming a customer. Apps and websites often have multiple conversion goals, and each one will have its own conversion rate. Average conversion rates vary by industry, but they usually hover in the low single digits. In eCommerce, for example, typical conversion rates are around 2.5-3%. In other words, for every 1,000 visitors to your app or site, just 25 to 30 make 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 at generating action.
While other 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.
Conversion rates can also highlight weaknesses in your marketing funnel. For example, your campaign might have a high click-through rate (demonstrating interest) but result in a low number of conversions (action). This could indicate that your landing page, value, or purchase experience is putting users off.
Let’s say you want to encourage non-paying app users to upgrade to your subscription service. You add a message to your app’s homepage: “Upgrade to premium!” But, out of 2,000 users, only 25 take up your invitation — a conversion rate of 1.25%. Perhaps you need to better communicate the benefits of signing up.
The standard formula for calculating conversion rate involves dividing your number of conversions (users who completed the desired action) by the total number of interactions with your content (views, opens, or clicks, for example). Then, multiply this 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%).
SaaS businesses often prefer to focus on lead conversion rate. In this case, you divide the number of sales leads that converted (became paying customers) by the total number of leads over a certain period.
Note that many analytics platforms, like AppsFlyer and Google Ads, will calculate your conversion rate for you once you set up your goals.
While it may look simple to calculate your conversion rate, in many cases the results are inaccurate. And a misleading conversion rate could lead you to make ill-informed decisions.
One reason for the mismatch is that conversions aren’t always a linear process, and they can take time to complete. Just because someone clicks on your ad and then doesn’t buy anything, it doesn’t mean they never will. Perhaps they don’t have the need, the budget, or the time to make a purchase right now, but they’re doing their research for a later date.
In other cases, the same user might convert more than once. For example, they might download your report and then lose it, or access it on a different device.
The other main reason conversion rates go wrong is that marketers measure the wrong things. If you try to compare apples with oranges, you’ll get a misleading result.
For example, measuring “Number of new customers / Number of leads” doesn’t give you an accurate picture of lead conversions — those new customers may have come from other sources. Instead, you should measure “Number of leads that converted into new customers / Number of leads”.
In short, always make sure the items in the top of your fraction (the numerator) are consistent with those in the bottom (the denominator). Otherwise, you’re not comparing like with like.
Now you know how to calculate conversion rate, you may be wondering if yours is any good. But the truth is, average rates vary considerably across industries, business models, product types, and even devices (conversion rates are typically lower on smartphones, due to navigation challenges and security concerns).
Unsurprisingly, lower-cost consumer goods enjoy the highest conversion rates — items we buy regularly without too much thought, such as food and drink, clothing, or health and beauty products.
Conversion rates are lower for high-value goods (like furniture and appliances) and in the B2B sector, where decision-making is more complex.
Think about the complexity of the average buying decision online. Do I like the product? 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 you can also use banners, pop-ups, slide-ins, forms, and in-line links. If you stick with the tried-and-true button, pay attention to its design and placement. For longer content, for example, consider including 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).
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.
Use images and video to show what you’re offering, and include social proof (testimonials, ratings, awards, media coverage) to give customers confidence.
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 – for example, “Save 2 hours of admin work this week”.
The more granular you get with your segmentation, the better you’ll be able to customize your messaging — making conversions more likely.
Indonesian eGrocery brand Sayurbox used AppsFlyer’s Audiences tool to dramatically increase its conversion rates. Drawing on rich first-party behavioral data, they were able to retarget specific audiences across multiple channels with perfectly tailored messaging and promotions.
Read the full customer story here.
Consumers abandon nearly 70% of eCommerce shopping carts. And cumbersome checkout processes are a key culprit.
Lengthy lead generation forms can also turn off potential customers. Basically, customers abandon conversions when they feel that the time investment or experience outweighs the benefit they anticipate.
That’s why it’s critical to look at your end-to-end customer journey and make every stage as simple and straightforward as possible. Let users know what to expect, make navigation super-intuitive, and don’t ask for information you don’t need.
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.
