Conversions: Types, Measurement, Optimization

No matter how vital performance metrics like click-through rate are, companies cannot survive on traffic alone. To profit and thrive, businesses must turn clicks into customers: In other words, they need to convert them.

“Conversions are the clearest way to measure whether your marketing is actually doing its job,” explains Chris Coussons, founder of Visionary Marketing. “You can have all the clicks in the world, but if no one’s converting, there’s no real value being created.’’

According to Coussons, one of the most common ways brands lose out on conversions is by being pushy, instead of providing a clear path from a relatable problem to an effective solution. However, when brands engage with their audiences and create content that makes them feel understood and confident, “the conversions tend to follow.’’

What Is a Conversion?

A conversion is when a company convinces a person to take a specific action, making the transition from a lead to a customer. Whether they are buying a product or service, or signing up for a free trial or subscription, a conversion is the ultimate goal of your marketing efforts.

Types of Conversions

Types of conversions vary according to industry, but for e-commerce businesses, the most important conversion is product purchases. For service-based businesses, a conversion may be booking a service or consultation.

However, when a person signs up for an email list, downloads a manual, fills out contact forms for a promotional event, or requests a quote, these are important, smaller-scale conversions that can lead to a purchase or booking. Watching videos, clicking through on a post, or spending time on your website also represent essential micro-conversions.

What Is a Conversion Rate and How Is It Calculated?

The easiest way to calculate conversion rate is to take the number of sales, bookings, or other specific desired customer actions, divide it by the total number of visitors, and multiply that number by 100 to get a percentage.

“For example, if 10 people buy from a landing page that had 100 visitors, that’s a 10% conversion rate,” says Rodrigo César, co-founder and CEO of SSinvent. “That number tells me if I’m driving quality traffic and if my pages are doing their job.”

How to Optimize for Conversions

Speed and UX

To figure out where to focus optimization efforts, it’s crucial to determine where traffic is dropping off. For instance, if you have a high click-through rate but a low conversion rate, the problem could be technical. “Fast-loading, mobile-friendly pages lead to more conversions,” notes Jessica Hitchen, SEO content executive at Quirky Digital.

Compelling Headlines and CTAs

Once you’ve cleared up any technical issues, the best way to increase conversions is through content that incites consumer action, whether buying, downloading, or subscribing. Clear headlines, subject lines, and calls-to-action (CTAs) that compel people to keep clicking are the first step toward doing this. Utilizing special offers to create a sense of exclusivity or urgency and personalizing CTAs for specific audience segments can further optimize content for conversions.

A/B Testing

To ensure your content resonates with your intended audience, experts recommend A/B testing, a type of experiment in which two versions of headlines, images, CTAs, forms, or other content are targeted toward similar audiences simultaneously to see which performs better. César has found through A/B testing that “simplifying pages, reducing distractions, and creating a clear, compelling value proposition has the biggest impact.”

Role of Content in Conversions

Content Should Address Pain Points

The purpose of content is not just to drive traffic, it’s to drive action, and knowing your audience’s frustrations is one of the most effective ways to do this. Companies can learn more about people’s needs through online surveys and market research or by engaging directly with individuals on social media.

Content Should Solve a Problem

Once companies understand their audience’s pain points, they can address them directly with blog posts, demos, and other content that shows how their products and services will make consumers’ lives easier. Hitchen recommends using testimonials, reviews, and accreditations as evidence or “social proof” of this. “This also helps with EEAT, or expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trust, which Google loves,” she adds.

Content Should Be Tailored and Targeted

To achieve the highest possible conversion rate, content should be tailored and targeted to segments of your audience. For instance, someone clicking through on your newsletter, spending time on your website, and even putting a product in their cart, may be far enough down the marketing funnel where a special offer may convert them. Conversely, someone just spending a few minutes on your website may benefit from more blog content to make them feel more “warmed up and informed,” Coussons says.

How to Leverage Different Channels for Conversions

Identify High-Performing Content

Knowing what content engages your audience is crucial for leveraging it across different channels. By using tools like Google Analytics, brands can begin to examine which posts are driving traffic and what people are clicking on, to brainstorm content for other channels.

Repurpose on a Different Channel

Leveraging different marketing channels is essential for maximizing the return on content. César recommends repurposing high-performing blog posts into YouTube videos, Instagram carousels, and lead magnets. This multi-channel approach not only leverages content, but it also helps keep messaging consistent.

Don’t Forget About Email

Although blogs and paid search are crucial content channels, email is an underrated path toward more conversions. “It’s where your most engaged audience lives, and it can do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to follow-ups, offers, and building trust over time,” Coussons says. Blog posts with many views can be leveraged into newsletter content, ideally leading to a growing email list to increase conversions.

Measurement and Analysis of Conversions

Google Analytics 4

César and Coussons recommend using Google Analytics 4 (GA4), the most recent version of Google Analytics. GA4 allows companies to see where their traffic is coming from and which channels perform better than others. It also allows for more detailed tracking by measuring individual user events rather than group sessions. Both versions, GA4 and the older Universal Analytics, give big-picture insight into how traffic aligns with conversions.

Hotjar

Hotjar adds to the insight of Google Analytics by showing businesses what their audience is ignoring, or where they’re dropping off or getting stuck, through heatmaps and session recordings. “That insight is gold when you’re trying to figure out why someone didn’t convert,” Coussons says. Hotjar offers tools that can be helpful for A/B testing, as well.

HubSpot

Once you’ve analyzed where your traffic is coming from and how your audience behaves after they get to your website, tools like HubSpot help companies track leads through the sales funnel and turn them into conversions. The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system offers a centralized platform to keep track of traffic and customer information, such as emails, while managing blog and newsletter content. Like Hotjar, A/B testing resources are also available.

Realize

Realize stands out as a powerful performance marketing platform because it offers comprehensive tools to create, track, and optimize conversions effectively. Through its integration with the Taboola Pixel, advertisers can define and monitor a wide range of conversion events, from simple page views to dynamic purchases with varying values. The platform allows for precise control over conversion windows and even enables tracking of offline conversions via CRM integration. Crucially, Realize leverages advanced AI and unique first-party data to optimize campaigns in real-time, intelligently identifying high-intent audiences and adjusting bids to maximize return on ad spend (ROAS) and other key performance metrics, ensuring advertisers can truly realize their business objectives.

Key Takeaways

A conversion occurs when a person takes the desired action of marketing efforts, which is often to buy a product or service. For instance, in e-commerce, conversion rate is calculated by dividing the number of online sales by the total number of website visitors and multiplying that number by 100 to get a percentage. Optimizing for an efficient user interface and creating engaging content that compels consumers to take action are effective ways to boost conversion rates.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Micro vs. macro-conversions: What’s the difference?

While macro-conversions refer to the end goal of marketing efforts — i.e., turning a lead into a customer — micro-conversions represent benchmarks for achieving this. Some micro-conversions include how long someone spends on a page, if they watch a video, how far they scroll, signing up for a newsletter, or adding a product to their cart without purchasing. Micro-conversions suggest potential, whereas macro-conversions indicate action.

What is the impact of trust and credibility on marketing conversions?

Building trust and credibility with your audience is important when converting new customers because it removes consumer doubts before they surface. Coussons says that incorporating “trust signals” such as online reviews can go a long way towards instilling confidence. Whether it’s a well-researched blog post, an informative video, or an ad for a helpful product, people are likelier to act on content they believe in and share it with others.

What is the best practice for optimizing paid advertisement campaigns for conversion rates?

Paid ads are a great way to drive traffic, but optimizing these campaigns for higher conversion rates mostly comes down to what consumers see after they click. That is why it’s essential to test headlines, images, and other content, and keep messaging consistent throughout. That way, even when using paid ads to target specific audiences and pain points, the landing pages deliver on the promise to make life easier, without confusing them along the way.

What are alternatives to social media to improve conversion rates?

Social media can help boost micro-conversions, like getting potential customers to watch a video or read a blog post, but it’s not everything. To increase macro-conversions, SEO-driven content for organic and paid search, email marketing, and affiliate or referral partnerships are all great alternatives to social media.