Web Analytics: Conversion Rate

Engagement. Impressions. Completed Views. In advertising and site evaluation these are important metrics – but ultimately, the one metric that matters, in a world of which sales equate to success is conversions. Businesses have to find ways to influence consumer behavior and convert.

To note, not all conversions have to be sales – it’s not a one KPI kind of metric – conversion simply means that the consumer took a desired action that furthers them down the path-to-purchase.

Looking at conversions as a part of the equation is what leads to the conversion rate – the percentage of users who take the desired action.

As with any metric, conversion rates shouldn’t be the end all be all as there are too many implications as to what causes the ebb and flow as well as to what is determined as successful.

With this in mind, there are ways to use conversion rates in more meaningful ways. Barker, from Smart Insights, provides the following into breaking through conversion rate limitations and making conversion an incredibility powerful tool.

Always take other numbers into account alongside overall conversion rates. Conversion rate is an excellent metric for us to ask, “Why?” Why has the rate increased? Why has it gone down?

Use it for very specific tasks. Landing pages built around a specific conversion tend to have a very high success rate. Email is another channel that has a strong influence on the path-to-purchase.

Break your conversion rate down by channel. Barker has two recommendations for channel breakdown:

• Acquisition channels like non-brand PPC will convert at a lower rate than a site average – these should be looked at individually rather than as an overall conversion.
• Channels should be separated so optimization strategies can be developed and implemented channel specific rather than an overall optimization strategy that may not see the same effect cross platform.

Break conversion rate down by visitor type. New and returning visitors have different motivations – just as we would approach the strategy to communicate to them and influence behavior, we should treat their conversions as too different metrics.

Focus on microconversions. Any problem has a solution but sometimes we look at the final goal and skip the smaller conversions that have to happen in order for the final conversion. It is important to look at the desired conversion in smaller chunks and make sure that you are optimizing and pulling triggers to hit each of those touchpoints. The small moments matter.

When I think of microconversions I relate this idea to consideration. In order to get a consumer to our final conversion we first have to peak their interest and secondly, we have to be in their considered set. Without consideration, we aren’t going to move the needle on any users path-to-purchase.

Google Analytics pinpoints 4 separate microconversions that should be measured and applied to success metrics – used to inform strategy and drive to the larger conversion metric.

• Email Signup
• Created Account
• Browsed Site Extensively
• PDF Downloads

Each of these actions are types of engagement users prior to purchasing. These microconversions are happening all the time, but not necessarily recognized as a key piece to the puzzle – when in reality, they are the puzzle.

Web analytics are a complex word, but when we put all the pieces together they help to inform larger decisions. We will continue to evaluate web analytics, the metrics and how it all comes together to improve strategy and influence behavior.