Calculate and classify conversion rates
The conversion rate shows you how many of your visitors actually become customers, contacts, or leads. In this article, you will learn how to correctly calculate the conversion rate, which industry values are indicative and where common sources of error lie.
Conversion Rate Rechner
Formula for calculating the conversion rate
The conversion rate is the proportion of website visitors who have carried out a desired action in a specific period of time, such as a purchase, a registration or an inquiry. It is expressed as a percentage.
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Conversion rate example calculation
Your website has had 2,000 visitors in the last 7 days, 60 of whom made a purchase.
These results in:
(60 × 100) /2,000 = 3% conversion rate
What counts as a conversion?
A conversion is always a targeted action. It is directly related to what you want to achieve with your website. These are called macro conversions:
- In e-commerce: A purchase
- For SaaS platforms: Registration for a test account
- For service providers: A submitted contact request
- In content marketing: A download or newsletter subscription
These examples all have one thing in common: They mark a specific step that benefits your business model.
What counts as micro-conversions?
Micro-conversions are minor actions that precede macro-conversions. You should know them, but not primarily and not use them as a first step to calculate your conversion rates.
- Click on a product
- Scroll depth of more than 75%
- Video played
- High length of stay
- Add product to wish list
Track conversion rate correctly
To calculate the conversion rate correctly, you need two clean values: the number of conversions and the number of visitors. You receive the collected user data from the tracking tools.
Tracking tools: Your data source
The most common tools for recording user behavior are:
- Google Analytics (GA4): Standard in web tracking, with extensive evaluation options.
- Matomo: Data protection-friendly alternative, often preferred in Switzerland or the EU.
- Hotjar, Clarity and Others: Additional tools for behavior, but not primarily for conversion counting.
Whichever tool you use, you must define so-called “events” or “conversions.” Because without a clean target configuration, any calculation is useless.
What counts as a visitor?
To calculate the conversion rate, it is important to know the distinction between user and session. Otherwise, the significance of the number is blurred.
- Users (unique visitors) = individual people, counted only once, even if there are several visits
- Sessions = every visit is counted, even if it is the same person
Both variants are allowed. It is important that you do not mix them in your calculation. So if you have 60 purchases and 2,000 sessions, you calculate based on the sessions. For specific campaigns or landing pages, too, the sessions. Users often make more sense for long-term evaluations or strategic comparisons.
Common sources of error
- Double counting: If a user loads the confirmation page multiple times, the conversion is counted multiple times.
- Spam traffic and bots: Falsify visitor numbers and lower the conversion rate.
- Wrong goal definitions: For example, if you value every newsletter subscription as a purchase, your rate is no longer usable.
- Unclear time periods: The visitors and conversions must be in the same time period, otherwise the figures are incorrect.
Examples of good conversion rates by platform and industry
The conversion rate varies significantly depending on the industry, platform and objectives. Here are current values that will guide you towards good conversion rates:
Conversion rates in e-commerce
Average conversion rate: 2.0% to 4.0%
By sector:
- Food & Beverages: 6.11%
- Multi-brand retail: 4.90%
- Beauty & Personal Care: 4.55%
- Fashion & accessories: 3.01%
- Pet supplies: 2.50%
- Furniture & living: 1.24%
- Luxury & Jewelry: 1.19%
Conversion rates in SaaS (Software as a Service)
- Free registration website: 2% to 5%
- Free trial for paying customers: 15% to 20%
Conversion rates with Google Ads
Search Network (Google search ad): Average conversion rate 6.96%
Display network (ad on other websites): Average conversion rate 0.57%
By sector:
- Legal Services: 6.98%
- Consumer goods: 6.64%
- Automotive sector: 6.03%
- E-commerce: 2.81%
Conversion rates in email marketing
Average conversion rate: 2% to 5%
Conversion rates in direct website traffic
Average conversion rate: 3.5%
Interpreting conversion rates correctly
The number of the conversion rate alone says little. It only becomes meaningful in the right context.
Development instead of snapshot
Observe how CR changes over time: after relaunches, campaigns, or price changes. An increasing rate shows optimization successes. A sinking one indicates problems.
Benchmark ≠ target value
Industry figures provide a rough guide. But the important thing is: Where do you start? And what do you achieve after a change? A CR of 1.2% can be very good if you were previously at 0.5%.
Quality instead of quota
A high conversion rate is useless if the washed up customers don't fit in. In parallel, pay attention to other values: bounce rate, turnover per customer, long-term customer loyalty (CLV).
Objective: Optimizing the Conversion Rate
The conversion rate shows you how many of your visitors are trading, i.e. buying, signing in, or getting in touch. It's easy to calculate, but only meaningful if you look at it in the right context: with clearly defined goals, clean tracking and a realistic assessment of your initial situation.
What is important is: Calculating the conversion rate is not an end in itself. It helps you identify weak points and improve them in a targeted manner, from ad to checkout.
Tip: In the following article, you'll learn how to your Optimize conversion rates Can.
The conversion rates on your website don't match the effort you put in?
Maybe it's time for a neutral look at your content, landing pages, and the entire website. Together, we can develop a roadmap that allows your sales to rise again. Get in touch with us and we'll show you how we can help you.
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Calculate conversion rate — common questions and answers
The level of a good conversion rate is 2— 4% for e-commerce, 3— 7% for SaaS (test registration), 4— 8% for Google Ads (search network) and 1— 3% for Instagram ads. But: Your own development over time is more important than a comparison. Because this is the only way to show whether you are on the right track with your optimization measures.
Because the denominator is changing. If you suddenly have significantly more visitors but the same number of conversions, the rate drops. This could be an indication that your ad targeting is addressing incorrectly or is not adding the right users for other reasons.
Only if you evaluate them separately. Clicks on Buttons, Scrolling Behavior, or Video Views can provide valuable clues, but they are no substitute for the main goal (e.g. purchase or request). When you mix micro and macro conversions, the metric becomes arbitrary.
Because the initial situation is different. With Google Ads, you reach users who don't (yet) know you. In email marketing, on the other hand, you write to people who have already had contact with you and are therefore more willing to act. That's why you should always look at conversion rates in a channel context.
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