The conversion rate determines the percentage of visitors to a website who make a conversion. The conversion does not necessarily have to be a transaction or a purchase; many predefined targets can count as conversions. The conversion rate is one of the most important KPIs in online marketing. It can be used to measure e.g. whether an advertising campaign was successful.
Calculation of the Conversion Rate
The conversion rate is calculated as follows:
Number of conversions*100 / Unique Visitors = Conversion Rate
In order to determine the ratio as accurately as possible, “Unique Visitors” are taken into consideration – to record individual visitors rather than all clicks. In rare cases, the conversion rate is calculated using impressions or sessions instead of visitors. Due to the rarity and possibly unrealistic nature of the conversion rate based on these values, it will not be considered further here.
Factors influencing the conversion rate
In e-commerce, average conversion rates are often between one and five percent. However, these vary from industry to industry and depend on many factors such as the degree of awareness of the company, item prices or the size of the offer. Conversion rates are also influenced by the following factors, among others:
- Extent of the number of visitors
- Complicated registration procedures
- Quality of the offers
- User experience (user-friendliness, user guidance, communication of the offer, etc.)
- Technical problems
- Adding products to the shopping cart
- Seasonalities (e.g. Christmas)
- Lack of payment options