What is a conversion rate?

A conversion rate is the percentage of people who do what you hoped they would do. If 500 people visit your booking page and 25 book, your conversion rate is 5%. The “conversion” can be anything you choose: a form filled in, an email clicked, a call booked or a sale made.

It is one of the most useful numbers in marketing because it turns vague questions like “is my page any good?” into something you can measure and improve.

Why conversion rate matters for a small business

Getting attention is expensive. Conversion rate tells you how much of that attention you actually turn into business.

• It multiplies everything else. Doubling your conversion rate has the same effect as doubling your traffic, and it is usually cheaper.
• It lowers the cost of each customer. A better rate means you pay less in ads for every customer you win, which cuts your customer acquisition cost.
• It shows where people drop off. Measured at each step, it tells you exactly which page, form or email needs work.

How to calculate conversion rate

Conversion rate = number of conversions ÷ number of people who could have converted × 100

The bottom of the sum matters. For a landing page it is visitors. For a form it is people who viewed the form. For an email it is people who received or opened it. For sales it is leads or deals.

Worked example: a consultant’s landing page

A business consultant in Toronto runs a free guide page. In a month it gets 1,200 visits and 84 people download the guide. Conversion rate: 84 ÷ 1,200 = 7%. Of those 84, 6 book a paid session, so the lead-to-customer rate is 6 ÷ 84 = about 7.1%, and the visit-to-customer rate is 6 ÷ 1,200 = 0.5%.

Each of those three numbers points to a different fix: the page, the follow-up, or the offer.

Types of conversion rate

What is a good conversion rate?

It depends heavily on the action, the price and where the traffic comes from. A free checklist should convert far better than a $2,000 package. Visitors from your own email list convert better than strangers from a display ad. The most useful benchmark is your own number last month.

Outside benchmarks are still handy as a sense check. If your page converts at 0.5% while similar pages sit several times higher, something basic is probably wrong: a slow page, a confusing offer, or a form that asks too much. If you are well above average, your time may be better spent getting more visitors than polishing the page.

How to improve your conversion rate

• One page, one goal. A page that asks people to book, subscribe and follow you on Instagram usually gets none of them.
• Write a clear call to action. “Book a free 20-minute call” beats “Submit”.
• Ask for less. Every extra form field is a reason to leave. Ask only what you need now.
• Match the message. If your ad promises a price list, the page it lands on should show the price list.
• Add proof. Real reviews, photos of your work and clear pricing reduce doubt.
• Check it on a phone. Many of your visitors will arrive on one.
• Follow up fast. For leads, replying within minutes rather than days lifts the lead-to-customer rate. See how to follow up with leads.

Common mistakes

• Measuring the wrong thing. A high signup rate from people who never buy is not success.
• Judging on tiny numbers. 2 conversions from 20 visits is 10%, but it could easily be 0% next week.
• Counting spam. Bot submissions inflate form conversion rates. Leave them out.

Related terms

A landing page builder helps you make single-goal pages, a form builder helps you make short forms that people finish, and a sales pipeline shows conversion from lead to won deal stage by stage.

Conversion rate in startbuddi

In Publish, the Landing pages list shows visits, leads and conversion for every page, plus an average conversion across all pages. Each page’s overview adds charts of visits and leads over time and where visits came from.

Forms analytics shows a completion rate from views to submissions, and which questions people answer. The Pipeline shows your win rate, and the workspace Analytics page has a Funnel tab that follows contacts from first contact to won deal, so you can see where people drop off. Spam submissions are left out of form counts.

Your next step: pick one page or form, write down its conversion rate today, and change one thing this week.