FYI: You're Being Converted Without Even Knowing It

A conversion is a target action that businesses want a consumer to take. There are two types of conversions: primary and secondary. A primary conversion is the main goal for consumers, while the secondary conversion is an additional action that would benefit a business. Conversions vary based on the type of website. For example, let’s analyze the retail e-commerce site, Walmart. Take a look at their homepage below. What actions are they prompting you to take?

Walmart’s ultimate goal is to sell items, making ‘purchases’ its primary conversion. Secondary conversions include creating an account, paying for NextDay delivery, and subscribing to an email list.

There are different ways to track conversions based on the type of conversion. For example, if you want to track online purchases, email signups, or other website actions, you can set up conversion tracking through Google Analytics. To see how many customers called your business by clicking the number on your webpage, you can use Google phone call conversion tracking. Conversions are countable actions, which make them easy to monitor via online programs.

The ability to drive conversions measures the effectiveness of a website’s design. Conversions are best monitored via conversion rate, which is calculated by dividing the total number of conversions by the total number of sessions. If 100 visitors came to Walmart’s website, and 20 of those visitors made a purchase, then Walmart would have a 20% conversion rate.

One way to implement Conversion Rate Optimization is to use A/B testing, where one singular aspect of an existing webpage (A version) is changed (B version). The software then randomly shows consumers either the A or B version of the webpage.

Conversions are measured and compared between the two webpage versions, allowing you to identify whether the change is more or less effective. When optimizing conversion rate, the website’s design should be based on data such as the A/B test method.

Conversions are typically the main factor when it comes to driving revenue. Online conversions are how you can tell if your site needs a redesign, whether your content is effective, and whether you have a strong digital reputation.

Hiring a digital marketing agency can provide support to an existing marketing team, providing the tools and software to monitor conversions, run tests, and gather data.