Conversion Rate

Percentage of users who complete a goal action.

Vanity Risk

Conversion rate without volume context is misleading. Converting 50% of 10 visitors beats converting 2% of 10,000 only on paper. Always report conversion rate alongside absolute numbers.

Conversion Rate = (Users who completed action / Users who could have) × 100%

What it measures

Percentage of users who complete a specific goal action. "Conversion" is context-dependent: it might mean signing up, subscribing, purchasing, or completing any defined step. Always specify what you're measuring (visitor-to-signup, trial-to-paid).

Benchmarks

E-commerce: 2-3% (visitor to purchase)
SaaS trial-to-paid: 15-25% (opt-in trials)

What to watch

Rising: Your funnel is more effective. But check volume: optimizing for conversion can sometimes attract lower-intent visitors who inflate the denominator.
Falling: Something is blocking users. Use funnel analysis to find the drop-off point. Also check for audience mix shifts, as different traffic sources convert at different rates.

In practice

An e-commerce site simplified checkout from 5 pages to 1 and saw conversion jump from 2.1% to 3.4%. But average order value dropped 15%. Users were impulse-buying smaller items. They added a "frequently bought together" prompt, which recovered AOV while keeping most of the conversion gain.

Tools: Session Recording (Hotjar, FullStory), Funnel Analysis.