13 essential CRO metrics for measuring success

Getting leads as a business is relatively easy, but transforming them into sales requires a little extra effort. If you want to convert more leads into loyal customers, there are several key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics to identify.

In this guide, we’ll examine what a conversion rate optimization (CRO) strategy looks like, complete with all the most important metrics you’ll need to track.

Conversion rate optimization is a strategy designed to generate more sales for your company by analyzing specific metrics. These metrics will reveal important data related to the relevancy of your ads, how long a customer stays on your website, how many pages they visit, and more.

Once you have a good grasp on these metrics, you can fine-tune your website and get the conversion results you want.

Aside from getting more sales, improving your CRO will also improve your relationship with customers.

An ineffective website layout will cause 42% of customers to click away without engaging with your brand. Consumers are drawn to websites with modern designs, quick load times, and relevant content. When you can provide an easy customer experience, they’ll be more motivated to make purchases. You’ll also better understand user browsing behaviors, enabling you to focus on highlighting the pages your visitors like best.

Additionally, tracking CRO analytics allows you to pinpoint weak spots related to your digital marketing platforms and modify them as needed. A steady flow of web traffic is great, but only if you’re also getting a reasonable number of sales. CRO strategies will boost your company’s revenue and make your marketing strategies more cost-effective as a result.

A good CRO strategy should enhance as many performance metrics as possible. Here are a few of the most common ones you’ll use in digital marketing:

1. Macro-conversions

Macro-conversions refer to a major interaction between the customer and your company, such as a sale or an estimate request. They are typically the conversions with the highest value, so you can use them to calculate the total profit your website is generating.

Calculate your macro-conversion rate by dividing the number of these conversions by the total number of visitors to your website.

2. Micro-conversions

Common examples of micro-conversions include searching for products, clicking search results, and watching videos on your website.

While they might not generate any revenue for your company right now, more successful micro-conversions confirm a user’s interest in your company. When users can complete a lot of micro-conversions, it strongly indicates that your website is valuable.

3. Returning user conversions

This metric will tell you how many users are regularly visiting your website. Analytics tools will reveal which pages your customers visit most.

4. Form conversions

A form conversion rate tells you how many of your leads fill out a contact or sign-up form on your website. A conversion indicates that the user is significantly interested in what your company offers.

To increase form conversions, you’ll need to provide information that will make a user feel confident enough to trust your company with their investment.

5. Interactions per visit

The interactions per visit metric offers valuable insights into the depth of customer engagement occurring on your website during individual sessions. These interactions encompass a range of user actions, such as clicking on links, exploring content, submitting forms, making purchases, or any other type of engagement.

To calculate interactions per visit, divide the total number of interactions (defined as user actions) by the total number of visits or sessions to your website within a specific timeframe.

This metric provides a clear measure of user engagement, indicating the effectiveness of your website in capturing and retaining visitor interest, which ultimately contributes to the likelihood of converting visitors into customers.

6. Bounce rate

Bounce rate is a crucial metric that reveals the percentage of visitors who exit a website after viewing only a single page without taking any further action.

A high bounce rate suggests a disconnect between visitor expectations and the content or user experience provided, highlighting potential areas for improvement in marketing strategies or website design.

You’ll need to monitor both mobile and desktop bounce rates consistently. Mobile sales significantly contribute to overall revenue, surpassing desktop sales by 50%.

Optimizing your website for smartphones and tablets is paramount in maximizing user engagement and conversion opportunities across all devices.

7. User path

The user path explains what happens from the beginning to the end of a customer’s time on your website. Examining this data will also reveal which pages and links a customer engages with before completing the sale.

Gaining more conversions may be as simple as optimizing each interaction that takes place during the customer journey, whether you speed up load times or make links more visible.

8. Churn rate

This is the rate at which customers will stop engaging with your company after a certain time.

Find your churn rate by dividing the lost customers by the total number of customers you had during your set time frame and multiplying that number by 100.

You can expect to see some churn, but excessively high rates could indicate a problem with your current marketing strategy.

9. Click and scroll depth metrics

These metrics tell you how many times a page has been visited and how far users scroll down on pages. More time spent on a page indicates that your users feel engaged enough to keep interacting with your content.

10. Click-through rate

A click-through rate indicates how many users were brought to your website via an outside link.

Customers usually navigate to websites through digital ads, but they can also find your company through organic search results. Pinpointing where your company is getting the most attention tells you where to focus your marketing efforts.

11. Landing page call to action (CTA) conversions

This refers to how many customers clicked on your CTA buttons. CTA buttons should be easy to recognize and include action-oriented phrases like “contact us” or “call now.”

Many CTA buttons are also accessible from every page of a company’s website, as this helps streamline the conversion process.

12. Customer acquisition cost (CAC)

This is the money you used over a set period that encouraged a customer to buy something from your company.

When calculating your CAC, you should combine all your marketing costs as well as all the money you paid your employees or partners to perform marketing strategies. Divide that total by how many customers you received within your specified timeframe.

Keep your CAC below your estimated revenue to ensure your company is always making consistent profits. If you’re spending too much on acquisition, you may want to cut back your spending or consider a different marketing strategy altogether.

13. Customer lifetime value (CLV)

Similar to CAC, CLV refers to how much a company can expect to earn from a loyal customer.

You’ll need more data to calculate CLV, such as how long the customer is predicted to keep buying your products and services. You’ll also need to consider how often the customer makes a purchase and the average amount they spend. Multiply these three numbers together to get your CLV.

Repeat customers are estimated to generate as much as 65% of a brand’s revenue each year. Additionally, the more dedicated customers you earn, the fewer impressions it will take to push them toward making a purchase. That’s why it’s ideal to convert as many of your low-value customers into high-value ones as possible.

The ideal conversion rate depends on your industry, but it doesn’t have to be an outrageously high number.

When thousands of people are visiting your website each day, just 50 purchases can prove that your marketing skills are working. For example, the benchmark for most ecommerce companies is considered to be anywhere between 2.5% and 3%. The top 20 earners on Shopify have a conversion rate of just 3.3%.

Analytics tools can often calculate your precise conversion rate for you.

After you get used to tracking all the necessary basic metrics, you may also want to examine the following:

Average revenue per visitor

This tells you how much your company earns each time someone visits your website.

To calculate yours, divide your total revenue earned throughout a time period by the number of people who visited your website.

Even if only a portion of those visitors chose to convert, knowing this number helps you determine whether you’re spending your marketing budget wisely.

Visitor recency, frequency, and monetary (RFM) analysis

RFM ranks individual customers based on how they engage with your brand. This, in turn, gives you a broader understanding of your current CRO tactics.

RFM analysis requires you to look at how often a customer purchases something from your brand, as well as how frequently they make purchases. You’ll also examine the average money spent by the customer during each interaction.

Segmented conversion rates

Using RFM, you can segment your customers to determine which are the most profitable. Customers who score highly in all three categories will spend the most at your company.

Once you have determined what kind of customers are guaranteed to convert, you may want to shift your marketing strategies to align with their preferences. In the process, remember to nurture relationships with new and former customers who can still bring in sales.

Funnel conversion rate

This is how many customers performed an action (or a series of actions) along the sales funnel leading up to a macro-conversion.

The funnel conversion rate is determined by dividing how many users completed the macro-conversion with your website’s total visitors, then multiplying the result by 100.

Knowing this percentage can help you get rid of snags in the funnel that prevent customers from converting.

Simply tracking your CRO metrics is rarely enough to achieve the results you want. Using the data you’ve found, be prepared to do the following:

Set clear goals

Having goals set in place will keep you on the right track to increasing your conversion rates.

For some brands, generating more sales is their biggest aim, while others might want to use a CRO strategy to draw attention to a mailing list or an upcoming event hosted by the company.

Optimizing each metric will yield the most success. However, depending on your goals, paying more attention to specific metrics at first might be more efficient.

Segment data

Analytics tools can give you a lot of demographic, geographic, and even behavioral data about your customers. This data also influences how you examine certain metrics.

For example, if you have high bounce rates on webpages with a lot of text, your audience is probably best engaged with short-form descriptions or visual elements.

You can use your findings to craft content that your customers will enjoy the most.

Benchmark against industry standards

Take a look at the websites created by your competitors and measure how well yours is currently performing. Customers might see little reason to do business with you if your company can’t adhere to (and exceed) certain standards.

Benchmarking can also help you determine what your company should be earning each year, motivating you toward greater success.

Conduct A/B testing

A/B testing plays a pivotal role in CRO by allowing you to systematically test variations of your website to identify how to improve key performance metrics. Even minor alterations can significantly impact conversion rates, so it’s essential to continuously experiment and refine the elements of your website.

Whether testing different layouts, content, or CTAs, A/B testing provides valuable insights into user behavior and preferences. Tracking metrics consistently allows you to swiftly identify successful changes and avoid setbacks in your CRO optimization journey. This iterative approach ensures your website evolves in alignment with user needs and maximizes its potential for driving conversions over time.