Website Conversion rates are one of the measurable values that show how effectively your website is achieving its key objectives. Average conversion rates in different industries stretch from 2% to 10 %. It is important to understand that these numbers can vary depending on the initial conversion goal. The chances are, your conversion rates will be higher if your goal is to collect contact information of the prospect in exchange for a free e-book. However, this number is likely to be significantly smaller if your goal is related to cash transactions.

Even though not all conversions bring the same value to business, it does not mean one is more important than the other. Depending on the goal, conversions can be divided into two main categories: micro and Macro conversions. What is the difference between the two, you may ask.

What is micro conversion?

Micro conversion signifies a change in the user from being a prospect to becoming an active follower of your products or services.

Micro conversions might include:

– Subscribing to newsletters, updates
– Downloading, sharing or engaging with content
– Uncompleted purchases or application.

Even though micro conversion is related to small engagements, monitoring them can help to discover important indicators of potential Macro Conversion. By closely analyzing such engagements, business owners have a chance to learn more about user behavior on their site, as well as make improvements on UX accordingly. Usually, such changes are related to reducing obstacles site visitors encounter when trying to take some kind of action.

What is macro conversion?

Macro conversion is also known as a primary conversion because it aims to serve a primary purpose of the website.

Depending on the industry your business is in, macro conversions might include:

– Completed purchases, applications or registration
– Upgrade to paid services
– Submitted forms

Macro conversion is an ultimate goal of all businesses. However, it is related to high commitment on the part of the customer, therefore as a goal it is harder to achieve.

Solely focusing on macro conversion can put you in significant disadvantage for a couple of reasons. First, you are likely to give all of your attention to a small percentage of your visitors (macro conversions), and completely ignore the rest of the visitors, who as possible micro conversions might just need a little time, a little nurturing to convert to paying customers. Also, you could be losing valuable information about user behavior on your site. Such tools as Google Analytics allow you to gather data, which you can use later on, to improve your website to convert more of your visitors.

It is important to understand that not all micro conversions will lead to macro conversions. Nevertheless, having micro and macro goals gives you a greater chance to see a multidimensional view of your website. And as mentioned before, being able to see a bigger picture of your website is extremely important when growing and expanding your business.