Conversion – calculation and impact on actual sales

Although the concept of conversion in sales began to be used in the 20th century to measure advertising effectiveness, its widespread use came with the digital era. In digital marketing, where every stage is strictly defined and measurable (data-driven), the term has become a key performance indicator. As a result, sales conversion has come to reflect not only the conversion of a visitor into a buyer, but also any transition from a passive state to an active action.

What is conversion in sales

The term came into advertising and then into modern marketing along with sales funnel, proposed by William H. Townsend based on the hierarchical model AIDA it involves taking customers through a series of sequential steps to make a purchasing decision. The idea was to guide as many potential buyers as possible along a pre-defined path.

In digital marketing, building and managing a funnel has become significantly easier thanks to the availability of tools for collecting and analysing data. Conversion rate (CVR) has become a metric for assessing the effectiveness of different stages of the sales process. Essentially, it reflects any ratio of two interrelated values ​​and allows for:

• calculate the effectiveness of advertising;
• compare promotion channels;
• optimize the marketing funnel.

How to calculate CVR

A user moves through the sales funnel, completing specific steps that change their “status” for the business. At each stage, marketers anticipate different measurable target actions, such as:

• The attention-grabbing stage involves visiting the website, clicking on the banner, downloading free materials, and installing the app.
• The engagement stage includes saving a product as a favourite or adding it to a cart, filling out a form, requesting a demo, and registering.
• The conversion or purchase stage involves placing an order, signing a contract, or purchasing a paid subscription.
• The retention stage includes product reviews, repeat purchases, loyalty program registration, and subscription/plan renewal.

The universal conversion formula allows you to calculate the percentage of users who completed the target action relative to their total number:

Conversion = (number of completed target actions / number of visitors) × 100%

This means that performance indicators can be calculated at any stage of the funnel, regardless of how it’s customized for your business.

Basic Types of Conversions in Marketing

While conversions are a universal metric, some indicators are extremely important in marketing and require constant monitoring, analysis, and development:

• Registration – what percentage of visitors left you their details.
• Downloads — the number of downloaded electronic materials (catalogs, presentations, guides).
• Engagement – ​​how often users respond to your content (likes, comments, reposts).
• Lead is the percentage of visitors who left their information on a website, landing page, or social media, for example, through a feedback form.
• Sales conversion is the number of interested customers who ultimately purchase a product or service, i.e., the conversion of a potential buyer into a real one.

The latter metric is key for business, as it reflects the actual effectiveness of marketing efforts and directly impacts revenue.

What does conversion affect

Once you understand how to calculate conversion, you need to understand why. Beyond a general understanding of marketing effectiveness, this metric can be used for:

• Sales funnel optimization. Which efforts yield real results, where the business’s bottlenecks lie, and which combination of steps maximizes successful deals.
• Improving the customer experience. Where and why potential buyers are lost.
• Analysis of advertising campaign results and target audience dynamics. Which channels, formats, and creatives delivered the expected results and in which target audience segments.
• Budget optimization. Where to invest more resources, and where expenses weren’t justified.
• Marketing strategy development. What number of users is needed to reach the planned sales volume?

For even more accurate results, you can calculate and analyse metrics for individual promotion channels—website conversion, paid advertising, social media, affiliate programs, email newsletters, and more.

Sales Conversion Cost

One of the related and important metrics for business is cost per conversion. It reflects the average cost a business spends to acquire a new customer. Research FirstPageSage I’m showing the cost per lead (CPL) in different industries in 2025. Here’s some data:

Besides, EmailTooltester offer statistics on the cost of leads by channel:

Combining CPL and CVR allows marketers to evaluate the cost of acquiring one paying customer (CAC) and compare the effectiveness of different channels. This helps optimize budgets, select the most profitable lead sources, and predict the profitability of marketing campaigns.

What does conversion depend on

Sales conversion depends not only on advertising; other factors also influence the rate:

• careful development of the target audience;
• lead quality (users who are truly interested in the product);
• value proposition;
• simplicity and convenience of the customer journey, quality of interactions;
• brand reputation;
• pricing policy.

External factors such as seasonality, business cycles, and the state of the economy deserve special mention. In the B2B sector, the work of the sales department often plays a decisive role—the speed of response to customer inquiries, the quality of the product presentation, and negotiating skills.

Thus, sales conversion is merely an indicator of the stage at which a business is losing customers, which requires deeper analysis. The more detailed all stages and customer touchpoints are defined, the easier it is to identify shortcomings and improve the process. Art-Marks specialists offer comprehensive marketing strategy and sales funnel development with clear metrics for measuring effectiveness, significantly simplifying and accelerating routine business tasks.

What indicators should I focus on

The further down the marketing funnel users go, the lower the CVR will be. However, there are no standard metrics; each business requires its own assessment. Approximate averages by industry, based on aggregated statistics WordStream and Ruler Analytics:

It’s also important to consider the promotion channels and marketing tools used. For example, statistics from a marketing agency report First Page Sage:

To determine benchmarks for your business, you need to calculate metrics at each stage of the sales funnel and by channel for 3-6 months, then calculate an average as a starting point. It’s far more important to track the subsequent dynamics of these metrics, which will allow you to:

• track the impact of specific changes, implementation of marketing plans and tools;
• Analyse seasonality and the results of temporary promotions;
• compare data across promotion channels;
• optimize the distribution of budget and resources for advertising;
• adapt standards and KPIs to the current situation.

How to improve CVR

It’s not enough to know what conversions are and how to measure them; it’s important to understand how to use this information. Examples of necessary changes that can be made to improve metrics include:

1. Improving customer experience – optimizing the customer journey, improving website usability, enhancing content, and working to increase trust.
2. Working with the offer – increasing the value of the product, personalizing goods and services, creating discounts, bonus programs, limited promotions, etc.
3. Marketing channel optimization – proportional redistribution of resources, A/B testing, retargeting setup.
4. Working with data and analytics – audience segmentation, tracking dynamics and trends, making decisions based on specific statistics.
5. Working with the sales department (for B2B and complex products) – increasing the speed of feedback, improving presentations and scripts, and providing a personalized approach.

Conversion is just one metric that, when carefully managed, can significantly improve a company’s performance. Art-Marks offers in-depth analysis of current marketing strategies, building a successful sales funnel, and optimizing various promotion channels based on specific, measurable data.