Conversion rate
CVR / conv. rate
Conversion rate is the share of ad clicks that turned into something you count as a result, like a phone call or a filled in form. Google works it out as conversions divided by ad interactions. Microsoft divides by clicks. The two are not the same number, so compare platforms carefully.
Conversion rate tells you how many of the people who clicked went on to do the thing you were paying for. Google defines it as the average number of conversions per ad interaction, shown as a percentage. Its worked example is plain: 50 conversions from 1,000 interactions is a 5 percent conversion rate.
Here is the part almost nobody mentions, and it matters the moment you run ads in more than one place. Microsoft calculates the same named metric differently. Its documentation gives the formula as conversions divided by clicks, times 100, with the example of 300 clicks and four conversions producing 1.33 percent. Google divides by ad interactions rather than clicks. So a conversion rate from one platform is not strictly comparable to a conversion rate from another, even though both columns carry the same label.
One more quirk worth knowing before you panic at a strange figure. Google notes that if you track more than one conversion action, or you set counting to Every, your conversion rate can read above 100 percent, because a single interaction can produce more than one counted conversion.
In practice
A roofing company gets 400 clicks in a month and 24 of those callers ask for a quote. That is a 6 percent conversion rate. If the same account also counts a newsletter signup as a conversion, and eleven people did both, the reported figure climbs without a single extra quote request. The number moved because the definition moved, not because the advertising improved.
Not the same as
- Click-through rate
- That measures how many people who saw the ad clicked it. Conversion rate picks up afterwards, measuring what those clicks did next.
- Close rate
- An inquiry is not a sale. Conversion rate stops at the point somebody got in touch, and says nothing about whether you won the work.
Why it matters to you
Conversion rate is the quickest way to tell an advertising problem from a website or phone problem. If clicks are plentiful and the conversion rate is poor, the ads are doing their job and the page or the person answering the phone is not. Raising bids will not fix that, and it is an expensive way to find out.
What to ask or check
- 01Which actions are set to count as a conversion in my account, and did that list change recently?
- 02Is conversion counting set to Every or to One per interaction?
- 03What is the conversion rate on each platform, calculated the same way, before anybody compares them?
What people get wrong
That a conversion rate can be judged against an industry benchmark you read somewhere. It cannot, unless that benchmark counted the same actions on the same platform with the same counting setting. Most do not say.
Where you will see it
As Conv. rate in Google Ads and as conversion rate in Microsoft Advertising reports, on the campaign, ad group and keyword tables.
Where we fit
Running Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising accounts is one of the things we sell. Settings and figures like this one are part of that work, in an account that stays in your name.
See how we do it