Marcus Richards
Typically, when we talk about e-commerce conversions, we mean product sales. Since that’s what contributes to top-line revenue growth, it’s the easiest to focus on (and arguably the most important).
But sales are just one type of conversion. And if you want to improve them, you need to focus on individual steps in the conversion funnel.
That’s where micro conversions come into the picture. By looking at smaller, individual milestones in the customer journey — like impressions, clicks, and page views — you can get a better understanding of how customers interact with your site.
Micro conversion definition
You’re probably wondering, what are micro conversions?
Micro conversions are essentially the smaller steps a user takes to complete their final purchase.
The typical customer moves through four stages in the conversion funnel:
- Awareness — A user becomes aware of a product or service through brand messaging or advertising.
- Consideration — The user begins to research and compare the product or service with other options.
- Decision — They decide to purchase the product or service and start the checkout process.
- Conversion — The customer completes the purchase.
Micro conversions include all of the smaller activities a customer takes between the awareness and conversion stages.
For example, if a customer visits your website but doesn’t purchase anything right away, that’s considered an impression (or view). If they click on a product page or add an item to their cart, those would be considered micro conversions too.
Why do businesses measure micro conversions?
The main reason to measure micro conversions is that they provide valuable insights into customer behavior and buying patterns. By tracking these small steps, you can identify potential areas of improvement in your audience targeting, buying experience, and website usability.
For example, if you notice that customers tend to drop off after clicking on a product page, it may be because the page isn’t optimized for user experience. On the other hand, if they seem to stay longer than expected and explore several pages before leaving, that could indicate a larger problem with pricing or availability.
In both cases, micro conversions provide the data you need to identify and address potential issues. And that, in turn, can help you improve sales and customer loyalty.
Analyzing micro conversions
Like all data points, micro conversions are only helpful if you measure and quantify them correctly. Otherwise, they’re just guiding poor decision-making.
Follow these steps to analyze micro conversions:
1. Identify the actions you want to measure
First, you’ll need to identify the micro conversions that will provide the most insight into customer behavior. This could include anything from page views and product views to cart adds, newsletter subscriptions, or downloads.
To find the ones that are most important for your business, map out the customer journey and identify the steps each user takes before completing a purchase.
2. Set a timeline for collecting data (e.g., one or two weeks)
Once you have identified the actions you want to measure, set a timeframe for collecting data. This will help you identify trends and determine how long it usually takes customers to complete each step in the conversion funnel.
For direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands, this timeline will be a lot shorter. Most buyers will make purchases within the first one or two weeks (with many of them converting shortly after seeing an ad.
B2B businesses have much longer sales cycles. On average, a B2B sale takes 84 days to close.
3. Measure and compare results over time
You need to determine whether there’s been any improvement or decline if you want to optimize the customer experience where it matters. To do this, compare your current data to data from past campaigns and look for any changes in metrics such as impressions, page views, or time spent on site.
If there are significant dips or spikes in particular areas of the conversion funnel, it could be an indication that something has changed or needs improvement.
4. Examine the “why” behind the data
Why are customers dropping off after the product page?
What content do they look at before making a purchase?
Which products are the most popular?
You need to dig a bit deeper to get at the root of why certain micro conversions are succeeding or failing. Once you understand the “why” behind your data, it’s easier to make informed decisions about how to optimize your website and customer experience.
Sources of micro conversion data
You can find your micro conversion data in all your customer-facing and customer-oriented platforms.
These include:
- CRM (customer relationship management) software
- Analytics tools like Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics
- Advertising platforms (e.g., Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and Twitter Ads)
- Ecommerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce
- Customer data platforms (CDPs)
Micro conversions are essential for understanding customer behavior
Micro conversions are small steps along the customer journey, but they have a big impact on the success of your business. By measuring and analyzing these actions, you can get a better understanding of how customers interact with products and services and identify areas that need improvement. So, whatever you do, don’t make the mistake of focusing too much on top-line revenue and forgetting the steps it takes to get there.
