Hristina Nikolovska
Getting prospects to visit a website is a piece of cake compared to the energy spent on the real challenge — conversion rate optimization. CRO is by no means a trifling matter especially when we know that an increase in sales conversion by as little as 1% or 2% doubles revenue — which makes all the difference in the world.
With most websites facing a real conversion problem, the latest CRO statistics might not only show you the way to getting those target metrics higher up but also offer a valuable insight into creating a winning marketing strategy.
CRO Statistics (Editor’s Choice)
- Across industries the average conversion rate is 2.35%.
- With 4.95% the food and beverages industry is the boss of conversion rates.
- Videos boost conversion rates by 80%.
- Just 22% of businesses are pleased with their conversion rates.
- Only 30% of companies have a team responsible for CRO.
- A one-second delay in site speed lowers conversions by 7%.
- The majority of companies run fewer than 5 landing page tests per month.
General CRO Stats Every Marketer Should Know
1. Across industries the average conversion rate is 2.35%.
Around one-quarter of all websites rely on 1% conversion rates meaning that out of approximately 40 people that visit only one person delivers the desired outcome. Although figures vary dramatically depending on the industry and the website, the overall average conversion rate is currently at 2.35%. So, if you are anywhere close to this figure, you’re doing a good job.
(Word Stream)
2. The online shopping conversion rate globally stands at an average of 2.58%.
CRO stats from 2014 indicate that the ecommerce conversion rate worldwide has been declining with the exception of the UK where the rates have jumped from 3.65% to 3.81%. In the US, however, the median rates have dropped from a 3.60% average ecommerce conversion rate at the end of 2014 to 2.57% in the second quarter of 2019.
(Statista, Invesp)
3. Desktops have the highest average ecommerce conversion at 3.90%.
Conversion rates by devices indicate tablets might be starting a silent revolution in CRO with a jump from 1.42% in 2016 to 3.49% today. CRO trends further reveal desktops remain leaders in conversion with almost 4%, down from 4.23% in the first quarter of 2016. Meanwhile mobile conversions have dropped from 3.59% to below-par rate of 1.82%.
(Invesp)
4. The best websites enjoy 11% conversion rates.
It appears only 25% of websites know the secret conversion rate formula and rely on a solid 5.31%. If you are somewhere around this rate, the good news is you are doing better than 75% of the websites. Conversion rate optimization statistics indicate that 10% of the top-performing websites generate rates higher than 11% which is almost five times higher than the median rates.
(Funnel Overload)
5. ‘Conversion rate optimization’ is one of the most searched Google phrases.
Google the Almighty has the answer to all questions, even to why companies are spending over $2,000 a month on various CRO tools. It’s simple because you pay some to get some more. Another less mighty but equally revealing study concluded the following CRO facts — the median ROI for businesses using CRO tools is 223% while the percentage of respondents that did not generate any ROI was low at 5%. Plus, 173 of the 3,000 surveyed marketers said their ROI has skyrocketed to over 1,000%.
(Outgrow)
6. Google is the best advertising channel.
When it comes to advertising channels and conversion rates, Google leads the pack with 8.2% while Bing is keeping up with 7.9%. The role of effective advertising channels seems to pose no problem for the social media and as expected, social media conversion rate statistics pinpoint Facebook as the top scorer with much lower score compared to Google’s but still solid at 4.7% and Instagram and Pinterest with 3.1% and 2.9%, respectively. Twitter, YouTube, and Snapchat are hanging in there with a little under 1%.
(Alexa)
7. Windows beats the conversion rates of Macintosh.
To ensure your venture’s success and create a market conquering strategy, knowing how much you can gain from the preferred operating system of your potential clients is essential. Conversion rate optimization trends show that Windows (4.41%) outperforms Macintosh (3.67%), while iOS (2.11%) outperforms Android (1.81%). Chrome OS meanwhile shows promise in conversion rates with a solid 3.01%, standing firm among the suitable operating systems for turning traffic into loyal customers.
(Smart Insights)
8. With 4.95%, the food and beverages industry is the boss of conversion rates.
If you are trying to sell food and beverages via your ecommerce store, set your conversion rates higher as this industry is above average, according to conversion rate optimization stats. The health and beauty industry comes in second with 3.80% while the average rates of the electronics industry is also high at 3.50%. Sporting goods, surprisingly, have the lowest rate of 2.35%.
(Funnel Overload)
9. Facebook ads across industries convert at an average of 9.21%.
Facebook is helping fitness studios across the globe stay in excellent shape by converting their prospects at the remarkable rate of 14.29%, while also boosting the education industry’s efforts to enlighten minds by converting 13.58% of their traffic. Social media conversion rate statistics are also favorable for industries such as employment and job training, and healthcare with rates higher than 10%, but demonstrate poor performance for fields such as technology, travel and hospitality and industry services.
(Word Stream)
10. The highest average B2B lead conversion rate by industry is 10%.
The professional and financial service sellers and the media and publishing industry have the highest average conversion rates in the B2B space. The education and healthcare with 8%, SaaS and software with 7%, and technology or hardware equipment with 5%, as website conversion rate statistics show, are also converting many visitors. Charities and nonprofits with only 2% meanwhile are fighting for a lost cause.
(Industrial Marketer)
11. With 2.9% conversions paid search generates the highest rate by traffic source.
Where there is intent, there is conversion which is why rates are much higher when consumers are actually searching for a product. Paid search and organic search conversion rates are highest at 2.9% and 2.8% respectively. Referrals with 2.6% and emails with 2.3% according to conversion rate optimization stats, are also doing an excellent job at converting visitors into loyal customers so it would be wise to consider this for your next marketing strategy.
(Smart Insights)
12. Videos boost conversion rates by 80%.
Web users don’t like to read much and are happier when they see videos explaining the services or products offered. Consequently, websites with videos are not only more entertaining for prospects point out to a landing page conversion rate of up to 80%. In fact, video conversion rate statistics indicate that no matter how you choose to use videos, the benefits outweigh the costs as companies using videos in their marketing strategy do not only get 34% higher conversion rates but also boost click-through rates by 27%.
(OmniKick)
13. Email marketing claims up to 5% conversion rates.
Since the average conversion rates differ not only by company but also by industry and audience location, there is a lack of any real or transparent data about the actual conversion rates for marketers using email in their campaigns. In general, CRO statistics and newer studies report an average email conversion rate of up to 5%.
(Anyleads)
14. 50% of CRO professionals have less than three years of experience.
Very few professionals have been working in the field of CRO for over 10 years. Most of those have less than three years of work experience, while 20% have been working with optimization for less than a year. Interestingly, the majority of CRO professionals come with previous experience in UX or analytics.
(CLX)
Conversion Rate Optimization Facts and Stats
15. Seven out of ten small businesses do not have a CRO strategy.
Without a well-documented strategy on CRO you cannot understand what you are doing right or wrong, and you have no results to support that what you think you are doing right is actually right. Interestingly, 68% of small businesses are marketing ‘on the edge’ without documenting or planning related to conversion optimization.
(Outgrow)
16. Companies with stellar conversion performances spend a minimum of 5% of their budget on CRO.
CRO statistics highlight some shocking information about the gap between what is spent on getting traffic and what is paid for turning prospects into customers. For every $92 marketers spend on acquiring a customer, only $1 is spent on CRO. Companies with impressive conversion rates meanwhile spend at least 5% of their resources on CRO knowing that doubling the conversion rates will pay for half their traffic.
(Funnel Overload)
17. A whopping 74% of CRO programs bolster sales.
The latest sales conversion rate statistics confirm that only a quarter of what you do could negatively impact your CRO strategy and three quarters will surely give it a boost. At the end of it is the 80/20 rule in action so analyze which CRO options make your revenues tick and commit your strategy to the particular course of action.
(KyLeads)
18. Just 22% of businesses are pleased with their conversion rates.
Yes, the percentage is alarming. This dissatisfaction, however, mainly derives from the fact that very few marketers are aware of what CRO statistics have to say on the average conversion rates and how they vary across industries. Also, even fewer businesses know that using appropriate targeting and testing methods can scale up conversions by 300%.
(Outgrow)
19. Most sales happen after more than seven contacts.
In 85% of the cases vendors just give up after the first or second contact with a potential lead. But if you want to win them over you have to keep getting them back to your website. Conversion rate optimization facts indicate that 81% of sales happen only after contacting the client for the seventh or eight time — so, the moral of the stat is to pay more attention to people you can influence over time.
(KyLeads)
20. Only 30% of companies have a team responsible for CRO.
The CRO business is a relatively young industry but given its investment returns and revenue growth, it should be taken very seriously. And yet, only 53% of organizations have an allocated budget for CRO. Conversion rate optimization trends mention that 29% of companies have one employee in charge of optimization, 20% have designated people across different teams and 21% have not assigned anyone for the role.
(CLX)
21. Improved conversion rates serve as an incentive for 50% of companies to do more A/B tests.
Acknowledging the benefits of CRO not only has half the companies doing more A/B tests but leads to 47% using more optimization methods to tweak conversions. And there is more with CRO stats concluding that 44% use split testing software while a substantial 60% of online marketers intend to venture on extensive analysis of the customer journey to scale up conversions.
(SessionCam)
22. 50% higher sales for companies running lead nurturing campaigns.
If you want more sales you need to give some nurturing to your leads as it will not only raise your sales by 50% but it will also reduce your costs by 33%. This will also help you turn your brand into the ‘one and only’ for customers. Sales conversion rate statistics meanwhile claim that nurtured leads make for 47% larger purchases.
(Outgrow)
23. Site speed delay by just one second lowers conversions by 7%.
Yes, the speed at which you could lose a lead if you are going slower by just one second is faster than the speed of light! It can also cost you your money and ‘good name’ so optimize well before you sell. Otherwise, as CRO facts reveal, no matter how much you invest in increasing conversion rates, they will keep dropping by 7% per ‘slow’ second.
(KyLeads)
24. Marketing automation increases leads by over 400%.
Chatbots are the new kings of conversions. Conversion rate optimization shows that marketing automation through the use of social media scheduling tools, thank-you, and welcome or event-triggered emails such as reminders or email workflows as a strategy to nurture leads generates a staggering 451% increase in qualified leads.
(Fronetics)
Landing Page Statistics
25. Lead generation websites point to an average of 13% conversions.
Although it is hard to find any relevant published data on the average conversion rates of lead generation websites, some lead generation statistics show an average of 13% of visitors get turned into loyal customers. The highest conversion rate for these websites is high at 28%.
(Invesp)
26. Business consulting has the highest lead generation conversion rate at 27.4%.
Lead generation and landing page conversion rates by sector, according to landing page conversion statistics point out to a wide gap between sectors as some businesses have much higher conversions than media. The average landing page conversion rates for example are high at 6% for vocational studies and job training, and travel and business consulting at 5% while for the health industry they are low at 2.8%. The business consulting sector at 27.4% and the travel industry at 25.1% have the highest landing page conversion rates.
(Smart Insights)
27. Long landing pages scale-up leads by 220%.
Landing page statistics could be the roadmap to increasing leads — by a whopping 220% no less with above-the-fold CTA and perhaps it is why 48% of marketers are invested in creating a new landing page for every campaign. The bad news though is that only 52% of companies and agencies use them as a means to convert more prospects.
(Word Stream, KyLeads)
28. A higher number of landing pages leads to 55% more leads.
Even more evidence in favor of the data that a new landing page for every campaign grows the number of leads. Landing page conversion statistics confirm that companies that have a higher number of landing pages, 10 to 15 to be exact, generate higher traffic conversions by up to 55%. Moreover B2B companies with over multiple landing pages (40+) convert more successfully by over 1,200%.
(Funnel Overload)
29. 100% more conversions by removing the navigation menu.
People like to roam the Wide Web believing they are free of anyone asking them for their age or navigation bars telling them things they deem unnecessary. While only 16% of landing pages don’t have navigation bars, landing page conversion rate statistics say that removing these from the equation results in increased conversions by 100%. Data also suggests that even though the average number of form fields is 11, reducing it to just 4 brings 120% higher conversions. Consequently, the optimal number would be 3.
(Word Stream)
30. 50% of landing pages are mobile-optimized.
With smartphones causing a real upheaval in the digital industry, the number of consumers using them for online search, communication, and shopping is surging. And latest CRO trends suggest that if you want to keep moving forward, you need to optimize your landing page for mobile. So, if you belong to the 50% who haven’t made their landing page mobile-friendly, do it right away.
(KlientBoost)
31. The majority of companies run fewer than 5 landing page tests per month.
Google once ran 7,000 A/B tests to see which landing page copy works better but this is only to give a perspective on how the pros do it. The rest, or 75% of businesses, are experiencing problems finding professionals to optimize their landing page copy. Landing page statistics further astonish with 82% of marketers declaring effective testing is ‘somewhat’ or ‘very challenging’ for them. This could be the answer to why 65% of companies run only 5 or fewer landing page tests per month.
(Word Stream, Outgrow)
32. ‘Click here’ converts 30% better than ‘Register’.
The use of relevant, non-threatening text no matter how small a detail may seem, can do wonders. Studies show that the anchor text used for the CTA buttons has an immense impact on conversions. For example, landing page statistics mention that ‘click here’ and ‘go’ seem less committing to consumers, leading to higher conversions by 30% and 25%, respectively. Interestingly, the default ‘submit’ when used as CTA anchor text reduces conversions by a staggering 3%.
(Funnel Overload)
Wrapping it Up
Marketers worldwide spend hours, valuable resources, and a considerable amount of work on driving traffic. Yet, many of them don’t realize that optimizing the process of converting visitors into leads and offering them more opportunities and reasons to say ‘yes’ is actually the ‘Golden Ticket’ to the revenue-growing factory. Hopefully the CRO statistics listed in this article will serve as a roadmap for online businesses to start focusing on developing skills to implement more effective website optimization practices.
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