When & Why to Use Micro Conversions PDF

Fundamentals: a micro conversion is a user activity that leads them to your macro (main) conversion, such as a transaction or qualified enquiry. Google defines micro as ‘activities that users frequently engage in before purchasing.’ Micro are a reliable source of data to help you increase your macr...

Fundamentals: a micro conversion is a user activity that leads them to your macro (main) conversion, such as a transaction or qualified enquiry. Google defines micro as ‘activities that users frequently engage in before purchasing.’ Micro are a reliable source of data to help you increase your macro conversions. For example, when shopping a visitor clicks through various steps before purchase. For lead gen, a user might read key pages or watch a video before committing to an enquiry. Your visitors will rarely go straight to your website, and do exactly what you want them to do. That’s why the average conversion rates (across all industries) are about 2-3%. A portion of users are going to convert in some small way, before they convert in a big way. These micro conversions are determined by your industry and the layout of your website. Measuring micro conversions is nearly as important as measuring macro conversions. You can enrich the path to a macro conversion, if you measure the micro steps that users take to get there. It also gives you more data, more frequently, on which to optimise. If you take all your visitors and divide them up according to conversion type, here’s what you might see: No conversion activity 1st micro 2nd micro Macro The typical website might see anywhere from 5- 50% of visits The money perform a micro conversion. With only a few % hitting the final macro conversion. There’s no hard and fast ratio here – what matters is the conversions being measured are meaningful to the end goal. WHEN & WHY TO USE MICRO CONVERSIONS | COPYRIGHT © ED LEAKE 2021 GOD TIER ADS From an Analytics and Ads perspective you get a complete picture of your website visitors. Targeting - why they come to your website. Behaviour and micro conversions - what they do on your website. Audience - who they are. They can also help you answer questions that move the needle in your favour. In other words, does this micro conversion make the macro conversion more, or less likely? Example questions: Do visitors who browse the promotions page have a higher conversion rate? Is the main call to action button getting a user to click? Which video views are contributing to leads? Which blog post is attracting visitors to sign-up for our newsletter? Whilst you might not directly target and optimise for a micro conversion, they still provide numerous benefits to your ad campaigns. Audiences Diagnosis Observations Testing Remarketing Messaging WHEN & WHY TO USE MICRO CONVERSIONS | COPYRIGHT © ED LEAKE 2021 GOD TIER ADS Firstly, you can create audiences based on website activity known to support macro conversions. These audiences can be used in remarketing, and are particularly useful for RLSA (Remarketing Lists for Search Ads) where you can apply a bid modifier. Or show different ads based on the audience’s activity on your website. Micro audiences can also be added as Observations to your campaigns. These will aid automated bidding and also give you an additional level of reporting. Over a period of time, you can review impressions, clicks and conversions against that audience. You will see how your micro are impacting your macro conversions. Micro conversions are constantly gathering data that hints at things you should test too. Ad diagnosis is the final piece to the puzzle. For example, micro help you review keyword performance when macro conversions are thin on the ground. Macro conversions help you narrow your audience down to users more likely to take action. Many of these macro conversions require analysis before applying. An example might look like: 1. Browsing (wide audience): view a category page 2. Clicked (narrower): view a product/service, interacted with the page 3. Engaged (narrower): joined your mailing list Remember - this is someone who didn’t complete your macro conversion yet, but took many micro steps that might lead to that ultimate goal. You can work through this analysis in the supporting Identify & Apply Micro Conversions guide. For ideas, review the Micro Conversion Quick Reference guide. Ed note: if this is starting to sound complicated, it doesn’t have to be. Creating just a few simple micro conversions today will benefit you later on. WHEN & WHY TO USE MICRO CONVERSIONS | COPYRIGHT © ED LEAKE 2021 GOD TIER ADS The below actions are close to conversion. They are usually worth measuring: 1. Signed-up for a mailing list or newsletter. 2. Downloaded your resource such as brochure, whitepaper or ebook. 3. (ecommerce) add to cart/basket. There are two key considerations you should act on: 1. Measuring and tracking your micro conversions is a must. You will better understand the business and improve your macro conversions. You will also improve remarketing results and have options - the data - for diagnosing issues. 2. Actively optimise for your micro conversions. You want more beneficial macro conversions to occur. Small gains have a compounding impact on not only Ads performance, but your website as a whole. Take action and work through the ‘identify and apply micro conversions’ guide. WHEN & WHY TO USE MICRO CONVERSIONS | COPYRIGHT © ED LEAKE 2021 GOD TIER ADS