While traffic is fantastic, optimizing your website’s conversion rate is the real game-changer for business growth. This collection of conversion rate optimization statistics will provide benchmarks for your current performance and offer data-driven strategies to maximize conversions from all your campaigns.

Table of contents

• What is conversion rate optimization?
• Why is conversion rate optimization important?
• 19 conversion rate optimization statistics for 2024

What is conversion rate optimization?

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a data-driven methodology for increasing the percentage of website visitors who complete desired actions on a webpage, such as making purchases or scheduling appointments. This process involves analyzing user behavior on a website, pinpointing obstacles to conversion, and formulating and testing hypotheses to eliminate these roadblocks.

Why is conversion rate optimization important?

It’s crucial to understand that CRO isn’t just another industry buzzword—it’s a fundamental growth strategy that can significantly impact a business’s success.

Maximizes marketing spend

Conversion rate optimization ensures that the traffic generated through various marketing initiatives translates into tangible results. By enhancing your website’s effectiveness, you extract more value from the same visitor pool, ultimately improving your return on marketing investment.

Increases customer lifetime value

CRO doesn’t merely focus on converting one-time buyers; it aims to optimize the user experience to cultivate repeat customers, thereby increasing the lifetime value of each customer and reducing reliance on constant new customer acquisition.

Lowers customer acquisition costs

Improving conversion rates effectively reduces the expense associated with acquiring new customers. Instead of broadening your reach indiscriminately, you’re refining your existing channels to be more efficient at attracting and retaining customers.

Improves user experience

A core principle of CRO is to make your website as user-friendly as possible, inherently enhancing the overall user experience. Satisfied users are more likely to convert, recommend your site, and become repeat visitors.

Encourages data-driven decisions

CRO relies heavily on analytics and user feedback, fostering a culture of informed, data-backed decision-making instead of relying on intuition or incomplete information.

Boosts revenue

Ultimately, the importance of CRO boils down to its impact on the bottom line—it directly drives revenue growth. By converting more visitors into customers more efficiently, businesses experience significant improvements in their financial performance. Want more help developing your growth strategy? Download our free guide and template » 7 Steps to a Growth Strategy that Gets Results

19 critical conversion rate optimization stats for 2024

These CRO statistics reveal how industry, strategy, and device type influence conversion rates.

1. The average Google Ads conversion rate is 7.04%

Our annual Google Ads benchmarks report, based on an analysis of over 17,000 campaigns, found an average conversion rate of 7.04%. The downside? This represents a 10% decrease compared to the previous year.

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2. Apparel and fashion jewelry have the lowest conversion rate

Breaking down our data by industry, businesses selling jewelry and apparel faced the toughest challenges in converting visitors to customers. In contrast, physicians and surgeons achieved conversion rates exceeding 13%.

3. A good conversion rate for ecommerce is 4.8%

A survey conducted by LittleData provided insights into what constitutes a good conversion rate for ecommerce businesses. Surpassing 3.2% puts you in the top 20% of digital storefronts. Achieving 4.8% or higher means you’re leading the pack, effectively converting browsers into buyers. Conversely, a conversion rate below 0.2% indicates a need to revamp your strategy. However, if you’re already exceeding 3.2%, striving for marginal gains might yield diminishing returns.

4. In-stock notifications are the top conversion boosters for B2B businesses

In B2B ecommerce, the most effective conversion strategy involves timely notifications—specifically, alerting customers when desired products are back in stock, as highlighted by 67% of surveyed professionals.

Source This proactive approach re-engages customers, encouraging repeat purchases. Combining this tactic with robust site analytics and efficient onsite search functionality streamlines the path to checkout. Additionally, personalized product suggestions, enticing promotions, and the influence of ratings and reviews further enhance the customer experience, increasing the likelihood of conversion.

5. User-generated content is a conversion catalyst

An analysis of 1,200 websites revealed a substantial 3.2% conversion rate for sites incorporating user-generated content (UGC). This rate increased by 3.8% when visitors viewed UGC.

Source The most significant impact occurred when users actively engaged with UGC. This interaction doubled their likelihood of making a purchase, resulting in a remarkable 102% increase in conversion rates. This data highlights the importance of encouraging interaction with customer reviews, photos, and videos to drive ecommerce success.

6. Mobile vs. desktop conversion rates: Which converts better?

Device type significantly influences conversion rates, with desktops boasting a higher rate of 5.06% compared to mobile’s 2.49%, according to Dynamic Yield’s data.

Source However, mobile’s strength lies in its traffic volume, accounting for approximately 65% compared to desktop’s 32%. This discrepancy underscores the importance of mobile optimization. Neglecting mobile users risks losing not only immediate sales but also long-term customer loyalty in a market increasingly dominated by mobile browsing. Prioritizing a seamless mobile experience is crucial for capturing the entire shopping audience.

7. Automated SMS campaigns can boost conversion by 21%

Engaging customers through their preferred communication channels, such as SMS, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp, is gaining traction. This approach capitalizes on the widespread use of mobile devices, delivering targeted ads, promotions, and discounts directly to users. Timely messaging significantly increases the likelihood of capturing attention. Implementing automated marketing campaigns through SMS can lead to a substantial 21% increase in conversions.

8. Conversion rate is the 4th most important metric to marketers

Nearly a third of marketing professionals (29%) consider conversion rate a key indicator of marketing success. (Note: Conversion rate is not the most important CRO metric.)

Source While not the top metric, conversion rate remains a crucial measure for evaluating marketing performance.

9. The majority of websites maintain a sub-40% bounce rate

Two-thirds of websites maintain an average bounce rate below 40%, indicating their effectiveness in engaging visitors. Only a small percentage (around 11%) experience bounce rates exceeding 60%. This suggests that most sites successfully encourage visitors to explore beyond the landing page.

10. CRO software market will grow to $5 billion by 2025

The conversion rate optimization (CRO) software market is experiencing significant growth, projected to reach a substantial $5.07 billion by 2025, up from USD 3.01 billion in 2019.

Source This growth stems from businesses recognizing the value of CRO tools in boosting online sales and enhancing customer engagement. Companies are investing heavily in AI and machine learning to gain a competitive edge in website optimization, a key aspect of CRO. Learning artificial intelligence can make your marketing more efficient and effective with this free AI in Marketing handbook.

11. Generative AI boosts optimization for 55% of marketers

Marketers are increasingly adopting generative AI, with 32% currently utilizing it and another 43% planning to do so. The primary benefit is a significant 55% improvement in experimentation and optimization capabilities. This allows for rapid campaign adjustments and enhanced content personalization. However, effectively leveraging AI for optimization requires a clear strategy, which remains a challenge for many.

12. B2B websites with 1 second load time have 5x more conversions

Portent’s research emphasizes the importance of fast loading times for improved conversion rates.

Source While 82% of sites now load in five seconds or less, this figure has remained stagnant since 2019. The impact of speed on conversions is substantial. One-second load times can triple conversion rates compared to five-second load times and increase them fivefold compared to ten-second load times. Every second shaved off loading times can significantly impact lead generation.

13. B2C sites with 1 second load time see a 2.5x higher conversion

Similar to B2B sites, research by Portent reveals a strong correlation between site speed and conversion rates for B2C websites.

Source Site speed is improving, with 86% of pages now loading in under five seconds, up from 81% in 2019. Pages that load in one second experience 2.5 times higher ecommerce conversion rates than those taking five seconds. Speed is crucial in B2C ecommerce.

14. Product reviews greatly affect conversion rates

Products with at least five reviews are 270% more likely to be purchased than those without reviews. This highlights the significant impact of social proof on consumer confidence. The influence of reviews increases with price. Displaying reviews can boost conversion rates by 190% for lower-priced items and a staggering 380% for higher-priced items. Reviews can nearly double conversions for budget-friendly products and almost quadruple them for expensive ones.

Source Interestingly, products with perfect 5-star ratings can raise skepticism among shoppers. The highest conversion rates are observed for products with ratings between 4 and 4.7 stars.

15. Personalized CTAs convert 202% better than standard ones

Personalized call-to-action buttons (CTAs) are incredibly effective. HubSpot’s deep dive’s analysis of over 330,000 CTAs over six months revealed that personalized CTAs achieve a 202% higher conversion rate than generic ones. This demonstrates the power of tailoring CTAs to individual customer journeys and interests.

16. Videos convert more with mid-roll CTAs and clear email asks

Contrary to placing CTAs and lead capture forms at the beginning or end of videos, data from Wistia suggests that mid-roll placements are more effective for conversions. Despite decreased usage, lead capture forms have seen a twofold increase in conversion rates, particularly when they explicitly mention “email.” Surprisingly, allowing viewers to skip email submission has proven beneficial. However, fully gated videos requiring email submission before access yield the highest conversion rates, indicating viewers’ willingness to exchange contact information for valuable content.

17. CTA button color isn’t the conversion hero

While the color of your CTA button might seem important, it’s less about the specific hue and more about visual prominence and contrast against the page background. Bing increased revenue by $80 million simply by choosing an optimal shade of blue, similar to Google’s, leveraging users’ subconscious association of blue with clickable links.

18. Entertainment, games, and travel lead the pack on Apple’s App Store

In the latter half of 2022, travel and entertainment apps dominated search ad conversions on Apple’s App Store.

Source Travel apps achieved a remarkable 69% conversion rate, with two out of three users clicking on ads. Entertainment apps stole the show with a staggering 79.69% conversion rate, converting nearly 8 out of 10 ad views into downloads.

19. Events and navigation apps had the highest conversion rate in the Google Play Store

In the first half of 2023, the overall download conversion rate for Android apps on the Google Play Store in the US was 31%.

Source Events and navigation apps boasted an impressive 84% conversion rate, demonstrating their effectiveness in driving downloads. In contrast, card and word gaming apps struggled to convert ad views into downloads, highlighting the varying performance across app categories.

Use these conversion rate optimization statistics to guide your strategy this year

In 2024, prioritize creativity to maximize conversions. These statistics can guide your strategy and highlight areas of focus for your business.