What is a micro-conversion?

Conversion, conversion, conversion: the most important metric to measure in online marketing is the conversion. And if you’re like most marketers, you define a conversion as a lead or purchase. However, there are other key metrics, or micro-conversions, that have a direct impact on the effectiveness of your conversion optimization initiatives.

A micro-conversion is any desired action within the conversion optimization funnel that is less significant than a macro-conversion (lead or purchase). Examples of micro-conversions can include page views, downloads, video views, and social media engagement. By measuring micro-conversions along with your macro-conversions, you can analyze all areas of your conversion optimization funnel, and optimize its overall performance. It can also be helpful to measure micro-conversion influence on lead or purchase conversion (which key behaviors lead to a conversion?).

In my recent Search Engine Journal article, “10 Landing Page Goals for PPC Campaigns”, I cover 10 important macro & micro-conversions that marketers can analyze in order to improve all areas of the conversion optimization funnel. They include:

1. Transactions
2. Leads
3. Up-sells & cross-sells
4. Video views
5. RSS Subscribes
6. Inbounds
7. Forward to a Friend
8. PDF downloads
9. Social engagement
10. User-direct segmentation choices

What other micro-conversions are you measuring?