17 Conversion Rate Optimization Statistics for Your CRO in 2023

What is a conversion rate and why is it so important?

Basically, it’s a percentage that measures the success of our efforts. It is calculated as the ratio of total conversions and interactions. Those can be anything from purchase, phone call, booking, opening a link, watching a video, etc. 

Conversion rate optimization statistics are what sheds more light on exactly how effective our content is in producing this desired outcome (e.g., sales, subscriptions, calls, making a profile).

That’s why we’ve prepared the most essential ones, including in relation to different types of content and complex marketing plans.  

Crucial Conversion Rate Optimization Stats (Editor’s Choice)

• The food and beverage sector has an average of 5.5% conversion rate. 
• In the B2B sector, the average conversion rate is around 5.9%.
• Email marketing is still one of the most efficient mediums for converting with 2.8% typical conversion rate.
• Most companies spend at least 5% of their budget on CRO.
• Google Play has the best conversion rate (30%).
• Facebook ads have a relatively good conversion rate—just above 9%.
• Instagram ads, on the other hand, don’t convert as much (1%).

Conversion Rate Statistics

Let's see who converts the most and why.

1. The food and beverage industry has the largest average conversion rate (5.5%).

(Source: Statista)

If that looks small to you, consider the luxury handbags industry — it has possibly the poorest typical conversion rate of all—0.6%. A fairly straightforward explanation could be that a lot of people want to own such a luxurious item (ads interactions are going up) but only a small number of them can actually afford it (resulting in the low conversion rate).

Let’s see how other industries’ conversion rates compare:

• Haircare—3.5%
• Beauty and skincare—3%
• General apparel—2.7%
• Active apparel—2.5%
• Beauty and makeup—2.4%
• Home, dining, art and decoration—2.4%
• General footwear—2.4%
• Electronics and accessories—2.2%
• Active footwear—2.1%
• Sporting goods—1.5%
• Home appliances—1%
• Luxury apparel—1%
• Home furniture—0.6%

This list gives us a good impression of what types of goods are easier to sell. Curiously, home furniture has the same low rate as the luxury handbags one—this is probably because people do a lot of research and carefully deliberate on potential additions before deciding which to purchase.

2. B2B services also have a high conversion rate—5.9%.

(Source: Ruler Analytics)

Recent stats on conversion rate by industry show that the automotive industry doesn’t convert interactions into sales that often (0.8%). The same is true for the real estate sector (1.3%). 

Just because an industry has a low conversion rate it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s unprofitable. The automotive sector is probably one of the strongest in the world—despite its very low conversion rate. Exactly because of its strong position, it’s able to offer a variety of products to buyers who usually then take the time to carefully choose and contemplate this significant investment. 

So, if you want to know what's a good conversion rate, you have to consider not just the general average but the rates within the particular industry you are interested in.

3. Email still has the biggest conversion rate of all channels—2.8%.

(Source: FirstPageSage)

This is only true for B2C conversion rate optimization stats. When it comes to the B2B conversion rate, the situation is a bit different, with public speaking and account-based marketing being the most efficient in converting into sales. 

Going back to B2C conversion rate by channel stats, we can see that organic social marketing is relatively efficient (2.4%), as well as thought leadership SEO (2.1%).

Video marketing, on the other hand, isn’t with just 0.8%. The reason isn’t exactly clear—perhaps Google or YouTube ads are rather annoying to users and they tend to skip them. Maybe they are just everywhere, hence the higher rate of interactions. Probably it’s the combination of these two factors.

4. Conversion rate of leads to sales is crucially determined by response time.

(Source: WSI Marketing Vancouver)

An MIT study has shown that up to 50% of sales are completed by businesses that are the first to respond to customers. 

With the average lead response time being 42 hours, there’s really a lot of room to take this to your advantage and profit. Most people don’t contact only one company, so your response time will very likely affect your conversion rate!

According to a Harvard Business Review study, most businesses are pretty slow to respond:

1. 37% respond fairly quickly, within an hour.
2. 23% never respond.
3. 16% will take between 1 and 24 hours to respond.
4. And 24% will take more than 24 hours. 

CRO Marketing

CRO marketing budgets are growing for a number of reasons.

5. More than 90% of companies use call-to-action buttons.

(Source: Statista)

This estimation is based on call-to-action statistics from Finland. It might not seem that representative for international generalization, but gives us an idea on where the trends are going in countries like the US. 

CRO statistics clearly show that call-to-action buttons have become something you simply have to use. 

6. Top companies spend at least 5% of their budget on conversion rate optimization.

(Source: Neil Pattel)

The estimation given by Neil Pattel might just be an educated guess, but at least it shows that companies are spending significant portions of their budgets to optimize the conversion rate of their online content. 

7. More than 50% of business owners plan to increase their CRO spending.

(Source: CX.com)

Keep in mind that this data is from 2016, so it’s quite likely that by now the percentage of CRO-aware business owners has only increased. 

8. Having videos on your landing page will likely boost your conversion rate.

(Source: JASIST)

This isn’t a million-times digested “fact” you can find online. It’s a recommendation that comes from a peer-reviewed study, which has tested the effects of certain characteristics of landing pages. 

This is especially significant for explicit advertisement, and to a certain extent to advertorial content—which is more similar to a classic webpage. 

Ecommerce Conversion Rate

Ecommerce conversions depend on a number of factors but are also maleable.

9. Global average for online store conversion rate is around 4.31%.

(Sources: Invespcro)

In the US, this average is somewhat lower, around 2.6%, which is probably due to a very diverse offering and choice of various products in this country. 

10. Google Play has the best website conversion rate (30%).

(Source: Invespcro)

Here’s a list of Google’s follow ups:

• Movie Mars—23%
• DollarShaveClub.com—20%
• 1800Contacts.com—18%
• Coastal.com—15%
• Keurig.com—13%

11. On average, desktop computer users are more likely to convert.

(Source: Invespcro)

If we consider the ecommerce conversion rate by device stats, we’ll see that desktop computers are the best “converters”, with 3.9%, followed by tablets 3.5% and finally mobile phones 1.8%. It’s possible that when people use mobile phones they are not really looking to make significant purchases, instead they just want to relax.

12. A study showed that influencer marketing is more efficient than social media ads.

(Source: Redalyc)

Note that these researchers simply compared audiences’ responses to the same ad content, as shown by a social media ad or an influencer. For instance, the social media ads produced  67.3% engagements (interactions), while influencer marketing contributed to only 32.7% of the interactions.

The situation is reversed when we consider actual sales. Influencers generated 68.9% of sales in this study, in spite of their relatively low “click-through-rate”. 

“Inorganic ads”, the prime example of which are social media ads, are made in such a way that generates clicks and interactions in general, but which usually don’t lead to conversions. Influencers, on the other hand, without generating that much engagement (number of interactions) are extremely good at converting. 

Simply put, the influencer conversion rates are pretty high, albeit hard to measure. A by-the-way recommendation by an influencer might be followed by millions of their followers, whereas millions of people who see a traditional ad could just ignore it. That’s the difference. 

13. Facebook ads have a 9.21% average conversion rate.

(Source: Wordstream)

That might seem really high, but it’s completely true. That’s because the problem for Facebook Ads isn’t CRO at all, it’s their click-through rate, which is more than poor. We shall discuss this soon enough, for now, here’s a list of average Facebook conversion rates across industries:

• Travel and hospitality—2.8%
• Technology—2.3%
• Legal—5.6%
• Industrial (e.g. construction)—0.7%
• Retail—3.26%

These are the lowest-ranking ones. We can see that, pretty straightforward, heavy industries are not really that popular on Facebook.

On the other side are the sectors with good CRO on Facebook:

• Education—13.5%
• Employment—12%
• Fitness—14%

14. Instagram has a 1% conversion rate.

(Source: WEBfx)

Instagram’s social media conversion rate is much less impressive. However, while 1% may not seem as much, social networks like Facebook or Instagram are so immense that even 1% can mean a lot. It’s also a status thing to run ads on social media—it not only shows your power as a company, but also makes you stand out amongst competitors.

Conversion Rate Optimization Tips

Optimizing sales funnels is tricky but there are a few important points to consider.

15. Pay close attention to 6 primary elements of CRO.

(Source: VWO)

These are:

• Landing page 
• Content writing
• CTAs (call-to-action buttons)
• Website structure and navigation
• Easy forms for subscription
• Website stability and speed

We have to be honest here—there are no “miracle” conversion rate optimization strategies. The best practices for conversion rate optimization revolve around creating a solid website and a good user experience. 

Let’s take for example a very famous YouTuber, Bald and Bankrupt, who has millions of subscribers but never uses CTAs (e.g., “please like and subscribe”). Why is that? Well, the general opinion of such phrases is dislike and distrust. That’s why he has correctly decided to forgo using them altogether and turn to other methods of attracting followers.

16. You can use an SEO conversion optimization tool.

(Source: Google)

While SEO doesn’t only revolve around content writing, it’s safe to say that it is the focus of most SEO practices. There are many free SEO tools, ready for you to use. If your niche is pretty competitive with lots of websites trying to get on that first page of Google, you’ll probably have to invest a bit more in such efforts.

Keep in mind that SEO is not a “proven” method for success, nor is it the most important thing. There’s that danger of making content only for internet search engines. And while they are definitely important, always remember that you’re making content for real people, not for machines.

Web search engine conversion optimization often requires the efforts of a small team of specialists—some focusing on writing, others on SEO research and keywords, or on implementing the content within the website. 

17. There are 3 main causes of low conversion rate.

(Source: Forbes)

• You’re not using the right medium—perhaps you’re trying to make conversions on your web pages even though it would be smarter to focus on email conversions. Or you are completely disregarding other means of conversion, such as phone calls, door-to-door sales, etc. 
• CTAs are not strategically placed—let’s say you want your users to create new profiles. If the design isn’t optimized for the best user experience, namely your profile button is nowhere to be found, that could be a reason for low conversion. Luckily, this problem is easy to solve—just put yourself in the shoes of your users and try to view your own website as a customer.
• You’re competing in an industry that has a very low conversion rate—we’ve seen that there are many differences across industries. So even if you really want to increase your conversion rate, this might not be entirely possible due to buyers’ attitudes towards the whole industry. 

Wrap Up

CRO statistics are pretty interesting, don’t you think?

They can do wonders for your conversion rate optimization strategy—just compare your conversion rate with the averages in your industry and learn about the most typical mistakes.

However, while conversion rate optimization statistics are crucial for your business, the most important thing remains to provide high-quality products and services to your clients.