Conversion rates should not be viewed as an individual entity, but rather be viewed as the sum of both the rate and the context in which it occurs. B2B lead generation can determine a standard conversion rate by following a few vital hints this also applies to new customers and miscellaneous transactions.

Defining a Conversion

A conversion is a traceable response to your offering, this response must be easily identifiable and unique. You should be able to determine if a response is from a unique visitor or as a result of duplicated clicks from one visitor.

Examples of conversions include;

• Subscriptions to E-mail newsletters
• Accessing bottom tunnel offers like demos

The Value of Conversion Rates

Now that you are conversant with the definition of a conversion you have to take the value of each conversion into account. Conversions for different events have varying values, for example a conversion on an offer of an SQL service is of greater value than a newsletter subscription. Google’s process of determining conversion value is to calculate what percentage of people at the offer stage become customers. Your proficiency at closing deals and gaining new customers increases value. The average Lifetime Value(LTV) of gaining that new customer is the conversion value. In essence, different products have different conversion values, some are high value conversions while others may be of a lesser value.

Many Chief Marketing Officers struggle to set out the appropriate goal for their team members to focus on. They focus on what the minimum conversion rate should be and what the market benchmark is. The effect of this myopic school of thought is the misinterpretation of whatever data is accumulated. The results are interpreted out of context and extenuating circumstances are not taken into consideration.

An optimal conversion rate cannot be based on what the current industry benchmark is because it fails to account for the unique nature of every business and also the context behind the numbers. The specific conversion being measured and the target customer base for such conversion must be taken into consideration to get an accurate picture.

Let’s examine this hypothetical-Assuming the industry standard for a good conversion rate is 2-4%, it may seem prudent for a business to set this as its optimal target number but this would be a mistake as it fails to account for the value of such conversions. A market benchmark will not go in depth into the value of each conversion, it could be that the conversion rate of 2-4% is of low value offerings like newsletter subscriptions. To prevent this erroneous misrepresentation you should do a contextual comparative analysis of other similar businesses to determine what value they attach to offerings and the average conversion rates.

The comparative analysis should be of similar offerings otherwise it would be a futile attempt like comparing the field goal percentages of NBA players to that of an High school team.

Before exploring the question of what constitutes a good conversion rate, we must examine the fundamental aspects of the topic. What is conversion and who are the targets of conversion.

Assessing Your Consumer Base

There is a large, uncontrollable portion of the market place that is infested with spammers and rival businesses and as such you have to be able to identify what is a legitimate lead and what is spam.

You decide how you quantify your conversion rate. You can choose to take account of everyone who clicks an offer or just restrict it to only leads that come from verifiable sources. An automation tool can be used to do this sorting of customers in a market  in order to rank value. After determining the valid leads you then attribute a fiscal value to every conversion. For example a visitor who subscribes to an online newsletter can be assigned a conversion value of $1 while a higher quality conversion value is assigned to a visitor who purchases a service such as a SQL to MQL program, the conversion value for this can be as high as $2500.

If you have a number of different services/products you offer, you can visualize it as a funnel. The further along you get down the funnel the higher the value gets. To achieve your benchmarks you have to decide how many conversions of such high value offers you need within the period in review.

Accurate Interpretation of Data

To prevent erroneous conversions a B2B business has to take the following into consideration

• Identifying unique visitors You should be able to determine if a click is as a result of a unique visitor clicking on the offer or as a result of duplicated clicks from an existing customer. This is to ensure that redundant customers do not clog and disrupt an accurate representation of conversion.
• Conversion Methods You should be able to keep track of all your modes of conversion, be it newsletters, calls or chatting platforms.

• Filtering Bad Leads You must be able to separate legitimate leads from the surge of spam and fake offers in the marketplace.

• Automation of Service You should be able to use contemporary automation tools to track your conversion rates. The Office suite on PCs offers a spreadsheet that can be used to track the same but an automated tool is more efficient.

• Grouping Specific Rates The conversion rates on a website varies depending on what page you are visiting. A specific landing page, for example, will have a far different conversion rate than when compared to the rates of the entire site. When carrying out a comparative analysis of conversion rates with competitors you have to take this factor into account. Only conversion rates of identical platforms should be compared to prevent a hugely misleading representation of facts.

Role as B2B Marketer

The goal of an efficient marketer is not excessively high conversion rates rather it is ensuring that only valid high value leads are accepted. This strategy will help the business and make it easier for the sales team in closing their prospective transactions.

Decisions must not be made with the aim of reaching industry benchmarks as this will lead to lower value leads and spam compromising the process.

When answering “what is a good conversion rate?”  You have to ensure that you aim for high standards, strive for quality over quantity.