Conversion.

The word conversion means transformation: a visitor becomes a prospect, a customer or a subscriber. In web analytics and ad accounts, a conversion is a technically measurable event that stands for this transformation. The share of visits that lead to a conversion is the conversion rate. The cost of it is described by CPA.

A distinction is made between macro and micro conversions. Macro conversions are the actual business goals: purchase, quote request, appointment booking. Micro conversions are intermediate steps that indicate interest: a click on the phone number, downloading a price list, watching a product video. Micro conversions are useful for spotting early whether a page works — but they must never be lumped together with the actual goals.

This very mistake is common in practice. If a Google Ads account counts every view of the contact page as a conversion, it reports brilliant figures, and the automated bid strategy optimises for visits instead of enquiries. A clean definition specifies which events count as primary conversions for steering and which are merely observed. This separation can be configured in Google Ads, Meta and GA4.

Many conversions do not happen on the website: a call, a visit to the shop, a confirmation by email. Such offline conversions can be fed back into the advertising systems, for example by reporting from the CRM which enquiry became a job. That takes more effort but provides the most honest basis for budget decisions.