Definition provided by WiderFunnel
A conversion occurs when a user completes some predetermined action on your site. Conversions do not have to be tied to monetary goals, and common examples are when a user completes an order, clicks a button, submits a lead generation form, reaches a specific page, or any other goal of interest.
Conversions are recorded as an absolute number and can be thought of as the number of people who took a certain action on your site.
Conversions are an important metric because the number is used as the basis for calculating the conversion rate. Conversions are the lifeblood of conversion rate optimization and without them there would be no way to determine the success of an A/B test.
Conversion numbers should not be analyzed on their own, however, as they have little value until they are placed within the context of sample size and duration.
Conversions are split into both micro and macro categories, and both have important roles in results analysis.
In CRO, most conversion goals (both micro and macro) can be boiled down to a few common action types: “Clicks”, “Pageviews”, and “Submissions”. With a few exceptions, the majority of conversions will be achieved by one of these three actions. Each business should determine one macro-conversion and a variety of micro-conversions for each experiment.
Often, for lead generation businesses, the final conversion occurs over the phone. In this case, phone calls or final sales conversion numbers can be used as a macro conversion. Call volume can be used as a micro-conversion, but experiment success should be determined by final sales numbers whenever possible.