Conversion rate optimisation, with conversion rates from seven accounts we run

What is conversion rate?

The conversion rate is the share of visitors or clicks that do what you want: submit a form, call, book or buy. In an ad account it is calculated from clicks. In Google Analytics it is often calculated from sessions, which gives a different number. Always check what is below the line before you compare.

The example is the search campaign for the move-out cleaning company we run in Oslo, July–September 2026. The second formula is why the conversion rate matters so much: double it, and the price per lead or sale is halved without touching the bid.

Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is the work of getting a bigger share of your traffic to convert. In practice it is as much about counting correctly and sending the right traffic as about changing the page itself.

A conversion is what the account is set up to count: a form or booking for the lead businesses, a purchase for the online stores. Search includes branded searches in several of the accounts. An eighth account, an online store, is left out because its Google account counts purchases twice. The rate would look twice as good as it is.

Why the numbers differ

From 0.9 to 19.2% in the same table. That doesn’t mean one page is twenty times better than another. Four things explain most of it.

1. Campaign type

Search converts best, Performance Max worse and Shopping worst, in every account where we run several types. At QualiPet: 8.6% on search, 4.7% on PMax and 2.0% on Shopping. In the tattoo supply store: 12.4, 5.8 and 1.9%. Someone searching has already decided to look. Someone who sees a product in a Shopping ad is often just comparing prices.

But a low rate is not the same as a bad campaign. The move-out cleaning PMax converted only 3.9%, but the clicks cost NOK 5, so a lead came in at NOK 121 against NOK 285 on search. For the moving company, PMax was also cheapest per lead (NOK 413 against 549). So compare cost per conversion, not just the rate.

2. Branded searches

People searching for your name want to buy from you. They convert far better than people searching for the service. If branded searches sit in the same campaign as everything else, the rate looks better than the job the ads do with new customers. The fix is a separate brand campaign. At the moving company, the search “rask flytting” cost around NOK 44 per click in the regular search campaign; it now sits in its own campaign with a NOK 15 cap.

3. What you sell

Move-out cleaning is a purchase people must make by a deadline, at a fixed price. The search campaign converted 19.2%. A sauna is a big purchase people think about for a long time. The sauna search campaign converted 1.3%, and a lead cost NOK 975. Both accounts do what they should. The price of the product and how long the customer takes to decide set the frame for what a good rate is.

4. Mobile or desktop

Desktop converted better in six of seven accounts, often twice as well. The exception is roof and facade cleaning, a local service where mobile dominates: 4,258 of 5,490 clicks came from mobile. If your mobile rate is far below desktop, that is where there is most to gain: the form high up, few fields and a page that loads fast.

Conversion rate for online stores

For online stores the conversion is a purchase, and the rate is lower than for services where a form is enough. In the two online stores in the table, it looked like this in July–September 2026:

• Shopping: 1.9–2.0%
• Performance Max: 4.7–5.8%
• Search (including branded): 8.6–12.4%

The average for the whole store therefore depends heavily on the mix. A store that gets most of its traffic from Shopping will have a low overall rate even when everything works. The conversion rate in Google Analytics, calculated from all sessions including organic traffic and people just browsing, is a third number again.

For online stores, conversion rate is an in-between number anyway. What matters is whether sales make a profit after cost of goods, shipping and ads. You work that out in what is a good ROAS, and more on channels is in Google Shopping.

Conversion rate optimisation in the right order

Button colours and headline tests are what many people think of first. We start somewhere else, because the first points below can make everything else meaningless if they are wrong.

1. Tracking has to count correctly. At Leid.no, the tracking counted far more purchases than actually happened. The conversion rate looks great, and Google optimises toward something that doesn’t exist. One of the accounts we run is left out of the table above for the same reason. At Marlow Dental Centre, leads were not measured at all before we came in. Check that only real forms, calls and purchases count, that each action counts once, and that forms, calls and bookings are separate conversions.
2. The right traffic. The rate drops when you pay for clicks that can never become customers. In the move-out cleaning account, the search “billig flyttevask oslo” (cheap move-out cleaning Oslo) cost NOK 298 without a single lead before it was added as a negative keyword. Go through the search terms report, and separate branded searches from the rest.
3. The offer. A page can’t sell an offer that isn’t clear. What does the customer get, what does it cost, and why should they choose you now? The move-out cleaning page we made for Veldigrent says in the headline that the cleaning is “guaranteed approved at handover”. That is what the customer is worried about.
4. The landing page. One offer, a headline that answers the ad, the form high up on mobile and no menu leaking visitors away. A new landing page for business leasing delivered a 16.1% conversion rate and NOK 412 per lead in its first 30 days (to 13 Aug 2026). How we build them: landing pages for ads.
5. The form. Every field costs inquiries, but a field that asks for what you need to give a price gives better leads. Ask for what is necessary and no more. Fields by industry are in lead generation for service businesses.
6. Response time. It doesn’t change the conversion rate in the ad account, but it decides how many leads become customers. The customer has often sent the same request to several companies. Whoever calls back first has a head start.

We don’t state how many percent each step adds. In an account, many things happen at once: season, bids, new ads and competitors. We don’t have numbers that separate the effect of a single step from the rest, and we won’t make them up.

Nor do we sell conversion rate optimisation as a separate service. It is part of how we run Google Ads and Meta: tracking, landing page, form and ads fit together, and we are measured on what a customer costs. What it costs: see the pricing page.