What is micro conversion? What are micro conversions? How can you find them?

What micro-conversions can you use to help people take the desired end-goal action (i.e. buying a product, trialing a product, or getting a consultation for free)?

This guide will help you do just that.

Let’s start with some definitions.

What is a micro conversion?

Micro conversions are small steps that a person takes to convert. They can include signing up for a webinar or joining a newsletter.

Micro conversions don’t usually require much risk or commitment from prospects, but rather try to gauge interest based on behavior.

For example, someone might download one of Natalie Hodson’s freebies…

It’s safe to assume this person is part of her target market, as she sells courses to help women lead healthier lives.

Marketers use micro conversions to gauge interest in their brand/products/services, allowing them to segment leads and promote relevant offers.

Micro conversions are also used to guide people on a low-friction journey that eventually leads to conversion. For example…

1st Micro Conversion- Free Download

2nd Micro Conversion-Open Welcome Email Sequence

3rd Micro Conversion: Register for a Free Webinar

4th Micro Conversion Webinar

5th Micro Conversion – Purchase Offer

These are just a few examples of micro-conversion metrics that are common…

• Page views
• Sign up for the newsletter
• Total pages viewed
• Time on the page
• Resource download
• Trials are free
• Video views
• Steps to checkout
• Comments/shares/likes

What is a Macro Conversion, you ask?

Macro conversions refer to the final-of-funnel actions a person takes. These are the major conversions like signing up for subscriptions or buying products.

Taken from the micro-conversion example, we can see that the 5th conversion is the macro conversion. It should look exactly like this…

1st Micro Conversion- Free Download

2nd Micro Conversion-Open Welcome Email Sequence

Sign up for a free webinar at 3rd Micro Conversion

4th Micro Conversion Webinar

5th MACRO Conversion – Purchase Offer

The micro conversions take to the macro conversion. While macro conversion is always the ultimate goal, micro conversions offer a valuable journey that inspires trust and builds action.

What is the importance of micro conversions?

Micro conversions bridge cold traffic to paying customers.

It would be great to attract cold traffic to your site and make them buy using a simple product page. However, this is rarely possible.

It is important to seduce people into purchasing.

To prove you are knowledgeable, provide free value, send empathy emails to show prospects that you care, take the risk, and make them feel urgent.

These types of micro-conversions can create attractive funnels that will lead to more sales and revenue.

Let’s take a look at some examples.

Two real-life examples of micro conversions

Here are two real-life examples to give you an idea of the micro conversions.

1. Quiz: The Tonic Lead-Gen Quiz

Micro conversions, as we have already discussed, can be used to gauge interest in a brand.

Let’s take a look at The Tonic, a free newsletter that uses micro conversions to determine subscriber quality.

To get more subscribers, The Tonic uses the following Facebook advertisement.

After taking the quiz, people will be prompted to enter an email address to receive their quiz results.

Here are the quiz analytics for this month.

We have people clicking on the Facebook advertisement (1st micro-conversion), people taking the quiz (2nd macro conversion), and finally, people entering their email address for their results (that’s the macro transformation, in this instance).   

The quiz has a 24% conversion rate. This funnel costs The Tonic $0.46 per subscriber.

But what about retention?

Can people unsubscribe from the newsletter after they have signed up?

Let’s take a look at micro conversions that can be used to determine subscriber quality.

After people have entered their email addresses to receive their results they receive a welcome email from The Tonic.

These are the metrics that will be used to send a welcome email.

We have 46% open and 6.7% unsubscribe rates, as well as zero spam complaints.

The open rate is healthy and the unsubscribe rates aren’t too high given the lead magnet. The 0 spam complaints is also a positive sign.

So far, so good.

What about the open rate for future newsletter emails?

Here are the stats for the most recent.

5.3% open rate, 3.6% click-through rates — both quite good — and a 1.8% rate of unsubscribing — again not bad considering the large number of subscribers and high open rate.

All those micro conversions suggest that The Tonic has a very effective lead-gen strategy. They can get subscribers and keep weeding out people who don’t want to be contacted at an ongoing rate.

2. Carrot’s Lead to Customer Funnel

You can use micro conversions as well to create customer journeys that lead to a macro conversion.

Carrot is an example of this. It’s a SaaS company that helps real estate professionals market online.

Carrot’s website has many lead magnets.

Once someone downloads one of these resources, their email address is added to Carrot’s database and a sales sequence is initiated to educate the new lead about Carrot’s software. The sequence eventually leads them to sign up.

Carrot’s backend marketers pay attention to these metrics.

They track how many leads they receive each month, and how many of their existing leads are converted into new customers.   

Carrot generated 4,757 leads during that time. Carrot generated 1,056 leads that became customers, giving us a 22% macro conversion rate.

This is a testimony to Carrot’s marketing techniques (i.e. micro conversions) once a lead has entered their ecosystem.

How to track micro conversions in Google Analytics

Google Analytics is one the most powerful and affordable tools to track both macro and micro conversions.

The video below will walk you through setting up macro and micro conversions on your website within Google Analytics.

Top 4 Tools for Tracking Micro Conversions

We’ve already shown you how to track micro-conversions in Google Analytics. But if that isn’t enough, there are four other tools with different features.

1. Segmetrics 

Segmetrics software allows you to optimize for revenue at every touchpoint of your marketing funnel. It offers advanced analytics on customer lifetime journeys and retention, churn, MRR, and lead attribution as well as customer lifetime value.

2. Hotjar 

Hotjar gives you unique insights into how people interact on your landing pages and sales funnels. Hotjar allows you to create heat maps that show where people click. You can also use surveys to collect feedback on your pages. Live recordings are available of people engaging with your pages.

3. HubSpot

Hubspot is a CRM that allows B2B companies to track micro sales conversions. You can track prospects’ interactions and create workflows.

4. VWO

VWO is a powerful A/B testing tool that household brands such as AMD, Hyundai, and Ubisoft use. VWO can be used to perform statistically significant tests and track results to optimize conversion experiences.

Last Thoughts

Micro conversions are the key to creating the buyer journey. They guide customers from learning about your company to purchasing from your business.

They do it humanely.

Micro conversions are a one-step approach to gauge interest, build trust and provide value. They also inspire action.

You now know how to use micro-conversions and track micro-conversions.

Only then is the action.