What is CVR?
Conversion Rate
CVR (Conversion Rate) is the percentage of ad clicks that convert to the goal action — sale, signup, or lead.
CVR = (Conversions ÷ Clicks) × 100Ecommerce: 2-5% · B2B lead: 5-15% · High-intent Google Search: 10-25%
Why CVR matters
Platform-specific metric for ad performance. Different from site-wide conversion rate — CVR measures what happens after the click. Low CVR = landing page mismatch or audience mismatch.
Worked example
Plug a real number into the formula to see CVR in action:
Numbers are illustrative. Try our Customer LTV Calculator for your real numbers.
Common mistakes with CVR
- 1
Looking at single-channel ROAS in isolation instead of blended MER. Last-click attribution overweights bottom-funnel channels and starves top-of-funnel.
- 2
Setting a uniform target across products with different margins. A 2× ROAS is profitable on 80% margin and unprofitable on 20%.
- 3
Optimizing CAC without measuring LTV. Cheap customers with bad retention destroy unit economics.
How to improve CVR
Run incrementality tests every quarter to validate which channels actually drive new revenue vs steal credit.
Build a unit economics dashboard separating CAC, LTV, contribution margin, and payback by channel and cohort.
Establish a contribution margin floor for each channel — pause spend when margin drops below threshold for 14 days.
Common questions about CVR
What is CVR?▾
How is CVR calculated?▾
What is a good CVR benchmark?▾
Why does CVR matter for marketing teams?▾
Related terms
Need help applying CVR to your business?
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