What a 1% conversion lift is worth to your business

Key takeaways

A 1 percentage point conversion lift is worth monthly visits x 1% x enquiry-to-sale rate x average sale value. For a service site with 2,000 visits, a 25% close rate and £2,000 jobs, that is £10,000 a month. The same sum tells you the most it is worth spending to get there, which is how a high-converting website gets budgeted rather than hoped for.

• £10,000 a month: 1 point on 2,000 visits, 25% close, £2,000 jobs.
• Percentage points and percent are different: 2% to 3% is a 50% lift.
• Use conservative inputs; a half-point lift is often more realistic.
• Compare the value with the cost of the work to set a budget.

How do you work out what a conversion lift is worth?

Multiply four numbers: monthly visits, the lift in conversion rate, your enquiry-to-sale rate and your average sale value. For e-commerce, use visits, lift and average order value, since each conversion is already a sale.

• The difference between a good website and a high-converting website
• What a low-converting website really costs

What does a lift look like for a service business?

Here is a worked example for a UK service firm.

• Monthly visits: 2,000.
• Lift: 1 percentage point (from 1.5% to 2.5%) = 20 extra enquiries.
• Enquiry-to-sale rate: 25% = 5 extra customers.
• Average job: £2,000 = £10,000 extra revenue a month.
• A more cautious 0.5-point lift: £5,000 a month.

• Work out what a website enquiry is worth

What does a lift look like for an e-commerce site?

For an online shop with 15,000 sessions a month and an average order of £60, a lift from 1.5% to 2% conversion adds 75 orders and £4,500 a month in revenue. Apply your gross margin to see the profit: at 45%, about £2,000 a month.

• Revenue per visitor: the number that beats conversion rate

Why does the difference between points and percent matter?

A one percentage point lift from 2% to 3% is a 50% relative increase. A '10% lift' from 2% is only 0.2 points, to 2.2%. Suppliers sometimes quote relative lifts because they sound bigger. Always ask which is meant, and do the sum in enquiries and pounds.

How do you use the value to set a budget?

Compare the monthly value of a realistic lift with the cost of the work. If a half-point lift is worth £5,000 a month and focused conversion work costs £2,000 to £3,000 in the UK market, the payback is under a month even if you only achieve half the target. Where the sum shows a long payback, start with the cheapest fixes.

• What conversion improvement work costs in the UK

When is the calculation too optimistic?

It is too optimistic when visits are small or falling, when the lift assumed is unrealistic for your sector, when extra enquiries would be lower quality, or when the team could not handle more work. Use conservative inputs and treat the result as the upper end of a range.

• Website conversion rate benchmarks for UK businesses

What does this look like in practice?

A UK boiler installer with around 3,000 visits a month was weighing a £2,500 conversion project. A half-point lift at a 30% close rate and £2,800 average job was worth about £12,600 a month. The owner approved the work on the basis that even a fifth of that would pay back within a quarter.

• See client work
• Website Design & Development for UK businesses

Conversion lift checklist

• Record monthly visits, conversion rate, close rate and average sale.
• Calculate the value of a 0.5-point and a 1-point lift.
• Apply gross margin to see profit.
• Confirm whether quotes use points or percent.
• Compare the value with the cost of the work.
• Start with the cheapest fixes if payback is long.

Next step

Knowing what a conversion lift is worth turns 'should we improve the website?' into a straightforward business decision. We can run the numbers with you.