What is the difference between a click and a conversion?

In search console it is counted as 'URL Clicks', often represented alongside 'Impressions'. It's a very good and direct indicator of your content, and its value. CTR rates are also in the same console dashboard, a metric that helps you determine if your content is being liked by people, and is also ranking.

Clicks are the flirtations of the digital world, where users show interest by tapping links. They're like glances across a room, but not a commitment. These interactions represent initial curiosity, akin to someone picking up a menu at a restaurant. Conversions, on the other hand, are when the magic happens - a user becomes a customer, subscriber, or takes a desired action. This is the moment when the menu order is placed, and it's the ultimate goal in the online realm.

There are two key actionable points when it comes to content marketing. The first is to motivate the target audience to click on content. This can be a call to action embedded in a newsletter, a contextual ad or a search engine listing. The click can also result from content that has been indexed by a search engine and ranks high in search results. The organic traffic gets added to paid traffic that results from clicks. Now, comes the question of conversions. What is the point of bringing this traffic to a landing page located on a company website. Is it to generate leads, initiate or conclude a sale? The two steps – clicks and conversions are interconnected - and marketers analyse them closely when judging the success of a content policy.

The importance of a click has to do with its place inside your marketing funnel. A click to call (for a business that wants phone calls) IS a conversion. A click to an About or Contact page shows that the person wants to learn more about the business and is considering working with them. We would consider that to be a micro-conversion. Other typical clicks are people learning or gathering information as they browse a website. Usually they're trying to solve a problem they have. Map out the path an ideal customer would take through your website. From there, you'll be able to identify which clicks are the most important for you.

Assuming we’re talking about Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) in relation to organic website content discoverability, clicks are literally internet users who have clicked on a link to your content when it appears in their list of search results. Of note is the difference between clicks and an arguably more important metrics: landing page views, which takes into account users who clicked but for whom, for a variety of reasons, the page failed to load.

The conversions that you measure should be directly related to the action you want people to take on your website. The most common ones are online purchases, form submissions or clicks to make a phone call. However, sales funnels aren't usually that short. There's a specific path people take to get there. Only measure the important conversions for your website. Avoid getting distracted by other actions people take on the website that don't translate to revenue.

Conversions defines how your content sells to your audience/clients. The higher the conversion rate, the more successful the content will be.

The conversion is the action taken by your audience aligning with your ad or marketing goals. Ideally a successful conversion allows you to obtain a new lead if it's a lead generation campaign, or complete a successful purchase if the objective is to increase the sales. So, it's basically going beyond the click or landing page visit, to completion of the action that's included in the link destination, and predefined by the digital marketing strategy.

There are many possible “conversions” you could be tracking, as others have noted. So-called “upper-funnel” conversion events could be people subscribing to your newsletter, or downloading an e-book, for example. To really demonstrate the value of marketing it’s essential to then conflate these (important) marketing activities with sales data, to demonstrate, for example, which leads ‘converted’ into customers. That’s the only way to start measuring the true ROI of marketing activities.

A click is a single data point that tells you what someone was interested in along their journey. A conversion is the destination--the place you want the people who are most likely to turn into customers to end up. Your content strategy should serve both--by creating enough click opportunities to allow people to self-guide to (or self-select out of) the conversion destination. If someone wants a single piece of information ("How to do X"), there's little value in getting them to convert--all you'll do is kill your email metrics and waste effort on sales outreach. Your strategy should give those people a click that serves their needs and boosts brand awareness, while leaving the conversion path open for qualified buyers.

The difference between a click and a conversion is this: A click is the smallest unit of engagement. It can mean lots of things. A conversion means the content's call to action (CTA) has worked, or that some other content-related goal action has been achieved. It could something like a lead, a subscription, or a social media follow.

One of the best forms of content for conversions is video. Getting a user to click on your video content is a quick way to get conversions. Videos also build trust quickly which is needed to get your audience to convert and take the next step with you.

It takes a different approach to get a conversion versus a click. Clicks are all about emotion. You must understand the pain points or emotional triggers of your audience. Conversions generally take time and credibility to earn. Here, you have to focus on building trust and a connection.

Clicks and conversions are two different ways to measure content performance. Looking at how they compare to each other can also tell you about who your content is attracting, how well your CTA engages them, and whether the content is targeting the right audience. For example, if clicks are high but conversions are low, the content may be too broad for your audience and attract a lot of readers that aren't interested in what you're offering. On the other hand, low clicks with a high conversion rate can mean you're targeting the right people and drive you to look for ways to increase clicks without diluting your message. It's important not to focus on just one or the other so you can see the full picture of the content's performance.

It’s all about grabbing attention. You can always make sure to create content with, - High-quality visuals - Engaging narrative - Include relevant keywords - Attractive CTAs

Remember that YOU may want to deliver information about your solution to your audience, but that's not what they're looking for when they're browsing or grazing for things to engage with. Make sure you're balancing out the logical information you think you need to deliver with enough emotion to make your offer appealing for that click. You can deliver more logical information as you further the relationship.

Two important concepts for enhancing the role of creative (content, advertising) in maximising clicks are ‘hook’ and ‘hold’. It’s well held that a particular piece of content on say social media has 1.8s to garner enough attention from users to stop them mid-scroll. That content then has to retain their attention long enough to educate, entertain or otherwise encourage them to click-through to your pre-determined destination.

Optimizing your content for clicks requires that you post relevant content for your audience to engage with. Your hooks, topics, and headlines should draw your audience in while your content encourages them to engage with you by clicking AND sharing. Make your CTA easy enough to where it's a "no-brainer" for them to click after scrolling.

Optimizing content conversions requires a tight focus on your audience. Content marketing is about sharing the right message with the right people at the right time. Understanding who your audience is, what pain points they're confronting, and how your content will help them is critical. Optimizing conversions also usually requires testing. Instead of writing a piece and abandoning it when it turns out to be low-converting, continue tweaking the messaging, headers, visuals, organization, etc. until you see conversions begin to improve. Testing can tell you so much about what does and doesn't engage your audience and provide data that can be used to improve other areas of your marketing strategy as well!

Conversions requires you to prove to your audience that - You’re authentic - You’re reliable - You have quality - You are worth their time and money

The easiest way to optimize conversions is to minimize distractions and keep it simple. You already know exactly what you want the customer to do, but they don't, so anything you can do to remove friction helps. Let's take signing up for a newsletter as a desired conversion for a landing page. If you put the sign-up form at the bottom of a page full of links pointing to away from the page, the chances that the customer will actually sign up are far lower than if you put the sign-up form at the top of the page so it's visible when it first loads along with a strong explanation of what the customer will get if they sign up. Fewer distractions = more conversions.

Authenticity in content can make a difference in how people French clicks turn to conversions, and also how often people will engage with you. What you stand for matters to your audience and loyalty can often follow this.

Speak to the intangible, emotional needs of clients. Write content that highlights and addresses those needs. Focusing on B2Bs, for example, they aren't buying your service, they are buying: - A company that will lift the burden off their shoulders - A company that will free internal resources from time-consuming errands - Help and support to achieve a difficult goal

- Use tools like Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager. - Set up goals and events to track conversions. - Implement UTM parameters for click tracking. - Monitor Click-Through Rates (CTRs) and Conversion Rates (CRs).

I highly recommend Google Search Console (GSC). GSC shows you: - Impressions: how many people see your links in Google searches - Clicks: how many people clicked your links in Google searches On top of that, GSC shows you the exact queries people are searching for and the webpages people are landing on. It helps you know what people are searching for as it relates to your business and whether those people are converting into traffic on your website. Lastly, GSC is great for monitoring spikes and surges to take advantage of and for knowing what content to produce to drive traffic to your site.

The path to a desired end goal on a website, like a purchase, is kind of like going on a trip. There are two ways to measure success of the journey: Did you arrive? and How far along are you? If you only track whether an end conversion (arriving to the end destination) happens or not, you aren't taking into account all of the factors that could get in the way (road work, delays, weather). It's crucial to track and understand key moments in the funnel when customers move from one stage to the next to be able to understand if every piece of content along the way is doing its job or needs to be improved. Just like a pit stop on your trip, it's most important to know if something is going wrong so that you can get the journey back on track.

Between the emotional click and the credibility conversion point is the land of logic. And you need all three, but in the right balance and as appropriate to the audience and channel. So don't forget that you have a lot of relationship building to get someone from click to conversion.