Story Based Question
A small online bookstore recently updated its website to be more mobile-friendly, hoping to improve its sales from mobile visitors. After a few months, the owner asked, “We’re getting a lot of mobile traffic, but I’m not sure how many of them are actually making purchases. How can we measure how well our mobile site is converting visitors into customers?” The marketing manager replied, “We can track mobile conversion rates in Google Analytics. By setting up goals, we can see exactly how many mobile visitors are completing the desired actions, like making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.”
Exact Answer
You can measure mobile conversion rates by setting up goals in Google Analytics to track specific actions, like purchases or form submissions, made by mobile users. You can then compare the number of mobile conversions to the total number of mobile visits to calculate the conversion rate.
Explanation
Measuring mobile conversion rates is essential for understanding how effectively your mobile site is turning visitors into customers. Mobile users often interact differently with websites than desktop users, and tracking their behavior separately allows you to identify issues that could be affecting your conversion rate. By setting up goals in Google Analytics, you can track mobile-specific conversions and determine whether your mobile site is meeting your business objectives.
Here’s how you can measure mobile conversion rates:
- Set Up Mobile-Specific Goals:
In Google Analytics, a goal is a specific action that you want users to take on your website, such as completing a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or filling out a contact form. To track mobile conversions, set up goals that are relevant to your business objectives.- To create a goal in Google Analytics, go to Admin > Goals > New Goal.
- You can create goals like “Completed Purchase” or “Sign-Up Form Submission” and define the conditions that make the goal successful.
- Use Segmentation to Isolate Mobile Traffic:
After setting up goals, use Google Analytics’ segmentation features to isolate mobile traffic. This will give you insights into how mobile users are performing on your site versus desktop or tablet users.- To apply a mobile-specific segment, go to Audience > Mobile > Overview, and then select Mobile under the segment options.
- This helps you focus only on mobile visitors when measuring conversion rates and analyzing user behavior.
- Track Conversion Data:
Once you’ve set up mobile-specific goals and applied the mobile segment, you can track the number of conversions that mobile users complete. In Google Analytics, go to the Conversions section to see how many mobile users completed your defined goals.- Look at key metrics like Goal Completions, Goal Conversion Rate, and Goal Value. These metrics show how well your mobile site is converting visitors into customers.
- Calculate Mobile Conversion Rate:
The conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action (like making a purchase) out of the total number of visitors. The formula for calculating conversion rate is:
Conversion Rate=(Goal CompletionsTotal Mobile Sessions)×100
This will give you the mobile conversion rate, which is a key performance indicator (KPI) for your mobile website’s effectiveness. - Compare Conversion Rates:
Once you have the mobile conversion rate, compare it with the desktop and tablet conversion rates to see if mobile users are converting at a similar or lower rate. If the mobile conversion rate is significantly lower, it may indicate issues with your mobile site that need to be addressed, such as slow page load times, difficult navigation, or a poor checkout process. - Track E-commerce Conversions (If Applicable):
If you run an e-commerce site, you can track mobile sales directly through Google Analytics by linking your e-commerce platform with Analytics.- In Conversions > E-commerce > Overview, you can track mobile transactions, average order value, and revenue generated by mobile users. This helps you get a more granular understanding of how your mobile site is performing in terms of actual sales.
Example
The online bookstore’s marketing team set up a goal in Google Analytics to track “Completed Purchases” on mobile devices. After segmenting mobile traffic, they discovered that 10% of their mobile visitors were completing purchases, but the desktop conversion rate was around 15%. The team dug deeper into the data and found that mobile users had a high bounce rate on the checkout page. Upon further investigation, they realized that the mobile checkout process was cumbersome with too many form fields and slow loading times.
By optimizing the mobile checkout flow and reducing the number of steps to complete a purchase, the bookstore was able to improve the mobile conversion rate. A few months later, the mobile conversion rate increased to 13%, closing the gap with desktop users.
Measuring mobile conversion rates is crucial for understanding how well your mobile site is performing. By setting up goals in Google Analytics and segmenting mobile traffic, you can track specific mobile user actions and calculate conversion rates. This helps you pinpoint areas of improvement on your mobile site, optimize the user experience, and ultimately increase conversions.