A macro conversion is the primary business outcome you want users to complete — the moment value is locked in. Typical examples: a purchase (for ecommerce), a qualified lead (for B2B), or a paid subscription. Macro conversions are the north star for your optimization work because they map directly to revenue and unit economics, unlike vanity metrics. They sit on top of your goal and goal funnel hierarchy and are the anchor for KPIs like conversion rate, transaction, revenue, and average order value (AOV).
Macro vs Micro Conversions (and why you should care)
Micro conversions are the meaningful steps that precede the macro (e.g., account creation, email confirmation, pricing page view). They de-risk the journey; the macro pays the bills. Track both, but optimize toward the macro. In attribution analysis, weight micro signals, but credit should ultimately reflect macro outcomes via your chosen attribution model or multi-touch attribution.
How to measure it
You can express macro conversion performance per session or per user. Pick one and be consistent across dashboards.
Formulas
- Macro Conversion Rate (sessions) = (Macro conversions ÷ Sessions) × 100%
- Macro Conversion Rate (users) = (Users with ≥1 macro conversion ÷ Total users) × 100%
Mini example
| Period | Sessions | Macro conversions | Macro CR (sessions) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 32 | 12,000 | 420 | 3.5% |
If 420 purchases generated $52,500, then AOV = $52,500 ÷ 420 = $125. Pair this with cart abandonment rate to see where value leaks.
Practical tips
- Define one macro conversion per main funnel; avoid mixing heterogeneous outcomes in a single rate.
- Keep eligibility rules tight (e.g., exclude test traffic, staff orders).
- Segment relentlessly: new vs returning, channel, device, country. Macro CR without segmentation hides problems.
- Tie macro conversions to financials and lifecycle: LTV per macro conversion (see User Lifetime Value (LTV)) turns rates into money.
- For lead-gen, treat a marketing lead → qualified lead → won deal as one macro chain. The macro event is often the qualified lead; the won deal closes the loop in CRM.