In Episode #381, Eric and Neil discuss the difference between macro and micro-conversions. Tune in as Eric and Neil define what these conversions are and which ones deserve more of your attention and focus, what you need to track and how often, and which conversions (micro or macro) deserve an A/B test.
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 00:27 – Today’s topic: The Difference Between Macro and Micro-Conversions
- 01:09 – Your funnel has a lot of small steps which are considered “micro” and the large step is the actual act of purchasing
- 01:24 – How many micro-conversions should you be tracking?
- 01:51 – When Neil does A/B test, he only looks at macro conversions
- 02:00 – “I really do focus on the bottom line which is sales and revenue”
- 02:19 – You want people to convert to buy, so that’s what you should be optimizing in an A/B test
- 02:28 – When Eric started, he used to track micro-conversions, like click through rates for example, which led to him losing his focus
- 02:50 – Make sure you focus on the RIGHT things
- 02:59 – You can look at micro things once in awhile, but don’t let it be your main focus
- 03:02 – Marketing School is giving away a free 1 year subscription to Crazy Egg which is a visual analytics tool
- 03:51 – Go to SingleGrain.com/giveaway for multiple entries
- 04:00 – That’s it for today’s episode!
3 Key Points:
- Micro-conversions are the small steps that lead to the purchase, which is called the macro-conversion.
- Your main focus should always be on the sales, don’t let micro-conversions steal your focus.
- You can track micro-conversions every now and then, but it’s not necessary to do this on a daily basis.
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Full Transcript of The Episode
Speaker 1: Get ready for your daily dose of marketing strategies and tactics from entrepreneurs with the [gaile 00:00:08] and experience to help you find success in any marketing capacity. You're listening to Marketing School with your instructors, Neil Patel and Eric Siu.
Eric Siu: Welcome to another episode of Marketing School. I'm Eric Siu.
Neil Patel: And I'm Neil Patel.
Eric Siu: And today we are going to talk about the difference between macro and micro conversions. An example of a micro conversion, just to kick things off, might be … Well, some people might consider this a micro conversion; someone scrolling to 25 or 50% of a page, right? You can actually use a scroll depth report in Google Analytics to … If you're a publisher, you consider scroll depth important. That can be a micro conversion, right? That's just one example. Neil, what's a macro conversion?
Neil Patel: Macro conversion is like a big picture type of conversion. Micro, as Eric mentioned, something small, putting in a email. Macro is like someone buying. Think about your funnel. They take a lot of small steps, and then your ultimate, large step is them purchasing. Macro is usually the purchasing, micro is all the small conversion points that lead up to the big purchase.
Eric Siu: Yeah, so the question is … maybe to expand on this, Neil, it's how many micro conversions should you be tracking? Because I know in [inaudible 00:01:26] one, I wanted to see how … We do look at scroll depth, we do look at … definitely look at emails, and then we look at different segments of lead markets that we have, but there does become a point where there's too many conversions. What do you generally look at?
Neil Patel: For macro or-
Eric Siu: Macro and micro.
Neil Patel: I look at it as what's my funnel? I map it out, and what are the exact steps people need to take before they convert, but typically, when I'm running AB tests, I mainly just look at macro conversions. I don't give a shit if I get 10 times more emails, but half the sales. I really do focus on the bottom line, which is sales and revenue, so I optimize for that. I know a lot of people when they're running AB tests … I'm working with a marketplace company right now, and they're like, “Oh yeah, we got X more searches.” Well, just because you got X more searches, if non of them bought, who gives a crap? It's useless, right? You want people to convert into a paid customer, and that's what you should be optimizing for, running our AB tests towards.
Eric Siu: Yep, and I'm the same way. When I first started doing marketing, I was like, “Oh, we should be tracking all of these conversions.” You start adding all of these little micro things, and the problem with that is it starts to lead to unfocused behavior. You look at all these other things. I remember my very first marketing job, I was like, “Look at the click through rate,” and then the boss was like, “Well, what about the conversions?” I was like, “But look at the click through rate,” and that doesn't matter at the end of the day. So just make sure that you're focusing on the right things. Then it becomes easier when you have less things to focus on and if you have those macro conversions, look at those. Maybe once every quarter, you look at the micro stuff to figure out do you need to make some changes around that?
Anyway, that's it for today's episode, but before we go, we have a one year annual subscription to Crazy Egg which is worth quite a bit of money and it will help you grow your business. Neil, what is Crazy Egg?
Neil Patel: Crazy Egg is a visual analytics tool. It shows you where people click, where they don't. If they scroll down your web page and your call to actions are too low and no one's seeing it, or your form fields are too low, or if people aren't clicking on all your fields because you have 20 form fields instead of five, it allows you to make changes through a WYSIWYG editor. You can run AB tests and you can use it to increase your conversions and sales. More so, you can use it to increase your macro conversions.
Eric Siu: All right. If you want to get in on this giveaway … We're actually giving away one of these every single week, so it's a 52-week giveaway, you can actually get multiple entries. So if you want to learn more about how you can get multiple entries, just go to singlegrain.com/giveaway. Again, singlegrain.com/giveaway, and we will see you tomorrow.
Speaker 1: This session of Marketing School has come to a close. Be sure to subscribe for more daily marketing strategies and tactics to help you find the success you've always dreamed of, and don't forget to rate and review, so we can continue to bring you the best daily content possible. We'll see you in class tomorrow right here on Marketing School.
Eric Siu: Welcome to another episode of Marketing School. I'm Eric Siu.
Neil Patel: And I'm Neil Patel.
Eric Siu: And today we are going to talk about the difference between macro and micro conversions. An example of a micro conversion, just to kick things off, might be … Well, some people might consider this a micro conversion; someone scrolling to 25 or 50% of a page, right? You can actually use a scroll depth report in Google Analytics to … If you're a publisher, you consider scroll depth important. That can be a micro conversion, right? That's just one example. Neil, what's a macro conversion?
Neil Patel: Macro conversion is like a big picture type of conversion. Micro, as Eric mentioned, something small, putting in a email. Macro is like someone buying. Think about your funnel. They take a lot of small steps, and then your ultimate, large step is them purchasing. Macro is usually the purchasing, micro is all the small conversion points that lead up to the big purchase.
Eric Siu: Yeah, so the question is … maybe to expand on this, Neil, it's how many micro conversions should you be tracking? Because I know in [inaudible 00:01:26] one, I wanted to see how … We do look at scroll depth, we do look at … definitely look at emails, and then we look at different segments of lead markets that we have, but there does become a point where there's too many conversions. What do you generally look at?
Neil Patel: For macro or-
Eric Siu: Macro and micro.
Neil Patel: I look at it as what's my funnel? I map it out, and what are the exact steps people need to take before they convert, but typically, when I'm running AB tests, I mainly just look at macro conversions. I don't give a shit if I get 10 times more emails, but half the sales. I really do focus on the bottom line, which is sales and revenue, so I optimize for that. I know a lot of people when they're running AB tests … I'm working with a marketplace company right now, and they're like, “Oh yeah, we got X more searches.” Well, just because you got X more searches, if non of them bought, who gives a crap? It's useless, right? You want people to convert into a paid customer, and that's what you should be optimizing for, running our AB tests towards.
Eric Siu: Yep, and I'm the same way. When I first started doing marketing, I was like, “Oh, we should be tracking all of these conversions.” You start adding all of these little micro things, and the problem with that is it starts to lead to unfocused behavior. You look at all these other things. I remember my very first marketing job, I was like, “Look at the click through rate,” and then the boss was like, “Well, what about the conversions?” I was like, “But look at the click through rate,” and that doesn't matter at the end of the day. So just make sure that you're focusing on the right things. Then it becomes easier when you have less things to focus on and if you have those macro conversions, look at those. Maybe once every quarter, you look at the micro stuff to figure out do you need to make some changes around that?
Anyway, that's it for today's episode, but before we go, we have a one year annual subscription to Crazy Egg which is worth quite a bit of money and it will help you grow your business. Neil, what is Crazy Egg?
Neil Patel: Crazy Egg is a visual analytics tool. It shows you where people click, where they don't. If they scroll down your web page and your call to actions are too low and no one's seeing it, or your form fields are too low, or if people aren't clicking on all your fields because you have 20 form fields instead of five, it allows you to make changes through a WYSIWYG editor. You can run AB tests and you can use it to increase your conversions and sales. More so, you can use it to increase your macro conversions.
Eric Siu: All right. If you want to get in on this giveaway … We're actually giving away one of these every single week, so it's a 52-week giveaway, you can actually get multiple entries. So if you want to learn more about how you can get multiple entries, just go to singlegrain.com/giveaway. Again, singlegrain.com/giveaway, and we will see you tomorrow.
Speaker 1: This session of Marketing School has come to a close. Be sure to subscribe for more daily marketing strategies and tactics to help you find the success you've always dreamed of, and don't forget to rate and review, so we can continue to bring you the best daily content possible. We'll see you in class tomorrow right here on Marketing School.
