In every marketing organization, at every marketing trade show and especially at “beginner search marketing” sessions of any event the question gets asked, “What should my conversion rate be with online marketing?” and more specifically, “Is X% conversion rate good for an Adwords campaign?”.  The answers are usually vague and presenters always remind attendees that it depends on the site, it depends on the product, and it depends on your conversion objectives and definitions.  All are appropriate and real answers because of the many ways to build a site, run a campaign and conversion means something different to every site owner.

This said, I was reading a MediaPost article today about Marin SEM’s new multi conversion tracking software when a paragraph jumped out at me.  It read:

“A gathering last week in Mountain View, Calif. brought together a select group of retailers, agencies and clients. Barach (marin SEM’s CMO) said that’s where Google executives reminded attendees that the average ecommerce conversion rate from paid search stands at 1.72%.“

What’s interesting is that many industries would look at this number and say “that’s so low”  while other industries would kill for this type of conversion rate.  The point is to always try to improve your pay-per-click marketing campaigns and not settle or compare your conversion rates to other industries, verticals or campaigns.  If you are making money and your business is growing then you have a good conversion rate.  If you aren’t making money and your products aren’t selling like you know they should then you have a bad conversion rate. However, if it helps you sleep better at night then use the above 1.72% as a benchmark for conversions but please, please don’t be mad if you aren’t profitable at 1.72%.