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Conversion rate optimisation (CRO)

Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is the work on a store's website that gets a larger share of visitors to place an order, without paying for more traffic.

How it works

Ads bring a visitor; the site decides whether they buy. CRO works on the product page, the cart and the checkout in three steps:

  1. Check that counted conversions are real orders.
  2. Find where shoppers drop out: Google Analytics events such as add_to_cart and begin_checkout show it.
  3. Change one thing and test it with an A/B test.

The CRO guide for online stores covers every step.

A higher conversion rate also raises the break-even CPC, the most a click can cost and still pay off. In GetProfit data (1,360 store-months, June 2025 – June 2026), a store’s ROAS moves with its conversion rate (correlation +0.527) and average order value (+0.540), and hardly with its cost per click (−0.100).

Example

Example store, not client data.

The tableware shop turns 8,000 clicks into 300 orders: 3.75%. If the same clicks brought 360 orders (4.5%), revenue at 600 per order would grow from 180,000 to 216,000, lifting ROAS on 40,000 of spend from 4.5 to 5.4. With 210 of profit per order (600 × 35% margin), break-even CPC rises from 210 × 0.0375 = 7.88 to 210 × 0.045 = 9.45.

How GetProfit reads it

The portal checks what is counted before it reads any rate. In Conversion check, the portal treats a product’s daily conversion value above 30 times the median order value as fake and sets it to zero. If 10 or more conversions are worth about 1 each (0.8 to 1.2), the conversion event counts as broken.

Not to be confused with

  • Conversion rate — the metric: the share of clicks that end in an order. CRO is the work that moves it.
  • Landing page experience — Google Ads’ rating of a keyword’s landing page, reported next to Quality Score. CRO is judged by orders.

Right and wrong readings

  • Wrong: “Google Ads conversions went up, so the site converts better.” Right: an add to cart or a checkout start can be set up as a conversion, so that number can grow while paid orders stay flat. CRO is measured on purchases.

Sources

  • Measure ecommerce (Google Analytics) — the add_to_cart and begin_checkout events. Checked 2 October 2026.
  • ConversionActionCategory (Google Ads API) — add to cart and begin checkout as conversion categories. Checked 2 October 2026.
  • QualityInfo (Google Ads API) — landing page score next to Quality Score. Checked 2 October 2026.
  • GetProfit data: 1,360 store-months, June 2025 – June 2026 — ROAS and its parts within a store.