Why is the page the cheaper lever?
When the bookings are short, owners ask for more traffic. More budget, more keywords, a second platform. The cheaper lever is the page the traffic lands on. Doubling the conversion rate halves the cost of every booking from the same budget, and it keeps doing so on every dollar spent after that. Fix the rate before you raise the budget.
The rate also tells you where the problem is. A high click-through rate with a low conversion rate means the ad is making a promise the page does not keep. A low click-through rate with a high conversion rate means the page is fine and the ad is dull. Each one has a different fix.
How do you get thirty bookings, two ways? (example figures)
A physio spends $800 a month on Google Ads at $2 a click: 400 clicks, 20 bookings, 5 percent, $40 a booking. The ad sends people to the homepage, where the booking button is below three paragraphs about the practice's history and the only way to book is "call us".
Two ways to get 30 bookings:
| Spend | Clicks | Rate | Bookings | Cost per booking | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Today | $800 | 400 | 5 percent | 20 | $40 |
| Raise the budget | $1,600 | 800 | 5 percent | 40 | $40 |
| Fix the page | $800 | 400 | 7.5 percent | 30 | $27 |
The page fix is a booking button at the top and online booking instead of a phone number, which is an afternoon's work once. It is worth $800 a month for as long as the campaign runs. A practice that does both gets 60 bookings for $1,600.
Where do you read it?
Google Ads shows a conversion rate per campaign and per keyword, once conversion tracking is set up. Google Analytics 4 shows it per landing page, which is the view that tells you which page to fix. Meta shows results per ad set. The three will not agree with each other, because each one counts what it can see; read them for the direction, not the decimal.
What does Cora see that a report does not?
During a session, Cora sees the ad and the page it sends people to on your screen, side by side, which is where most conversion rate problems are visible. Once Google Analytics 4 and Google Ads are connected, CoraVision reads the key events and the conversions every night, so the rate is tracked without anyone pulling a report, and the dashboard cards show the last 7 days of cost per acquisition.
Questions
What is a good conversion rate?
One better than last month's. Rates differ by trade, by device and by what counts as a conversion, so a benchmark from another business says little. Compare your own page against itself after each change.
What is the difference between conversion rate and click-through rate?
Click-through rate is the share of people who saw the ad and clicked it. Conversion rate is the share who clicked and then did the thing. The first measures the ad, the second measures the page.
Does a click on the phone number count as a conversion?
If you told the platform to count it, yes, and then the rate includes people who hung up. Decide what you want counted before you read the rate; the conversion entry lists what each platform can count.