Back in 2006, Avinash Kaushik published this post about measuring the real conversion rate and opportunity pie.

The way a standard conversion rate is calculated in GA (number of conversion completions divided by number of sessions) is actually overestimating the possibilities for improvement.

So now that we have calculated metrics, we can apply some simple math and figure out what your actual conversion rate is.

Please note that Avinash suggests to calculate it by dividing the outcomes and unique visitors:

Conversion Rate = Outcomes / Unique Visitors

As I’m going to apply this calculated conversion rate to the majority of the standard session-based report, I’ll use the non-bounced sessions as divider:

Conversion Rate = Outcomes / (Sessions – Bounces)

So the setup looks like this:

And this is the formula (make sure to replace with your goal):
{{X (Goal 1 Completions)}} / ({{Sessions}} – {{Bounces}})

And here’s the result in a custom report:

What’s your favorite calculated metric?

Margarita Evtimova

Margarita Evtimova is a Google Analytics fan, who also loves SEO, conversion optimization, online marketing and social media. You can follow her on Twitter and LinkedIn.