When it comes to growing a business, one of the first steps many business owners take is to invest in paid advertising. Paid advertising is a great way to grow a business faster, however, before you pour your resources into paid ads, it’s important to first focus on organic sales conversion. 

Organic sales conversion refers to the percentage of visitors to your website who make a purchase without any paid advertising. This can be calculated by taking the number of conversions (sales) divided by the number of website visitors and expressing it as a percentage. For example, if your website receives 10,000 visitors and 100 of them make a purchase, your organic sales conversion rate would be 1%. 

Having a high organic sales conversion rate means that your website and sales process are effectively converting visitors into paying customers. 

During the 30-minute free strategy call we offer to potential clients, we discuss their organic sales conversion. This is an important metric that can tell us if paid advertising is right for them at this stage.

From our experience, if you have an organic sales conversion of 2-3% or more, you are very likely to have great success with paid advertising and you will be able to generate a high return on ad spend (ROAS).

On the other hand, if your organic sales conversion is around 1% or less, we advise you to ditch the idea of paid advertising for now and focus on organic sales to give your business a strong foundation for paid advertising.

If you have a Shopify store, you can find out your store conversion rate from the analytics section within your Shopify dashboard.

Why organic sales conversion is important?

1. It’s a sign of a healthy business: A high organic sales conversion rate is a good indicator that your product or service is in demand and that your offer is resonating with your target audience. People find your website, engage with your content, and ultimately make a purchase. You’re attracting the right visitors, and your marketing funnel is working effectively.

2. It saves you money: Investing in paid advertising can be costly, especially if your organic sales conversion rate is low. By focusing on improving your organic sales conversion rate first, you can increase your return on investment and make the most out of your advertising budget. For example, if your website currently has a 1% conversion rate, you’ll need to pay to drive 100 visitors to your site in order to make one sale. But if you could improve your conversion rate to 2%, you’d only need to pay to drive 50 visitors to your site in order to make one sale. This not only saves you money on advertising costs but also helps you increase your ROI.

3. It sets you up for success with paid advertising: Once you’ve established a strong organic sales conversion rate, you’ll have a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to converting visitors into customers. This knowledge can then be used to inform and optimize your paid advertising, resulting in more effective campaigns and a higher return on ad spend.

4. It gives you an edge over the competition: If you’re able to achieve a high organic sales conversion rate, you’ll have a distinct advantage over your competitors, who may be struggling to convert visitors into customers. This can give you an edge in terms of customer acquisition costs, which can help you scale your business more quickly and efficiently.

5. Build Trust with your audience: A good organic sales conversion rate means that your website visitors have had a positive experience when they visited your site, they have seen your offering and they have decided to buy from you. A good organic conversion rate establishes trust in your brand. A customer who trusts your brand is more likely to convert through a paid ad.

6. Understand your customer base: Having a good organic sales conversion rate also means that you understand your customer base and what they are looking for. Understanding your customers will allow you to create better ads, landing pages and offers that match their needs and increase your conversion rate.

How do you improve your organic sales conversion rate? 

There are a number of strategies you can implement to increase the effectiveness of your website and sales process: 

1. Optimize your website for conversions: This includes things like improving your website’s load speed, making it easy to navigate, using clear and compelling headlines, using clear and professional-looking images and including persuasive calls-to-action.

2. Test different messaging and offers: Try testing different messaging and offers to see which ones resonate most with your target audience. This will give you a better understanding of what is most effective in converting visitors into customers.

3. Use customer reviews: Use customer reviews to support your products. If you have a Shopify store, you can find plenty of apps that will allow you to get customers to leave a review of the product they buy. Reviews are excellent social proof. Many consumers decide to make a purchase (or don’t make a purchase) after reading about previous customers’ experiences. We usually recommend Judge.me to our clients. They have a free version, it’s very easy to set up and you can upload reviews from previous customers if, for example, you just switched to Shopify.

Conclusion

Focusing on organic sales conversion is an important step in growing a successful business. By first ensuring that your website and sales process are effectively converting visitors into paying customers, you’ll be able to save money, gain insight into your audience, set a strong foundation for paid advertising, and maximise your ROAS.

If you are considering paid advertising to grow into a more sustainable and profitable business, our Done for You service may be right for you. If you would like to find out more, you can click the button below to schedule a free 30-minute strategy call.