Conversion Rate

Finance

In traffic arbitrage, a conversion is a target action taken by a user for which the affiliate network pays a commission. This could be a confirmed lead, a purchase, a registration, a first deposit or another action specified in the offer’s terms and conditions. For an arbitrageur, a conversion indicates that the traffic has not merely landed on the advertiser’s website, but has taken the required step in the conversion funnel.

What is a conversion in marketing and CPA arbitrage

A conversion in marketing and CPA arbitrage is a target user action that indicates the traffic has produced the desired result. Broadly speaking, this could be a subscription, a purchase, a phone call or an enquiry. In arbitrage, a conversion is a confirmed action for which the affiliate network pays out. For example, in the COD model, a lead is counted after a phone call; in SS, it is a paid order; in gambling, it is the first FTD deposit; and in betting, it is registration plus a bet.

This distinction is important because the entire funnel depends on the type of conversion: creative, pre-landing page, landing page, application form and optimisation strategy. For example, in the COD nutra, an arbitrageur guides the user to a lead form via a phone call, whilst in the SS nutra, they guide them to the actual payment for the product. Unlike a standard click, a conversion already indicates a specific action from which you can calculate the CR, approval rate and the profitability of the campaign.

What is Conversion Rate (CR) and how is it calculated

Conversion Rate, or CR, is the percentage of users who completed the target action after clicking. To explain briefly what conversion means in numerical terms, the formula is as follows: CR = (number of conversions / number of clicks) × 100%. For example, if a campaign received 1,000 clicks and 30 enquiries, the CR is 3 per cent. This metric immediately shows how effectively traffic is moving through the funnel.

Within the nutra, the CR between the pre-landing page and the landing page often ranges between 5–15 per cent, whilst the landing page → order conversion can yield 10-25 per cent. For SS-nutra, the benchmark is lower – approximately 2-8 per cent – because the user must not only submit an enquiry but also pay for the product. CR is influenced by traffic quality, the pre-landing page, the landing page, GEO, time of day and page speed. Therefore, it is better to calculate the pre-landing page CR and the landing page CR separately: this shows exactly where the audience ‘drops off’ in the funnel.

Conversion vs. Approval – what’s the difference?

Conversion and approval are different stages of the same funnel, which beginners often lump together into a single metric. Website conversion shows how many users submitted an enquiry on the landing page after clicking, whilst approval shows how many of these enquiries were confirmed by the call centre. In COD-nutra, the chain looks like this: advert → click → enquiry → call → confirmation. To quickly see the difference, it’s handy to compare CR and AR in a table.

Conversion Rate (CR)

What it means: the user submitted an enquiry on the landing page.
Where it is calculated: after clicking and filling in the form.

Approval (AR)

What it means: the call centre confirmed the enquiry.
Where it is calculated: after a call to the customer.

An important point

What it means: a high CR does not guarantee a profit.
Where it is calculated: earnings depend on CR + AR + payout.

How to track conversions via postback and a tracker

Postback is needed to see not just the number of applications, but the source of each conversion. Without it, the arbitrageur receives general statistics and cannot tell which advert, creative or audience produced the result. The process works as follows:

A user clicks on an advert.
The tracker records a unique CLID.
The user is redirected to the landing page.
They submit a lead or make a purchase.
The affiliate network sends a postback with the CLID to the tracker.
The tracker attributes the conversion to a specific advert, creative and audience.

This way, you can see which campaigns can be scaled up and which are best turned off to avoid wasting your budget. To put it simply, a sales conversion isn’t just a random figure in your dashboard, but an action that can be precisely linked to a traffic source.

How to boost website conversion rates: practical methods

Improving your conversion rate (CR) starts with ensuring a clear alignment between your ad, pre-landing page and landing page. We’ve covered ways to boost conversion rates on nutra offers in detail on our blog. To avoid guessing where the funnel is leaking, test each element separately:

test different pre-landing page formats, as a strong pre-landing page can boost the landing page’s conversion rate by 2-3 times;
don’t promise anything in your ad that isn’t on the landing page;
speed up page loading times, as every extra second can cost you 7–10% of your conversion rate;
streamline the application form – a single ‘phone number’ field often works better than three;
run A/B tests on headlines, offers and CTA buttons;
tailor your ad scheduling to your target GEO, rather than directing traffic at random.

It’s also worth focusing on your copy, as it’s often the headline and the first screen that determine whether a user will submit a form. You can find out more about this in our guide on how to write conversion-focused texts. If you change everything at once, you won’t be able to tell what exactly drove the growth, so test one element at a time.

Conversion types by payment model in affiliate programmes

The type of conversion depends on the affiliate network’s payment model. Before launching a campaign, it’s worth checking straight away which specific action the network pays out for. The main models are as follows:

CPA. Payment for a specific action: an enquiry, registration or purchase.
CPL. Payment per lead, i.e. a completed form.
CPS. Payment only for an actual sale.
RevShare. A percentage of the casino’s profit from a referred player.
FTD. Payment for the first deposit in gambling.

In practice, for COD-nutra conversion is a confirmed application, whilst for SS-nutra conversion, it is a paid order. This is precisely why different payment models require different landing pages, pre-landing pages and approaches to traffic.

Key points at a glance

1. What is a conversion in affiliate marketing?

A conversion is a target action taken by a user that meets the terms of an offer within an affiliate network. In the nutra model, this might be a lead form with a phone number; in the SS model, a paid order; and in gambling, a first deposit. For an arbitrageur, it is important not just to get an action on the site, but to understand its status: lead, approve, reject or hold. It is this that determines the actual revenue from the campaign.

2. What is the Conversion Rate (CR)?

CR is the percentage of users who completed the target action after a click or visit. The formula is as follows: (number of conversions / number of clicks) × 100%. For example, 40 applications from 2,000 clicks give a CR of 2 per cent. This metric helps to evaluate the landing page, pre-landing page, creative and traffic quality. However, CR needs to be analysed alongside approval rate, payout and costs. Only then do the figures paint a true picture.

3. How does a conversion differ from an approval?

A conversion is the occurrence of an application or other action, whilst approval is the confirmation of that action by the affiliate network or call centre. In COD transactions, a user may provide a phone number but then fail to answer the call or cancel the order. In such cases, there will be a conversion rate, but there may be no payout. Therefore, a high conversion rate without a decent approval rate does not guarantee high profits.

4. How do you track conversions in arbitrage?

Postback is the main method for tracking conversions in CPA arbitrage. The tracker generates a click ID; the affiliate network returns this ID following a lead or deposit; and the system links the result to the campaign. This allows the arbitrageur to see which source, advert, creative, placement and GEO generated the conversion. Without postback, optimisation becomes inaccurate and decisions may be made almost blindly.

5. What is a good CR for nutra?

A good benchmark is 2-8% for SS-nutra and 10-25% at the landing page → application stage in COD-nutra, but the figures depend on the GEO, the offer, the traffic and the pre-landing page. A good CR cannot be assessed in isolation. If applications are cheap but the approval rate is low, the campaign may be unprofitable. If the CR is lower but the leads are high-quality, the profit may be higher.

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