Glossary/Conversion
What is a conversion?
Short answer
A conversion is the action a brand launched the campaign for: a purchase, a booked appointment, a newsletter sign-up or an app download. It is counted on the brand's side, not on the creator's profile. It is what decides whether the collaboration paid off. Views and reactions will not show you that, because they say nothing about what the audience did next.
What exactly counts as a conversion?
A conversion is whatever the brand decides in advance to treat as one, which is why the goal is written down before the campaign starts rather than picked to fit the results afterwards. For a shop it is usually a placed order, for a service a booked visit, for an app a created account. Where you measure is set up front too: the shop system, the booking panel or a form on the site.
How do you attribute conversions to a collaboration with a creator?
Four methods brands use most often:
A unique discount code for the creator — the simplest one, visible straight in the order, but it loses the people who bought without the code.
A link with UTM parameters — it shows the path in your analytics, as long as the customer does not change device along the way.
A separate landing page prepared for one collaboration. All the traffic that reaches it comes from a single source.
A “how did you hear about us?” question in the basket or the form — imprecise, but it catches purchases made with a delay.
Why does conversion weigh more than reach?
Because it is the only thing that answers the question of what the campaign was for. Reach and reactions describe the journey, conversion describes the goal. It is worth remembering that some purchases after a collaboration happen outside the measured path: someone sees the content and buys the product later, typing the brand name into a search engine. That is why counted conversions are often understated.
Where to order it or find tasks
Related terms
Words that come up in the same conversations. Each has its own definition in the glossary.
- CTR
- The share of people who clicked the link after seeing the material. The first signal of whether the promise in the content was concrete enough for someone to want to look further. Read more
- ROI
- The ratio of the profit from a campaign to its cost. It requires an honest count of both sides — production and your own team's time included. Read more
- Reach
- The number of people who saw the material. It does not say how many of them reacted or bought — which is why it is read together with engagement, not instead of it. Read more
- Views
- The number of times the material was played, repeats by the same people included. Always higher than reach, which is why it is easy to mistake for the number of viewers. Read more
Frequently asked questions
How is conversion different from CTR?
CTR counts clicks on a link, conversion counts the action taken on the brand's site. You can have plenty of clicks and no conversions, and then the problem usually sits with the offer or the landing page.
Is a discount code enough to count conversions?
As the only tool it is not enough. The code will only show purchases where someone used it, and some customers buy later and without it. It is worth combining it with a tracking link.
How long should you count conversions after publication?
Longer than a single day. With more expensive products the decision comes with a delay, so the measurement window is set before the campaign starts and every creator is settled the same way.
