Conversion Rate CVR, CR (web: session CVR vs user CVR)
The share of visitors (or visits) who completed the goal action.
The fork, why two teams get different numbers
The denominator is the fork, and analytics platforms bake the disagreement
in. GA4 exposes SESSION conversion rate (conversions / sessions) AND USER
conversion rate (converting users / total users) as two distinct metrics;
ecommerce teams often use conversions / UNIQUE visitors; ad platforms use
conversions / CLICKS. Because a user has many sessions, user CVR is higher
than session CVR on the same data. A second fork is the NUMERATOR event, "conversion" might be a purchase, a signup, or (post-GA4) any event flagged
as a key event, so the same word spans micro- and macro-conversions.
The trap
Quoting a user CVR next to a competitor's session CVR (or an ad-platform click CVR) makes performance look 1.5-3x better or worse with no real difference.
- The full trap, worked on a real export
- Every formula variant, spelled out
- The reconciliation anchor, what to tie it to and when to refuse
Reference: Google Analytics 4 measurement documentation (reference) · IAB (conversion measurement · reference)