This article was originally published here.
I'm regularly asked what a "normal" mobile conversion rate is in comparison to a site's desktop conversion rate. The reality, of course, is that there is no definitive answer to that. Nonetheless, we set out to at least establish a rule-of-thumb benchmark for that metric.
Methodology
- We pulled YTD Google Analytics data for 15 eCommerce and Lead Gen brands operated in the United States.
- Each of those brands was doing at minimum $20m per year in top-line revenue annually and had a full Universal Google Analytics configuration (mind you UA is being replaced by GA4 soon-ish).
- We pulled conversion rate data for all traffic and we pulled filtered data for Direct, Organic Search, and Paid Search. We recognize that Paid Social traffic grossly over-indexes mobile and so we wanted to look at those other traffic sources to see if the same conversion rate ratios held once that paid social/mobile effect was controlled for.
Results
All Traffic
![Desktop conversion rates for all traffic were, on average, 1.9x higher than mobile.](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/qth364l7/production/282b5535ad9bede3451c9d0fb640057031505010-1024x1000.png)
On average, desktop conversion rates for all traffic were 1.9x that of mobile. Obviously, in the data above you can see a ton of variance from brand to brand. That said, intuitively 2x seems like a solid rule of thumb.
Below are the filtered results by Default Channel Group which more or less confirm the same ratios.
Direct
![Desktop conversion rates for direct traffic were, on average, 2.3x higher than mobile.](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/qth364l7/production/bcb8ff996595e5097e3e8b8a799d11f45487907c-1017x1000.png)
Organic Search
![Desktop conversion rates for organic search traffic were, on average, 2.0x higher than mobile.](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/qth364l7/production/d893d44badae16e3283f7774076c7fdff938b63e-1021x1000.png)
Paid Search
![Desktop conversion rates for paid search traffic were, on average, 1.9x higher than mobile.](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/qth364l7/production/ddb1680d94a19fdd6b4c01ffaf937df9b103f511-1015x1000.png)
Conclusion
So there you have it! If you ever are pressed for the classic desktop vs mobile conversion rate comparison, I think 2x is a solid and reasonable answer.