What are Conversions
In OneLence, a conversion is a specific type of event that represents meaningful progress toward a business goal.
While many events describe user activity, only some should be treated as indicators of value creation.
Typical conversion examples include:
- completing a signup
- starting a paid subscription
- finishing a purchase
- submitting a qualified lead form
- activating a key product feature
Conversions are not defined by the SDK automatically. They are determined by your measurement strategy.
How to Determine Conversion Events
When deciding whether an event should be treated as a conversion, consider:
- does this action indicate clear user intent
- does it move the user closer to revenue or retention
- can it be consistently tracked across sessions or devices
- is it meaningful for marketing optimisation decisions
It is often useful to distinguish between different levels of conversions:
Micro conversions
Intermediate signals that indicate engagement or intent.
Examples:
- viewing a pricing page
- adding a product to cart
- starting a checkout flow
- creating a trial account
Macro conversions
Primary outcome signals that represent completed value.
Examples:
- successful payment
- subscription activation
- completed onboarding
- confirmed contract or deal
Design Principles for Conversion Signals
Defining conversion signals carefully helps ensure that attribution analysis reflects real performance drivers rather than superficial activity patterns.
When designing conversion signals, follow these guidelines:
Prioritise outcome-driven actions
A conversion should reflect that a user has:
- completed a key transactional step (e.g. account registration completed)
- committed to continued product usage (e.g. subscription successfully activated)
- reached a meaningful activation milestone (e.g. qualified lead submitted)
Avoid low-intent or high-frequency signals
Events that occur frequently or without clear commitment reduce measurement quality.
Avoid using conversions such as:
- generic page views
- casual navigation clicks
- repeated exploratory interactions
- background feature usage
Maintain consistency across environments
A conversion event should:
- represent the same business outcome across sessions
- remain stable across browser and server tracking contexts
- be trackable even as campaign structures change
Design for decision relevance
Each conversion signal should support at least one measurable objective, such as:
- marketing channel optimisation
- funnel performance evaluation
- lifecycle stage analysis
- revenue attribution modelling
Carefully designed conversion signals improve attribution accuracy and reduce the need for later tracking adjustments.
In the next section, we explore how conversion events can be triggered from the browser environment using client-side tracking.