What is a Conversion Rate?
Conversion rates are the number of sales your Teachers Pay Teachers product had divided by the number of page views it had.
Another way of saying it is how many people purchased the product compared to how many people viewed the product.
So the higher the conversion rate, the better. A low conversion rate means that the majority of the people viewing your product are not making a purchase. This could be an indicator of a larger problem which we’ll discuss.
Why Conversion Rates Matter: A Simple Tweak Could Make a Big Difference
Let’s pretend your $5 product had 500 views and a 2% conversion rate. That would mean you sold 10 products and made $50.
If you could make a few minor changes and improve your conversion rate up to 5%, you would earn $125.
Imagine doubling or tripling your sales numbers without creating new products or spending money on advertising. Just some tweaks on the page that could net big results!
The TpT Bootcamp is full of trainings and templates to help you optimize your TpT products and store. More information at the end of this article.
How to Find Conversion Rates
There are two ways to look at the data to find the conversion rates of your products.
From your dashboard, you can select the drop-down menu next to your name and select “My Product Statistics.”
This will take you to a new screen where you can see the lifetime statistics of your products. The nice things about this screen are:
- You can see all your products
- You can organize them by name, sales numbers, or conversion percentages
- You can download the data to Excel
The downside is you can’t drill down on the data (i.e., you can’t look at specific time frames).
An alternative method is again from the home screen (dashboard), and under the “show me” tab, select the drop-down arrow next to earnings. Then select “conversions.”
You can then select your time frame as well as your product by selecting the other two drop-down menus.
The downside to this is that it will show you conversions, but to see how much traffic that product had, you will have to select the drop-down menu again and go to another screen.
What is a Good Conversion Rate?
After viewing your conversion rates, the obvious question is, “What’s a good conversion rate?”
If you had a 5% conversion rate, is that good? What about 10%? How do you know which products need improvement, and which ones are doing really well?
First, a confession.
I have yet to find any good data on this answer. If you are able to find any, please leave a link in the comment below.
TpT hasn’t released any sitewide statistics on conversion rates, so we’re left to hypothesize.
Here’s what I’ve been able to deduce in years of selling on TpT and talking to many TpT sellers. 10% or better is REALLY good! And less than 3% is bad. Expounding on that, I have created the following graphic. But this is just an educated guess, not gospel truth.
By the way, when I ask this question to ChatGPT, it pulls information from a few blogs…. And one of them is mine! So let’s not focus on what a good conversion rate is, but rather on improving our conversion rates.
Size Does Matter
Keep in mind, sample size does matter. If you only have 20 page views on a product, every sale is a 5% increase in your conversion rate. So you could have 2 sales, totaling a 10% conversion rate, but this data might not be a true reflection of how the product will continue to do over time. Your next 20 customers may not purchase, and now you’re at a 5% conversion rate. So work on getting more page views.
Simply said, the more page views you have, the more reliable your conversion rate will be. I wouldn’t trust any product with less than 50 views. 100 would be even better.
However, we still want higher conversion rates. So how do we get them?
How to Increase TpT Conversion Rates
The Customer Journey
To better understand how to increase conversion rates, let us first consider what happened with those non-purchasers. That high percentage of people who clicked on your product, but never clicked “add to cart” and then “purchase.”
Why did they click on it? And then why didn’t they make the purchase?
This means that you were able to get them to your product landing page. Maybe they read your email and clicked on a link, maybe they were searching for something on Google or TpT and your product appeared as a result, maybe it was a Pin or a social media post. Whatever it was, you were successful at getting them to your store. This means that your cover image and title are doing their job. Or that your digital marketing is working (social media, email, Pinterest, etc).
But your product landing page isn’t converting them into buyers.
Why?
They clicked on your TpT product because they wanted to learn more about your product (after hearing about it or seeing an image). But, after learning more, they decided that the benefits did not outweigh the cost.
Why Didn’t They Make a Purchase?
There are many reasons why someone may have clicked on your product but didn’t make a purchase. It’s difficult to know which one is key, and obviously, the reason will not be the same for every teacher. But here are some reasons that people don’t make the purchase.
The Price is Too High
Lowering your price will very likely increase your conversion rate. But that doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily make more money. Selling two items at $10 is more money than lowering the price to $5 and selling three of them. You’d have a higher conversion rate, but less revenue.
With that said, lowering the price of a product with a low conversion rate still might be a great idea and will help you increase sales.
Sometimes it’s a good idea to keep your price low until you’ve got a good amount of sales and reviews. Then you can raise your price and let your reviews do some of the work of selling the product for you.
Price Didn’t Convey Value
A low price isn’t the only way to increase sales. Another method is to increase your price.
A high price sends a signal to the customer that your product is valuable.
For an example, watch this video on Turquis Jewelry, Turkeys, and Prcinig Tips (which is one of the bonus videos in my Conversions Bootcamp Course, more on that later).
Your Copy Doesn’t Sell
“Copy” refers to the words on the page. Your copy is supposed to make your sale. To do this, you need to paint a picture for the reader of them using the product, or how great their life will be when they get the benefit that your item promises.
So do more than describe the product. Explain the problem that it solves. Talk about its benefits. Help the teacher understand how they can use it in their class, and why they need it (or their students do). Make them excited about it by illustrating how great life will be once they have your product in their classroom.
Copywriting is a great skill to master, and I strongly recommend you investing time in improving this skill. For more resources on copywriting, click here.
Your Product Description Needs Work
There are a few things that you must include to be successful. Every product description must have an introduction, key features, how to use, and a problem that it solves.
I talk more about each section, as well as how to format your product description, and several other tips in this article: How to Write Great Product Descriptions.
Improve your Thumbnails
The buyer will not make a purchase if they can’t envision the product and what it will look like in their classroom. So good preview images are key. The buyer needs to understand what she’s purchasing, how it works, and how it makes her life better.
You get three preview images, so make them count! But also remember that your images can be downloaded or screenshot (screenshotted? Screenshut? What’s the past tense of screenshot?) So make it very clear what they are purchasing without giving it all away.
What Should Be in Your Thumbnails?
Your thumbnails should make it clear what the product is, how it works, what problem it solves, and you should foresee any objections the buyer might have to purchasing and overcome them.
I recommend you use words in your images to highlight important information; don’t just show, also tell.
Your images should explain the benefits and highlight your unique selling feature (what says your product or brand apart).
I dive deeper into thumbnail images in this article.
Use a TpT Thumbnails Template
I have a TpT Preview Image Template that you can use if you would like to have great looking preview files already made for you. They come preformatted with embellishments and great layouts. And they are fully customizable. Change the colors, images, words, etc. to make it match your brand.
This preview file template is a Canva link that has fifteen different images to choose from.
Be Sure to Have a Good Preview File
According to information shared by TpT, over 60% of buyers are less likely to purchase a product that lacks a preview. So add one, and make it good.
It should be different from your thumbnail images, but accomplish many of the same goals.
- Share what’s included
- Highlight the main features
- Explain why it’s so great
- Demonstrate how to use
- Overcome objections
For more information about what to put in your preview file, click here.
TpT Preview File Template
I have also created a premade template with at least 19 different images for you to customize and make your own phenomenal preview file in minutes.
This template is a Canva Template link. After opening it, you make a copy in your Canva account and then quickly customize it with your colors, images, and words, to have the perfect product file.
Conclusion: How to Increase Conversion Rates
If you are trying to increase your conversion rate on any TpT product, make sure to do the following things.
- Write an amazing product description that paints the picture of how amazing this product is and how your customer can’t live without it
- Update your thumbnails. Make them stunning, and have them tell a story
- Be sure to have a preview file that shows off how great your product is and how it solves all of your customer’s problems
- Consider adjusting your price
Want More Help
In my Conversions Bootcamp, we go over these things in more detail, plus a few other things that you can do to increase your conversion rates.
The bootcamp includes all of the templates mentioned above, plus more that I have mentioned, as well around 15 training videos on the many areas of your TpT store and product page to help you convert everyday viewers into loyal fans who come back to your store over and over again to buy more of your fantastic stuff.
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