Conversion rate is one of the most widely reported metrics in e-commerce. It appears on dashboards, in board presentations, and in conversations with CEOs. But does an obsession with conversion rate actually serve B2B companies well, or does it obscure the metrics that matter more?
The debate framing
Conversion rate is typically calculated as sales transactions divided by visits. It lives at the bottom of the marketing funnel and ties closely to revenue. However, critics argue that focusing on conversion rate ignores top-of-funnel quality, creates attribution problems in cross-channel environments, and provides a snapshot rather than a longitudinal view of customer value.
Peter Drucker wrote in 1954 that what gets measured gets managed. The question for B2B leaders is whether conversion rate is the right thing to measure when team alignment and resource allocation depend on it.
The debate format
Team Conversion Rate Rules featured Rob Howl, SVP at Foundation Building Materials, and Brian McGlynn from Coveo. Team Other Measures Matter More included Catherine Chen, director of digital e-business at Wolseley Canada, and Mark Pickett, VP of digital growth at MSC Industrial. All brought extensive experience managing digital performance at major B2B companies.
Round 1: Is conversion rate the most important metric?
Rob Howl argued that e-commerce teams exist to make it easier to do business and grow sales. Conversion rate measures how efficiently you accomplish those objectives. It is a galvanizing force that aligns teams and communicates success to leadership.
Brian McGlynn framed conversion as a measure of efficiency that dictates digital spend. Every stage of the funnel has a conversion component, and optimizing those stages yields sales, profitability, and competitive advantage.
Mark Pickett countered that conversion rate is a gateway drug to other metrics. By itself, it tells you little. You immediately have to ask whether the conversion happened at the top or bottom of the funnel, what the traffic quality was, and whether visitors actually intended to purchase.
Conversion rate is what I consider to be the gateway drug into every other metric. By itself it is akin to saying how much revenue did we make this week. There is a whole explanation that comes with it.
Mark Pickett, MSC Industrial
Catherine Chen added that conversion rate cannot be viewed in isolation. Operational metrics like reduced cost to serve, productivity increases, and self-serve events matter. E-commerce impact extends beyond the transaction itself.
The audience voted that other metrics matter more, giving Team Other Measures the first round.
Round 2: Predicting buyer intent from search
Brian McGlynn argued that search behavior provides strong signals of intent. Buyers searching for specific part numbers or SKUs are expressing clear purchase intent. AI has improved the ability to detect these signals and reduce friction in the path to conversion.
Rob Howl shared examples from wine and spirits and aerospace. In both industries, customers searched with high specificity, often by brand and size or exact part numbers. B2B customers are most often buying, not shopping, and search precision reflects that behavior.
Mark Pickett pushed back that not everyone searching intends to purchase in that moment. Buyers may be building lists for comparison shopping, researching products they do not understand, or gathering information for a decision maker who is not present. The signal is noisy.
Everyone that is actually searching is not necessarily intending to purchase. They could be trying to list build or preserve for another period. At MSC we have over two million SKUs. There is intention in what you are searching for, but it might be for comparison shopping or research.
Mark Pickett, MSC Industrial
Catherine Chen noted that the person doing research may not be the decision maker. Contractors research products that homeowners will ultimately choose. Search behavior indicates engagement but not necessarily purchase authority.
The audience again voted for Team Other Measures.
Round 3: Top of funnel vs. bottom of funnel focus
Mark Pickett argued that top-of-funnel metrics reveal traffic quality. If you drive low-quality traffic, conversion rate becomes meaningless. Campaigns may target awareness or lead generation rather than immediate purchase, and those goals require different metrics.
Catherine Chen agreed that filling the funnel with quality leads generates demand. Without that demand, conversion becomes irrelevant. The journey starts at the top.
Brian McGlynn countered that conversion efficiency at every stage matters. A leaky process destroys value regardless of traffic quality. You can have the best leads in the world, but a bad conversion process creates massive efficiency loss throughout the system.
Rob Howl made a practical argument about resources. Cost to acquire customers in B2B is high, and many companies are trying to convert existing analog customers to lower-cost digital channels. The bottom of the funnel is where that conversion happens.
We are constantly looking at how we convert our more analog customers to a lower cost to serve digital channel. For us, conversion at the bottom of the funnel is even more important than having a really large top of funnel.
Rob Howl, Foundation Building Materials
The audience voted decisively for top-of-funnel focus, completing a sweep for Team Other Measures.
The verdict: Conversion rate is a gateway, not a destination
Team Other Measures Matter won all three rounds. The LinkedIn poll reinforced the result, with the community voting that conversion rate misses e-commerce’s true impact.
The debate surfaced several nuances. First, cross-channel attribution remains unsolved. Buyers research online and purchase offline, sever digital trails by calling to negotiate, and involve multiple stakeholders in decisions. Tying activity to conversion is difficult even within a single channel.
Second, conversion rate can unite teams when used as a northstar, but that unity comes at a cost if it creates short-term focus. Customer lifetime value is the ultimate goal, but it requires longitudinal measurement that conversion rate snapshots cannot provide.
Third, the definition of conversion rate may need to expand for B2B. If CRM systems can source offline transactions back to digital influence, the metric becomes more useful. Without that integration, conversion rate understates digital’s contribution.
The moderators closed by comparing the debate to the Amazon versus Google question. Amazon focuses obsessively on bottom-of-funnel conversion because traffic arriving at Amazon has high purchase intent. Google focuses on top of funnel because its business is capturing demand earlier in the journey. Neither model is wrong, but choosing where to focus has strategic implications that extend beyond the metric itself.