Entertainment and media industry conversion rate trends, statistics and benchmarks

Entertainment overview

Key conversion rate insights for entertainment

Which traffic channels convert best, how complex should your copy be, and should you go all-in on mobile? Let’s take a look at what the data suggests.

Email is the highest-converting channel by far

Traffic from email converts 5x more than paid search and 3x more than paid social. Finding a way to drive traffic from email is non-negotiable.

Facebook ads convert best across paid social

Traffic from Facebook converts 28.8% better than Instagram—the next-best channel. Plus, the majority of landing pages convert Facebook traffic at 5.6% or better.

Simple copy doesn’t convert better (believe it or not)

In most industries, the simpler the copy, the higher the conversion rate. Not in the entertainment space. We’ll break down why below.

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Access the full Conversion Benchmark Report for detailed industry benchmarks, in-depth conversion rate insights, top-performing channels, and more.

Key insight: Industry subcategories

Entertainment landing pages have a 12.3% median conversion rate—nearly double the overall benchmark

To avoid burying the lede, the entertainment median is heavily influenced by the sweepstakes subcategory, which has a median conversion rate of 47.5%. Sweepstakes pages also have the highest performance potential with a ceiling of 79.8%, and the majority of pages converting at 39.6% or higher.

Even with that in mind, when we look at the other three subcategories, the conversion rates are still higher than the overall benchmark. Pages in the publishing subcategory convert at 9.8%, games and gambling pages convert at 8.1%, and streaming media pages convert at 6.8%.

Gambling and streaming media pages also have similar performance ranges for most pages. However, the median conversion rate for games and gambling is 19.1% higher, likely due to top pages reaching conversion rates as high as 51.8%.

Conversion rates by industry subcategory

Consistency pays off in the publishing subcategory

While the publishing subcategory has a narrower performance range, these pages usually have a higher conversion rate floor. So, although you might not hit the sky-high 50%+ conversion rates seen on sweepstakes pages, you’re also less likely to end up with a near-zero conversion rate.

Key insight: Overall traffic channels

Email traffic converts 3-5x more than paid traffic, but paid can still convert well

The major highlight here is that email traffic has a massive median conversion rate of 46.2%—far higher than we’ve seen in any other industry.

When we connect the dots here, it’s likely that this number is driven by high-performing sweepstakes pages being promoted to email lists. Still, a 46% conversion rate is worth paying attention to regardless of what may be influencing it.

That said, just because email is blowing the other channels out of the water doesn’t mean those channels aren’t just as viable on their own. In fact, paid social is still a great channel to bet on with a median conversion rate of 14.6%—slightly higher than the 12% average conversion rate we see across all industries.

Conversion rates by traffic channel group

Consider the timeline of your offer when choosing your channels

With sweepstakes pages hitting a median of 47.5%, we think email’s success is largely due to time-sensitive offers. This could also work well in subcategories like streaming media, where converting trial users often depends on urgency.

Key insight: Paid search traffic channels

Google is the place to be when running paid search campaigns

While some industries are seeing success across other search platforms, entertainment landing pages consistently perform best on Google.

The majority of pages are converting at a minimum of 5.7% or higher. To illustrate the point even more clearly, this conversion rate floor is similar to the median conversion rate for Bing (5.9%). Yahoo’s median conversion rate was so low it didn’t even make the cut.

Conversion rates by paid search traffic sources

Google ads bring the highest floor and the highest ceiling

Most landing pages convert Google Ads traffic between 5.7% and 13.4%, giving them a fairly high floor. Many also perform much higher, with conversion rates reaching 23.5%—25.6% above Bing’s max range.

Just because Google is the best paid search channel doesn’t mean it’s the best overall

Google is your best option for search, but as we’ve seen, other traffic channels like paid social and email still come out on top.

This is a good marketing lesson in general: Just because Google performs better than Bing doesn’t mean you should throw your entire paid media budget at it blindly.

The best thing you can do before making major changes to your paid budget allocations is to analyze your own data. If paid search is a high-performing channel for you, perhaps your subcategory of entertainment sees better results on search, in which case you can safely push your chips in on Google. If paid search hasn’t been a high-converter in the past, perhaps your budget would be better spent on paid social or sponsored email campaigns.

Key insight: Social traffic channels

Paid Facebook traffic (14.3%) converts 28% better than Instagram (11.1%)

Across the board, paid Facebook traffic is outperforming paid Instagram traffic.

In addition to the median conversion rate being greater, the majority of paid social traffic from Facebook also typically converts at a rate of 5.6% or higher—30% higher than Instagram’s floor of 4.3%. Plus, the ceiling on Facebook traffic is more than double Instagram’s, with some pages seeing conversion rates as high as 48.2% from Facebook.

Conversion rates by paid social traffic sources

Key insight: Mobile vs. desktop

Mobile (13.6%) and desktop (13.5%) conversion rates are virtually the same

This is one of the only industries where we’ve seen a similar average conversion rate on both mobile and desktop. The traffic split is also closer to even than most industries, with mobile making up 72% of the visits we analyzed.

Conversion rates for mobile vs. desktop visitors

Mobile optimization matters, but desktop is more relevant than other industries

In most industries, we’ve been preaching from the rooftops about how building mobile-first is a no-brainer. Typically, we’re seeing 80-90% of visits coming on mobile devices, while conversion rates on desktop consistently outperform mobile. In the entertainment industry, though, the split isn’t as significant.

Still, if your resources are tight, focus on mobile optimization first.

Even though we’re not seeing a divide between how visitors convert on desktop vs. mobile in the entertainment industry, mobile still accounts for 72% of landing page traffic and should be prioritized over desktop if your resources are tight.

Key insight: Readability

Watch out for the “just keep it simple” trap—the data may suggest otherwise

Conventional wisdom says that you should always be trying to simplify, simplify, simplify. Aim for grade-school level copy, don’t make it too complex—all of it. When we dig into what actually performs the best in the entertainment space, you may be surprised.

Copy written at a low reading level does not typically lead to better conversions

Don’t adjust your monitors—you read that right.

Simple copy does not lead to better conversions in the entertainment industry.

This is the only industry where we’ve consistently seen higher conversion rates when landing pages are written at a higher reading level, with pages written at a college/university level converting best at 21%.

Conversion rates by reading ease score

If you’re going to “miss” the sweet spot, aim higher—not lower

What’s interesting as well is that the next-best performing reading level is professional, which is actually even more advanced. As a result, our recommendation is to aim for the college/university level, and if you’re going to miss—miss on the more advanced side, rather than trying to over-simplify things.

Above all else, keep your subcategory (and unique business) in mind

Entertainment is fairly broad, but the results are also fairly conclusive with college/university level copy converting a minimum of 41.9% higher than any other reading level. This means you can feel fairly confident that regardless of whether you’re offering streaming services or video games, college/university level copy is the right place to start.

Still, every business is unique and you may still find simpler copy leading to higher conversion rates. The best thing you can do is experiment. Our recommendation would be to start with more advanced copy as your initial champion and test simpler copy against it.

Aim for roughly 300-500 words to maximize your conversion potential

The recommended word count range for entertainment landing pages is 309-483, to be exact. Within that range, the median for top performing pages was 462 words. This means that while you should aim to stay within the range, it’s likely better to lean closer to the top end of the range than the bottom.

Where things get even more interesting is with the ideal amount of difficult words—or words with three or more syllables. The recommended number of difficult words is lower than any other industry, at a maximum of 76. This may seem to contradict the recommendation to write at a college or university reading level, but remember—multiple factors define reading level, not just the amount of difficult words.

Conversion rates word count and number of difficult words

Track your word count and stay in the sweet spot

Of all the industries analyzed in the report, entertainment sees the most narrow recommended word count range. That means you have a better chance at hitting the median conversion rate if you stay within that range, but you should aim for the higher end because the optimal word count for hitting the median is 462 words

Entertainment

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Entertainment

Focus on email and Facebook (and keep it… complex?)

Entertainment overview

Key conversion rate insights for entertainment

Email is the highest-converting channel by far

Facebook ads convert best across paid social

Simple copy doesn’t convert better (believe it or not)

Accelerate results with simple CRO

Key insight: Industry subcategories

Entertainment landing pages have a 12.3% median conversion rate—nearly double the overall benchmark

Conversion rates by industry subcategory

Key insight: Overall traffic channels

Email traffic converts 3-5x more than paid traffic, but paid can still convert well

Conversion rates by traffic channel group

Key insight: Paid search traffic channels

Google is the place to be when running paid search campaigns

Conversion rates by paid search traffic sources

Key insight: Social traffic channels

Paid Facebook traffic (14.3%) converts 28% better than Instagram (11.1%)

Conversion rates by paid social traffic sources

Key insight: Mobile vs. desktop

Mobile (13.6%) and desktop (13.5%) conversion rates are virtually the same

Conversion rates for mobile vs. desktop visitors

Key insight: Readability

Watch out for the “just keep it simple” trap—the data may suggest otherwise

Copy written at a low reading level does not typically lead to better conversions

Conversion rates by reading ease score

Aim for roughly 300-500 words to maximize your conversion potential

Conversion rates word count and number of difficult words

Entertainment

Create and launch your landing pages fast, without the hassle