Conversion rate vs CTR on Google Play: why your 2025 numbers no longer compare.
Three things changed at once: what counts as a success, who counts as a visitor, and which users are counted. Here is how to report across the break without fooling anyone.
A client asked us last month why their best listing went from "31.7%" to a number nobody could compare it with. The honest answer is that the listing didn't change. The ruler did.
We covered how to read the new store listing CTR in Play Console. This piece is about the harder question that comes next: what do you do with two years of conversion rate history, quarterly decks and benchmarks that were all built on the old definition?
Three differences, not one
| Legacy conversion rate | Store listing CTR (2026) | |
|---|---|---|
| Success event | An acquisition: the user installed | A tap on Install, Open or Pre-register |
| Who is counted | Store listing visitors under the old counting method | Visitors under the method Google changed from July 2026 |
| What it rewards | Listings that convert and installs that complete | Listings that create intent, whether or not the install finishes |
Any one of these would break a time series. All three together mean a year-on-year comparison across the change tells you nothing about the listing.
A worked example with real numbers
Our 440K MAU case study had a market-specific custom store listing that converted at 31.7% from about 1.7 million visitors, against 18.7% on the default listing. Both numbers are legacy conversion rate.
What we can say about those two numbers in the CTR era:
- The absolute figures are history. 31.7% is not a CTR, and nobody should put it next to one.
- The ratio is still informative. The tailored listing converted about 1.7 times as well as the default in the same period, on the same definition. That gap came from the listing, not the measurement, so it is a strong hypothesis for what the CTR gap will look like.
- The ratio is not guaranteed to survive. If one audience abandons more downloads than the other (low storage, slow networks, big APK), CTR will flatter that listing more than conversion rate did.
How to report across the break
- Split the chart. Legacy conversion rate ends at the change date. CTR starts there. Draw a vertical line and label it, so nobody reads the jump as growth.
- Add a third line: completion. Acquisitions divided by unique clicks over the same window. It is the bridge between the two definitions and catches download problems CTR now hides.
- Restate targets. A target written as "conversion rate above 30%" is now meaningless. Rewrite it as a CTR target once you have 28 days of baseline per traffic source and country.
- Keep comparisons inside one regime. Store listing experiments, custom listing vs default, country vs country in the same month: all still valid.
- Stop quoting industry averages. Most published "average Play Store conversion rates" predate the change and rarely say which definition they used.
Quick check: if your CTR is well above your old conversion rate but installs are flat, the gap is measurement plus abandoned downloads, not a better listing.
What we are still measuring
We are collecting CTR baselines across the consoles we work in and will publish ranges once there are 90 clean days per category. Until then, the free Play Store CTR and conversion calculator works out legacy rate, CTR and completion side by side from your own numbers.
Questions people ask
Can I compare my 2025 Google Play conversion rate with my 2026 CTR?
No. They use different success events and a different visitor count. Compare ratios within the same period instead, and build a fresh CTR baseline.
Is a higher CTR than my old conversion rate a good sign?
Not by itself. Clicks are easier to earn than completed installs. Check acquisitions divided by clicks to see how many clicks turn into installs.
Are old store listing experiment results still useful?
Yes, as direction. They compared variants inside one period on one metric, so the winner is still a good bet, but the size of the lift may differ under CTR.
Want this mapped onto your product?
See how our ASO work runs, or send your store link and a founder will reply personally.
