Calculating results of

lead generation on Upwork

Often freelancers use standard stats lead generation on Upwork to evaluate the effectiveness of their bids. In this post, the Sales Head of our agency, Vlad, will tell you why you should not do it, how to correctly evaluate the results of lead generation, and will also share with you a standard template that you can start using right now.

Vlad also shared the average Upwork conversion % in different niches, so you can compare how successful you are in attracting new clients compared to other freelancers.

Let’s dig in?

Why even track conversion on Upwork?

If you're working as a solo freelancer, you might think that this is an unnecessary activity that will only take up your time that could be spent on work or writing another proposal. But it is super important to track the conversion correctly, because only then will you understand which cover letters customers like, what they respond well to, and what doesn't work. As a result, you will be able to optimize your bids to spend as few connects as possible and get more work.

Why not use standard statistics from Upwork?

The problem is that Upwork cuts the statistics relative to the actions that have been taken for that week or month. For example, if you wrote a proposal 32 days ago, and the client responded only today, then the conversion will be counted for the new month, and the data will be incorrect.

Then how to collect statistics?

In order to properly monitor the conversion, we will use basic tools, such as Notion, a spreadsheet or a CRM system.

In order to collect data correctly, we add each sent proposal to a table and write the date when it was sent.
In order to take into account the drawback that Upwork has and count the conversion for the correct period – we add a column with the date of the response to a specific bid. So now we know what period the conversion belongs to.
In addition to the date of sending the bid and the response, it is also useful to look at the percentage of bids that the clients viewed. If the % of views is high but there are very few responses, then your profile is appealing to clients, but the cover letter does not work and needs improvement. To count views, you need to add: active interviews + proposals with the status “viewed by client” + proposals with the status “withdrown” in “archived proposals”.

As a result, we should get:

Sent proposals
Viewed proposals
Answered proposals
Open contracts

How to correctly evaluate the results of lead generation on Upwork?

To calculate conversion of ‘answered proposals’: “Answered proposals’ / ‘Sent proposals’ * 100 = % conversion.
To calculate conversion of open contracts: ‘Open contracts’/’Sent proposals’ * 100.

Free Conversion Estimation Template

Click the link below and save a template of a table on how to calculate the conversion. All the formulas are already applied and you only need to insert the data.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xKgq5Jkb2RE8cRUDlU2kA8yx2lTZV-79JyHBB-LDzrA/edit?usp=sharing

When you calculate your conversion – come back to this post and compare it to the average in your niche in the image below! Are you above or below the average?