Do Referred Entrants Convert as Well as Direct Visitors?

Question

Accepted Answer

A share-link click turned into an entrant 12.8 percent of the time on the typical paid Gleam giveaway, against 25.2 percent for every other widget view. Referred visitors arrive colder and enter at about half the rate.

Referred visitors enter at about half the rate of everyone else. On the typical paid Gleam giveaway with the Viral Share action, a share-link click turned into an entrant 12.8 percent of the time, against 25.2 percent for every other widget view, a gap of 12.4 points across 4,200 giveaways in the Gleam Giveaway Benchmarks 2026, Edition 2.

Why the referral conversion rate sits lower

A person who found the giveaway through your email, your social post or a directory chose to look. A person who clicked a friend's link is often seeing the brand and the prize for the first time, and a share of those clicks are the referrer checking their own link. Both push the referral conversion rate down without saying anything about the quality of the people who do enter.

This is the Viral Conv. Rate figure on your dashboard, successful referrals divided by referral clicks. See Viral Share Reporting.

What this means for your numbers

Share-link clicks are counted as widget views, and on the typical share giveaway they were 14.3 percent of all views. That is why a giveaway with a busy share action can show a lower overall conversion rate than one without, while ending with more entrants. Judge the action on referred entrants, and judge the giveaway on total entrants.

The report holds no entrant-level record, so it cannot say whether referred entrants complete more actions or stay on a list longer.