Conversion tracking is a free tool that helps you find out what path your customer takes after interacting with your ads. This includes whether they called your business, made a purchase, signed up for a newsletter or completed a download. Conversions are the actions customers perform that you’ve defined as valuable. If you’re just starting out this can be a great way to track performance and make adjustments that might save you some money. For even further optimisation it is best to get in touch with an experienced Google AdWords Agency like Finsbury Media!
What Are The Benefits Of Conversion Tracking?
Conversion tracking can help you identify which keywords, ads, ad groups, and campaigns are the most successful at converting users and ultimately lead you to a more valuable business. They also help you clearly understand your return on investment (ROI) given the many variables that affect your ad spend and help you make better decisions about how to allocate your budget. Smart Bidding technology is an automatic optimisation tool that automatically optimises your campaigns according to your business goals. This includes (Maximise Conversions, target CPA and target ROAS). See how many customers may be interacting with your ads on different devices and browsers after converting on another. These all help your ads to perform better, saving you time and money.
How Does Conversion Tracking Work?
Conversion-tracking starts with creating a conversion action in your Google Ads account. This is a vital step in measuring the effectiveness of your campaigns. A “conversion action” is the specific customer activities that you consider are valuable to your business. Conversion tracking may be used to track the following actions:
Website Actions: These include any purchases, sign-ups, downloads or any other actions that customers might complete when on your website.
Phone Calling Actions: Track calls directly from your ads, any calls to a number on your website, and click on a phone number feature you might have on mobile.
App Actions: Gather data on any downloads of your IOS or Android apps in addition to any in-app actions. Purchases or other activity within those apps.
Local Actions: For geo-marketing, actions are when people interact with an ad specific to a physical location or shop.
The conversion tracking process is slightly different with each source, but each type handles conversions in a similar way:
You start by adding a code snippet to your website or mobile app, which then adds conversion tracking tags/cookies. When a visitor clicks on your ad or views a video advertisement from Google Search or Google Display Network; a temporary cookie is left on their computer or mobile device. Upon completion of the action that you have defined, Google is able to identify and successfully identify the cookie, then a conversion action will be recorded.
There are some forms of conversion tracking, however, they do not require a specific tag. You can record call data from call extensions or call-only advertising with the use of a Google forwarding number, you know where the call originates from. Track the details of each call, such as the duration of a call, the caller’s area code, and the call’s start and end times. With Google Play app downloads, in-app purchases and subscriptions; actions will automatically be marked as conversions and no tracking code is necessary.
Tracking Your Conversions!
Once you have configured conversion tracking, your campaigns, ads, keywords, and ad groups can be monitored, thus allowing you to identify which of your conversions is doing the best job. Viewing these data reports can support your business in understanding how your ads are achieving the goals for your business, how your budget is being managed and how to improve for better results. If you need help improving the performance of your Google ads or would just like to get started, chat with the PPC experts at our Digital Marketing Agency today.
