Google Ads aren’t cheap. But if you’re generating traffic and conversions, they’re definitely worth all the money you’re putting in. As such, it’s important you measure how much traffic and conversions your ads are driving. This guide is going to help you set up conversion tracking from your Google Ads account. It’s a very simple process. And we’re going to make it even easier for you!Â
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Why Track Conversions in Google Ads?
Conversions are the primary goal of any marketing strategy. Even more so for advertisements. Tracking conversions for your campaigns is critical to your ads strategy. How else will you find out which campaigns are working and which are not? A good strategy is one that is flexible enough to add improvements. But if you can’t figure out how a campaign is lacking, how will you improve it? By tracking your conversions, you can see which ads are behind the most conversions. This is key data in figuring out what you’ve done right. You can use it to optimize and improve those campaigns that aren’t performing that well. Conversion tracking allows you to maximize your profits and make the most of your ad spend.
What To Track?
The goal of every campaign is distinct. A conversion can be anything you define it to be. For one campaign, it might be getting people to sign up for a newsletter. For others, it might be purchasing an item. At its essence, a conversion is an action that your audience takes when they see your ad. The most basic form of conversion is clicking on the ad to move to the brand’s landing page. Hence, conversion tracking is keeping count of these actions and analyzing this data to reform strategies.
Given that every business has different goals, what they track will also be different. Website actions are the most common type of conversion they track. These could be simple clicks, purchases or filling out forms. Phone calls are another basic conversion. Some ads take you to the Contact Us page of a business. Other smart ads will directly dial a helpline if you’re using your smartphone. Google Ads lets you track local conversions as well. These are actions that are specific to the advertiser’s location. For example, clicking on the menu tab of a restaurant’s Google My Business page.
Finally, Google makes your campaign data reporting much easier by segmenting conversions into different categories. In total, there are twelve categories. But to make things simpler, we put them under three umbrella categories. The sales category includes all actions that directly lead to a sale. For example, adding items to the cart, moving to checkout or making a purchase altogether. The leads category comprises actions such as filling out a form, making a call to the business or requesting an appointment. The further category has all other actions, like viewing a landing page.
What Should You Know About Google Ads Conversion Tracking?
Tracking your Google Ads conversions isn’t a simple job, but we’ll make it as easy for you as possible. For this, you need to understand exactly how this process works. The first step is to define what your conversion action really is. We’ve already talked about these actions in detail above. The second step is installing a tag. This tag is a piece of technical code that you add to your website. The purpose of this is to act as a mediary between your website and your Google Ads account. Whenever a user completes an action on your website, how does your Google Ads account find out about it? This is where the Google tag comes in. It accurately signals to your account when your defined conversion action is completed.
The last step is selecting an attribution model. Attribution models define how your ads are credited for completed actions. For example, if a user moves to your landing page from one ad. But makes a purchase through another ad, which ad gets the credit? A first-click model will give the entire attribute the conversion to the first ad. But a linear model will credit all ads equally. Choosing a suitable attribution model greatly impacts how your conversions will be tracked and your PPC insights.
Now that we’ve got all our bases covered let’s move on to the actual process of tracking your Google Ads conversions!
How to Set Up Google Ads Conversion Tracking?
The process of setting up conversion tracking for your Google Ads may seem technical, with a lot of small steps. But if you follow our guide closely, it won’t be any more challenging than making your favorite PB & J sandwich. Let’s get into it.
Step 1: Conversion Action
The first step of the process is to define your conversion action. To do this, follow these steps:
- Sign in to your Google Ads account.
- In the top-right corner, click on the Tools icon.
- Open up the Conversions tab.
- Scroll to the Set up conversion tracking section.
- Click on Google Ads Tracking.
- Set your Count, Value and Conversion window.
- Choose an Attribution Model.
- Click on Save and Continue.
Step 2: Google Tag
Installing a Google tag on your website is very easy. When you’re setting up your conversion action, a prompt will show you a piece of code. This is your Google Tag. Copy this code and add it to the header of the website you’re tracking conversions for. If you’re tracking conversions for multiple websites, you’ll have to paste them into each website’s code. There’s another method to install a Google Tag, which is to use Google Tag Manager. It might be a more technical method, but maintaining your tag through Google Tag Manager is much easier. Here is an excellent guide provided by Google.
Step 3: Check Your Tag
After you’ve set things up, it’s important to check if everything is working as it should. Here are the steps to check your conversion tracking:
- Sign in to your Google Ads account.
- Navigate to the Conversions section.
- Change the layout to Table View.
- Take a look at the Tracking Status column.
Every action that you’ve set up will appear here. Their status will be displayed alongside them. If it says Recording conversions, everything is working as usual. No recent conversions also means that there are no problems. It’s just that the specific action might not have been performed as yet. Tag inactive is the one status that you must watch out for. Troubleshoot your conversion tracking to find out what’s wrong.
And voila, You’re done! Wasn’t that a walk in the park?
Got Your Conversion Tracking Set Up?
Conversion tracking is essential to every paid advertising strategy. It can help you track how many conversions your keywords, ads and campaigns generate. It is also a great indicator of your Google Ads conversion rate. To track and improve your strategy, it is essential to understand how these things measure up and set standards for them.
Have you set up conversion tracking for your Google Ads already? Let us know in the comments below!
