When you’ve started a Google ads campaign and the clicks start coming in, things get exciting fast. You want to celebrate, but at the same time, you’re thinking…
Are these clicks turning into sales?
Which of my campaigns and keywords are actually driving those clicks?
Can I get the same clicks for less money?
These are all questions that can be answered with conversion tracking.
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What Is Conversion Tracking?
Conversion tracking is a free Google tool that tells you what happened after someone clicked on your ad. Did they buy something, watch a video, or call your local store? Set up conversion tracking, and you’ll know.
How Can Google Track Conversions?
There are different ways you can track conversions in Google Ads, depending on the type of conversion you want to track.
- If you want to track an action on your website — including purchases, newsletter signups, and button clicks — you need to set up conversion tracking on your website. All you have to do is add a snippet of code called a conversion tracking tag to your website. Then, when someone takes an action on your ad, the tag will put a temporary cookie on their device so Google can see if they converted.
- If you want to track a download of your mobile app or in-app purchase, you’ve got options. You can set up conversion tracking for iOS and Android apps with Firebase or a third-party solution. Any conversions from Google Play will automatically be tracked. You can either add a tracking code into your app or set up a feed from your third-party software.
- If you want to track phone calls — including calls from your ads, calls to a number on your website, or clicks on a phone number from a mobile website — you’ll need to be running a call-only ad, or using location or call extensions. You can add a conversion tracking tag to your website, or you can use free Google forwarding numbers to see which ads, ad groups, keywords, and campaigns are driving calls. You can even define how long you want the phone call to be for it to count as a conversion (filtering out telemarketers and other short calls unlikely to lead to a sale).
- If you want to track offline conversions — including store visits and phone calls made after your campaign — you can do so by importing conversion data back into Google Ads. This is ideal for businesses who generate leads through Google Ads, as Google Ads can tie the conversion back to an original phone call or click via an unique ID. Thanks to conversion tracking, you can go all the way back to the beginning to see how different ad campaigns are filling up your lead pipeline.
If you’ve linked your Google Ads account and Google Analytics 4 properties, you can also track app and web conversion data together from Google Analytics App + Web.
Pro Tip: You can track multiple types of conversions at the same time. Just create a different conversion action in Google Ads for each one.
Benefits of Google Conversion Tracking
There are three key benefits to Google conversion tracking.
1. Get insights into how your ads are performing.
There’s no point spending money on your ads if you have no idea how well they’re working. With conversion tracking, you can clearly see what’s working, and what’s not — down to individual keywords, ads, ad groups, and campaigns. You can also learn more about your customer’s typical journey by tracking conversions across various browsers and devices.
2. Take advantage of Google Smart Bidding.
Google Smart Bidding strategies automatically optimize your campaigns based on your business goals and customers’ real-time click data — but they only work if you have conversion tracking set up. Set up conversion tracking, and you can enjoy these automated strategies for smarter, more efficient campaigns.
3. Know your advertising ROI.
You deserve to know how your spend is translating to results for your business. With Google conversion tracking, you can see how your efforts in Google Ads are contributing to conversions — and adjust your spend accordingly.
4. (Bonus) It’s free.
Did we mention Google conversion tracking is free? We know we said we’d stop at three benefits, but we felt it was worth mentioning again.
Get Started Tracking Your Conversions Now
You want to get the most out of your ad campaigns. Conversion tracking is step one. Step two is bringing in the pros. Google Ads experts, like the ones here at Your Marketing People, know how to test your ad copy to increase click-through rate by 10%, and double your conversion rate while reducing cost per lead by 50%. Learn more about our work here.
