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Conversion Tracking in Google Adwords

Google’s conversion tracking in Adwords allows you to take your account to the next level by providing you with ROI data that can help you more accurately identify both areas of success and opportunities. The best part is it only takes a snippet of code and few settings to get started!

Using Conversion Tracking

The first step you must take is to set up the conversion that you want to track. You can create up to 100 separate conversions, and you have a variety of action types to choose from:

• Purchases/Sales
• Leads
• Sign-ups
• Views of a Key Page
• Other

You can set up your conversion tracking in 3 simple steps right in the interface:

1. Create a new conversion
   
   • Conversions are created in the interface under the Reports tab, then Conversions.
   • Name your conversion using descriptive terms about what you are tracking, or the conversion page that you are using.
   • You will also need to identify the tracking purpose of your goal, and you will be able to choose from the actions listed above.
2. Fill in the code settings
   
   • Identify the page security level, and choose either HTTP or HTTPS for secure pages.
   • Set a conversion value. (This is an optional and will not affect your reporting in any way.) You can track a variety of values such as dollar amounts or page views. Think of this as the value that the conversion is worth to you, so if you have determined that a customer who signs up for your email list is worth $10, then you would enter that value here. If you want to track a value that is dynamic (like total order value), you will just need to include a qualifier such as “Total_Order” along with your value.
   • Set the appropriate language for your page.
   • Choose your Google Site Stats format. You are responsible for alerting your customers that Google is tracking their actions, so you can choose one of two text formats, or include it in your privacy policy. If you choose to use a Google Site Stats link, you will also be able to customize the background color to match the rest of your site.
3. Add the code to your conversion page(s)
   
   • Once you have entered all of the settings for your tracking code, it will be automatically generated at the bottom of the page.
   • You can either copy and paste the code into your landing page, or email it to your web master. If you copy and paste the code, remember to keep it between the body tags of your page.

Once you have included the code on your conversion page you will be able to see data in the interface. To verify that your goals are being tracked, go back to the conversions page under the Reports tab, and you will see the tracking status. You will also be given a total value of your conversions, which is calculated by multiplying the number of conversions you’ve received from that goal, and multiplying it by the revenue value you set.

If you have a Google Analytics account that is linked with your Adwords account you can import your goal conversions into Adwords, giving you another level of reporting to help you analyze your ROI and optimize your account accordingly. If you import Analytics goals you don’t have to tag any analytics conversion pages with the Adwords conversion tracking code, so that is one less step to worry about.

The ability to see revenue data next to your cost data will help immensely in your efforts to effectively optimize your campaigns. One of the most significant benefits of setting up conversion tracking is that revenue is tracked on a campaign, ad group, URL and keyword level, so you have access to a much more granular view. Knowing if one keyword is more valuable than another will be greatly helpful when you are making decisions about account expansions or deletions.

Check out The Adventures of PPC Hero: Heroic Feats of Pay Per Click Management at http://www.ppchero.com/. Copyright © 2007-2010 Hanapin Marketing, LLC.

The reasons a user will abandon your conversion/sales funnel are endless, unfortunately. Today, I’ll explore one case where not only did our online leads decrease but offline leads (phone calls) decreased too. And I had to find out what was going on and some possible solutions.

I am working with a client who sells high-end, custom office furniture. Over the past few weeks our conversion rate has been down so I started analyzing our ad texts, keywords, bids, ad positions, search query reports, and the other usual suspects that could cause my performance to fluctuate.

After running numerous reports within our paid search campaigns we didn’t discover any major performance problems. Our impressions, clicks and click-through rate all remained steady. There were not any specific campaigns, ad groups or keywords that were well below the others. Also, our bounce rate, pages-per-visitor, and time-on-site stats had actually increased. Overall, conversion rate was down and there was no smoking gun in our paid search campaign to blame.

Of course, we conducted ad text optimizations, we adjusted bids accordingly for keywords have historically under-performed. So, we were able to make some changes in or to optimize the account. But I was thinking that there was something else going on.

I was reviewing our lead reports and noticed that online leads and inbound calls were down, and their decline was parallel. This lead me to believe there was an issue that was on a more macro level. After talking with the client, he had mentioned that this time of year may lend itself to users who are conducting more research for these products, rather than actually taking action (but it was just a gut feeling).

I set out within Analytics to see if this is true. Keep in mind, I’m still looking into this issue, but I thought I’d share my findings thus far and maybe it will help you to get a new perspective on your conversion funnel.

Within Google Analytics I reviewed our exit pages from our contact form. Basically, I wanted to see if someone hit our contact form, where did they end up after that (instead of converting)? Here is sampling of my findings thus far (see below).

So, what are you looking at here? In the red box is my lead confirmation page (”/thankyou.php”). I noticed that the number of people who went from the contact form to the confirmation page decreased by 8%. However, the number of people who are going to all of our other products (that are included in the navigation) have gone up. See below:

This initial report was telling me a few things:

1. That gut feeling may be right. People were leaving the contact form in order to view other products. This could mean that they are not ready to make the commitment and take that next step (i.e contact my client for a quote).
2. Also, this indicates that perhaps we need to review our contact form in order to gain user’s attention faster and at a deeper level, and provide more reasons for them to convert right now.
3. During this time frame, inbound calls also went down. This could also indicate the users are doing more shopping than buying as well.

We have not exhausted our analysis and there other strategies we are reviewing in order to get our conversion rate back up. But this is a start. We still have much work to do!

What can you take away from this?

• Seasonality can play a big roll in your PPC performance.
• If there isn’t a smoking gun in your PPC campaign, review your website to see if something has shifted.
• When your conversion rate is down, it’s always a good idea to review your abandonment rate within your analytics tracking (it helps to set up goals in Google Analytics). This can show where people are dropping off and how you might be able to pick them back up again.

Check out The Adventures of PPC Hero: Heroic Feats of Pay Per Click Management at http://www.ppchero.com/. Copyright © 2007-2009 Hanapin Marketing, LLC.