There is a secret to using the Google Advertising Platform and it’s called conversion tracking. I’m sure most people who use PPC (pay per click) have heard of this, but I’m also betting most people who advertise using the Google platform ignore it completely. Or at least that is what I have come to see in most accounts that come my way.
Essentially conversion tracking is the measure of your success. How do you know if what you are doing is working? Is it your deft advertising skills that are responsible for all those online purchases from your website. Wouldn’t it be nice to prove it?
Every campaign has an ultimate goal and the first trick to conversion tracking is identifying that goal. For ecommerce sites this is pretty straight forward, usually it’s an online purchase. For other sites it may be an email enquiry or newsletter sign up. Whatever the goal of your website you need this metric in order to calculate which keywords are working for your website. At the very minimum you should use an email enquiry as a measure of site success.
First step is to create a confirmation page. This is the page visitors are shown after a purchase or email enquiry and this is where you will place the snippet of code Google will give you in order to measure your conversions. Then follow the simple steps in your Adwords account to add conversion tracking (pretty straight forward just follow Googles set up guide) and you will receive the code which you need to place on your confirmation page. Some sites may need multiple confirmation pages. The system allows you to add a value to each conversion which you can later use to assess the ROI of your adgroups. Once set up is complete a new column (called conversions)
Google will now track exactly which keywords created a purchase or enquiry. You will soon discover which adgroups are making money and which are not. This will allow you to refine your campaigns, delete the underperformers and concentrate your efforts where the real money is being made!
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