In this competitive digital age for eCommerce brands, proper and effective conversion tracking is an absolute MUST. In fact, we believe you should not even be running ads if you have any kinds of doubts about your conversion tracking codes.
Why do we have such strong opinions about conversion tracking codes, specifically for Google ads?
Conversion tracking with Google Ads will not only help you determine if your Google Shopping and Search ads are working properly and driving the desired results, but how your business is performing in the market as a whole. Sounds pretty important, right?
This post will go through some of the benefits of tracking your campaign and overall Google ad account’s conversions and how to utilize its power for long-term growth. Read on for some conversion tracking tips in 2022 to get you started on the right track with Google Ads.
Conversion Tracking Tips in 2022 — Your ULTIMATE Quick Guide
Let’s start with the basics — what are conversions, and what does conversion tracking mean?
What Are Conversions And What Is Conversion Tracking?
Conversion tracking allows you to follow what happens after a customer interacts with your advertisements – in this case, Google Shopping ads or Google Search ads. This includes whether or not they purchased something, signed up for your newsletter, called your business directly, or visited a certain page on your eCommerce website.. A conversion is defined as the action a consumer performs that you’ve deemed “valuable,” like purchasing the item you’re advertising.
You’ll select which kinds of conversions you want to track depending on the importance of that activity. It’s not necessary to keep track of every conversion objective you choose, but they provide valuable information to hone your campaign efforts. So even if you don’t need the data right at this minute, it could be helpful in the future.
Typically, conversion tracking is the procedure by which a measurement partner tracks a defined data element within a specific app. When you, the advertiser, work with an ad platform, you can utilize conversion tracking to determine which data points are triggered by the people you’re trying to attract. If you’ve already begun advertising on Google ads and have a decent amount of ad spend per day or month, you probably want to know how effective those ads are.
There are several objectives you might have for eCommerce advertisements — boosting video views, increasing visitors to a particular landing page, inviting more people to sign up for your newsletter, increasing sales on your website, and more!
Regardless of the reason, there’s no way to know which ads resulted in the outcomes you were looking for unless you start using conversion tracking software. That way, you’ll learn how people interact with your advertisements. This information will allow you to fine-tune your campaigns and increase your traffic while increasing the overall revenue and profitability of your eCom store.. Read on as we describe why conversion tracking matters in 2022.
The Goal of Conversion Tracking (Why Should You Even Care?)
When you break everything down, the ultimate goal of conversion tracking is to see how effective your Google ads campaigns are in terms of conversion objectives and consumer engagements. Tracking conversions allows you to:
- Understand your ROI (return on investment), which in turn allows you to make better decisions with your advertising budget.
- Identify which keywords, ad groups, ads, and campaigns perform best for the conversion outcome you’re after.
- Figure out which path your customers are going down before they convert, which could vary depending on which device or browser they are using.
- Use various smart bidding techniques, such as target ROAS or a full-on smart campaign, that can instantly improve your campaigns and conversion goals.
Still not sure how conversion tracking works? The first step in effective conversion tracking is to create a conversion tracker in your Google Ads account. Then, there are several activities you can monitor with conversion tracking:
- Phone calls — this includes calls directly from your advertisements, clicks on a mobile website phone number, and class to a specific phone number on your website.
- Website actions — things like eComm purchases, sign-ups, and clicks.
- App installs and in-app actions — this will track how many installations of your apps have been downloaded on both Android and iOS mobile apps, and you can also track activity within those applications.
- Local actions — Google monitors when people engage with an advertisement that is relevant to a specific physical location or business.
- Import — Got purchases with your eCommerce store but didn’t have Google ads conversion tracking codes installed? Import this data directly from your Google Analytics account.
Conversion Tracking Setup Tips
The conversion tracking technique is different for each type of conversion, as there are both online and offline conversions. However, here is a general idea of how certain types work.
Manually Placed Tracking Tags
Most eCom store owners add a conversion tracking tag (or code snippet) directly to the website. This means that when someone clicks on your ads from the Google Search results page, a temporary cookie is created on the device they’re currently using.
The conversion tracker you use will recognize the placed cookie and record a conversion when the person associated with the cookie meets the conversion goal you’ve specified.
Conversion Tracking Without Manually Placed Tags
Some conversions don’t require you to tag your website for some conversions manually. Instead, use a Google forwarding phone number to track phone call conversions or call-only ads. This data can show you how long a call lasts, when it begins and ends, and the caller’s area code — all helpful in creating better ad campaigns.
It works for app downloads and in-app purchases from the Google Play store. You’ll be able to monitor conversion activity for your campaigns, ads, keywords, and ad groups. Once you’ve gotten a handle on conversion tracking, you’ll be ready to set it up for your Google Search Autopilot campaigns. A Google Ads expert can help you curate ads strategies that work.
Things To Remember / Troubleshooting Tips
Are Your Conversion Columns Showing Zero Data?
It could take up to 24 to 48 hours for conversion data to show up in your Google Ads account after changing or updating a page. Remember, if conversions aren’t appearing after 48 hours, it’s possible that no consumers have fired any of your conversion goals on your website.
In a case like this, consider going through the motions yourself. When you see your Google Shopping or Search ad, complete the action necessary to trigger conversions on your site. Double-check that the HTML code was correctly installed if your own conversion still isn’t showing up after 24 hours.
Over at Yoru Marketing, we start our trouble shooting process by checking that the tags are, indeed, on the page and firing properly with the Google Tag Assistant. Once we’ve verified that the tags are as installed, we start to check the backend to ensure the app we used on the client’s eCommerce website is enabled and the settings are properly configured.
Since majority of our eCom clients use Shopify, we use the Feed for Google Shopping by Simprosys app to not only submit the store’s feed to the Google Merchant Center, but to also install the conversion tracking codes. If there are any internal issues, contacting the support team of the conversion tracking app you’re using is the best way to go.
Remember To Look At Data With A Grain of Salt
Don’t forget that conversion tracking doesn’t properly work if customers don’t have cookies turned on in their browser when they click the ad and complete your desired conversion. Cookies are now used on almost every website to ensure that visitors don’t have to re-enter data or information.
So don’t get discouraged if you’re looking at data and it doesn’t seem indicative of sales or conversion rates. If you choose to include the tracking indicator link on your website, visitors might opt-out of conversion tracking by deleting the conversion tracker cookie.
However, at the same time, work towards ensuring you have successfully installed the tracking codes as needed.
Getting A Lot of Clicks But No Conversion
If your advertising spend for your Google ads campaigns are going through the roof and you aren’t getting the desired outcome or ROI, take a step back.
A bunch of clicks with little to no conversions or even a positive return on ad spend (ROAS) is a direct indicator of a low conversion rate. And what causes a low conversion rate?
Issues with your website and / or landing page.
There could be many things going wrong, such as a slow loading page or a broken page. The pricing of the product may be extremely high compared to its overall quality. The keywords you might be using in the titles and descriptions might not be relevant to what the potential customers clicking on your ads truly want.
(Our founder, Shri Kanase’s video on this topic)
Like most eCommerce store owners, you might pick up the wrench and try to figure things out yourself. However, in a situation like this, it might be the perfect time to consult a Google Ads expert. They can look at your conversion data and help you identify the problem and help you fix it as the bucket could be leaking from any side.
Our team over at Yoru Marketing not only helps analyze which side of the bucket the water is leaking from, but also why the hole was even created in the first place and how to prevent future holes.
See How My Agency Can 10x Your Brand's Sales With Google Ads
Google Ads – effective targeting and scaling methods for ROI.
Bing Ads – dominating the market of a fairly untouched platform.
Facebook Ads (Retargeting) – helping stop the leaks from all sides of the bucket, especially with retargeting.
Conversion Tracking – What Should You Do Next?
There are plenty of advantages to tracking your conversions, including measuring the effectiveness of your campaigns, getting results on how your consumers interact with your ads online, and the ability to fine-tune your strategy so that your results match your goals.
In fact, if you don’t have conversion tracking codes properly installed or aren’t even sure if they’re firing properly, do NOT run ads. And this holds true regardless of whether you’re using Google ads or any other advertising platform.
Get the conversion tracking template our founder, Shri Kanase created specifically for Google Ads and watch the video on the page if unsure how to install it. If you use other advertising platforms, research into how it should be installed for it.
Still have questions about Google Ads? At Yoru Marketing, we help you create exponential growth with Google Ads for e-commerce brands. We are ROI-driven and have tested and proven PPC Adwords strategies that have generated millions of dollars of revenue and profits for some of the biggest e-commerce brands around the world. If you run an eCommerce brand doing $30,000 or more per month and want to take your business to the next level, get in touch with us today and let us show you how we can create havoc in your market and increase overall sales and profitability.
