What is conversion tracking and do you need it?
Simply put: if you’ve got marketing goals that you want to achieve, and you’re creating adverts to attract people to your website, then you need conversion tracking set up.
What is conversion tracking?
Conversion tracking is a free tool that shows you what happens after a customer interacts with your ads – whether they purchased a product, signed up for your newsletter, called your business or downloaded your app. When a customer completes an action that you've defined as valuable, these customer actions are called conversions.
The ads Google is referring to, are Google Ads. Google Ads is an online advertising platform created by Google.
One of the clever things about Google Ads is that you only pay for the advert when someone clicks on your advert to visit your site, or gives you a call.
We’ve recently written a blog about the different types of Google Ads and how they could benefit your business, organisation or charity!
The great thing for charities, churches and other nonprofits is that you can apply for free Google Ads.
Google literally gives away thousands of dollars worth of free advertising! If you want to know more, Wild SEO Agency delivers industry-recognised, best practice Google Ads management. Read more about how we can help you make the most out of Google Ads.
Back to conversion tracking…
Why should I use conversion tracking?
You can find out which of your keywords you’re using in your Google Ads are giving you the best customer activity results.
Find out which Google Ads are working, and which aren’t, so that you can adjust accordingly and make the most of your advertising budget.
Compare how customers are reacting to and interacting with your ads on different devices and browsers.
In short: if you don’t track your conversions, you don’t know if your ads are working.
You might as well not put any effort into creating Google Ads if you aren’t going to track them!
How does conversion tracking work?
To start tracking conversions in your Google Ads account you need to create a conversion action.
A conversion action is an action that a customer could take that you’ve decided is valuable to you. Such as:
Sign-ups to your newsletter
Purchasing one of your products
Someone downloading a fundraising pack
A phone call
Even a visit to an important webpage on your website can be measured as a conversion action
Conversion tracking then makes a note of your customers conversion actions and tells you how many customers are completing the actions you want them to take.
It can tell you things like: how many people visited your website through a particular advert, the click-through rate, time spent on your site… and so much more.
How do I set up and start using conversion tracking?
Have you already got a Google Ads account?
If yes, you’re halfway there.
Google has put together a really helpful and easy to follow step by step guide to setting up conversion tracking in your Google Ads account.
If you don’t have a Google Ads account, it’s easy enough to get one. But, we’re also here to help you if you need any support. Wild SEO Agency can help you set up a Google Ad account, apply for ad grants and figure out what conversion actions to start tracking.
Get in touch and we can help you get tracking those conversions.