Google Ads Conversion Tracking: The Comprehensive Guide

Google Ads conversion tracking is a free tool that allows you to see what happens after a customer interacts with your ads, such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or calling your business. It helps you understand which keywords, ads, ad groups, and campaigns drive valuable customer activity and enables you to make better-informed decisions about your ad spend. There are different ways to track conversions, including website actions, phone calls, app downloads, and in-app purchases. To set up conversion tracking, you need to define your conversion, install the proper tracking tag, and choose an attribution model. Most of our survey participants report a 3.1–6% conversion rate for search ads. The conversion rate for display advertisements is between 0% to 1%. The average conversion rate across all industries for search ads is 4.2%, while for display ads, it's 0.55%.
 
Table of Contents:
Define conversion tracking
Using Google ads what kind of conversion you can short
Benefits of conversion tracking
Set for Google Ads to track conversions
 

Define conversion tracking

Conversion tracking is the process of monitoring the actions consumers take toward completing a business goal on a website or app. These may include finishing a purchase, contacting a business, adding an item to a basket, downloading a content offer, or subscribing to a newsletter. Businesses may optimize their marketing efforts to maximize the number of desired activities, assess the success of their campaigns, and pinpoint areas for improvement with the use of conversion monitoring.

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Using Google ads what kind of conversion you can short

Any significant actions that viewers of your advertisement perform are known as conversions. Every firm will have a distinct definition of a convert. Conversion activities include live chat conversations, phone calls to your company, visits to particular sites, seeing videos, filling out forms, and more.
 

1. Website Purchases: Website purchases refer to the specific action of users completing a transaction on your website, typically involving the exchange of goods or services for payment. Tracking website purchases is a fundamental aspect of conversion tracking in Google Ads, especially for e-commerce businesses.
2. App Installations: App installations refer to the process of users downloading and installing a mobile application on their devices. Tracking app installations is crucial for businesses and developers who want to measure the success of their mobile app promotion campaigns' success and understand their advertising efforts' effectiveness.
3. Phone Calls: Phone call conversions in the context of Google Ads refer to tracking and measuring the number of phone calls generated by users who interact with your ads. This type of conversion tracking is particularly valuable for businesses that rely on phone inquiries, such as service providers, local businesses, and companies offering high-touch customer support. 
4. Offline Conversions: Offline conversions are actions that occur in the physical world, such as in-store purchases, appointments, or other activities that aren't directly trackable through online interactions. Google Ads provides a solution for tracking offline conversions, allowing advertisers to bridge the gap between online advertising efforts and offline customer actions.
5. Store Visits: The purpose of Google Ads' shop visits monitoring tool is to assist marketers in monitoring how well their internet advertisements are directing visitors to their stores. This is especially important for physical retailers that wish to link their internet marketing campaigns to in-person customer visits to their establishments. By implementing store visit tracking, advertisers can gain insights into the offline impact of their online campaigns.

Benefits of conversion tracking

Conversion tracking offers invaluable insights for advertisers. Measuring actions like purchases or sign-ups enables precise evaluation of ad performance, guides strategic optimizations, and enhances ROI. This data-driven approach empowers informed decisions, refining campaigns for maximum effectiveness and smarter budget allocation. Here are a few main benefits:

1. Performance Measurement: Finding the platforms or techniques that provide the best return on investment (ROI) requires data analysis to identify the most efficient marketing channels. By understanding where leads originate and which channels drive the most conversions, businesses optimize their marketing efforts for maximum impact.
2. Understanding customer behaviour: Understanding customer behaviour involves analyzing their actions, preferences, and interactions with a brand across various touchpoints. It encompasses tracking browsing patterns, purchase history, demographics, and engagement metrics. By gaining insights into motivations and decision-making processes, businesses tailor strategies to meet customer needs, enhancing satisfaction and loyalty.
3. Measuring performance: Measuring performance involves evaluating the effectiveness and success of actions, campaigns, or strategies against predefined goals and KPIs. It includes analyzing metrics like click-through rates, conversion rates, ROI, and other relevant data to assess the impact and efficiency of efforts. This data-driven evaluation guides optimizations and informs future decision-making for improved outcomes.
4. Optimizing ROI: Optimizing ROI (return on investment) involves maximizing the efficiency of resources allocated to achieve the highest possible return. It includes refining strategies, targeting, and campaigns based on data-driven insights to increase revenue while minimizing costs. By continuously evaluating and adjusting tactics, businesses aim to achieve optimal ROI for their investments.

Set for Google Ads to track conversions

Setting up conversion tracking for Google Ads involves a series of steps to ensure accurate measurement of valuable actions on your website.
Steps to Set Up Conversion Tracking:

Create a conversion action:

• Sign in to your Google Ads account.
• Click on the "Tools & Settings" icon (the wrench icon) and select "Conversions" under the Measurement section.
• Click the blue plus button to add a new conversion action.
• Select the conversion type (e.g., phone calls, apps, websites) that you wish to monitor.
• Enter the conversion action's specifics, such as name, value, count, etc.
• Select the attribution model that best fits your needs.
• Click on "Create" to save your conversion action.

Set up your Google tag:

1. Create a new account and container: In Google Tag Manager, create an account by naming it and choosing the country. Inside, make a container specifying its type (web, apps, server). Click "Create" to agree to the terms. In Accounts, click "More Actions" > "Create Container," name it descriptively, select type, then create while agreeing to Terms to finalize the container setup.
2. Add tags: Access "Tags" in Google Tag Manager and select "New." Name the tag and choose its type (e.g., Google Analytics). Configure settings and optionally add notes. Save the configuration. Click "Submit" then "Publish" for immediate activation on your site. This process ensures the tag is created, configured, and deployed efficiently within your GTM dashboard, ready to track specified actions on your website.
3. Configure your tag: Access GTM, select "Tags," and click "New." Name and choose tag type. Configure by entering specifics, like a Google Tag ID. Save configuration. Optionally, add notes. Click "Submit" to activate. Verify that your tags work. After adding tags, make sure that they behave as intended. You can use tools like Google Tag Assistant to verify that the tags are set up correctly.

Check your Google Tag: 

Google Tag Assistant verifies tag functionality; Google Tag Manager's Preview mode inspects firing tags. Browser tools check for errors; Screaming Frog provides automated analysis; and source code scrutiny ensures correct tag implementation. Google Ads conversion tracking offers a comprehensive insight into user interactions post-ad engagements, aiding in informed decision-making. It encompasses various conversion types, from website purchases to offline actions, allowing businesses to optimize strategies, understand customer behaviour, and maximize ROI. Leveraging these tools ensures precise measurement, strategic refinement, and impactful marketing campaigns across diverse channels.