If you are using Google Ads (previously Google AdWords) to drive paid traffic to your website, it’s very important you set up conversion tracking so that you can monitor what actions the visitor takes on your website after clicking on your advert. We offer a Google Ads Management Service in Hull and set up conversion tracking for customers as part of this service. In this article we discuss what is meant by a ‘conversion’ and what the benefits of conversion tracking are.

What is a conversion?

A conversion is when a visitor on your website takes a desired action. For example, for most of our customers a conversion is when a visitor on the website fills in an enquiry form such as “Request a Free Quote”, or clicks on a phone number to call the business. For an E-Commerce website a conversion would be when a visitor purchases something on the website.

Why should I set up conversion tracking?

When you are paying for clicks to your website you want to get the best possible value for your money. If you set up conversion tracking in Google Ads, it will automatically allocate conversions (such as a completed enquiry form) to the keyword phrase that the visitor searched for in Google Search before clicking on your advert and making an enquiry. Over time, as you collect more conversions on your account, you can see which keyword phrases are leading to desired actions on your website, and which aren’t. Using this information it is possible to optimise your bids, keywords and advert wording accordingly.

Another advantage of setting up conversion tracking is that it gives you access to Google’s automatic bidding strategies such as ‘Maximize Conversions’ and ‘Target CPA’ which takes away a lot the work you have to do manually setting bids for individual keywords.

How do I analyse conversion data?

When you have conversion tracking set up in Google Ads there are additional columns you can add to the data for “Number of Conversions” “Conversion Rate” and “Cost Per Conversion”. So as an example, if a keyword generated 100 clicks costing on average £2 per click and from those 100 clicks you received 5 enquiries the data would show:

  • Number of Conversions: 5
  • Conversion Rate: 5% (this is 5 conversions from 100 clicks)
  • Cost per Conversion: £40 (this is £200 total spend divided by 5 conversions)

You can compare these metrics across different keywords and build a picture of what is and isn’t working. For example if you have a keyword which has a really low conversion rate, say 0.5%, it could mean that people aren’t finding what they are looking for on your landing page. It is important when you use pay-per-click advertising that your advert text and website landing page are both closely related to the search term the user entered. If these are not all closely related then you will likely find that most people will just leave your website after clicking on your advert and will have a low conversion rate.

The cost per conversion metric tells you how much you are paying for an enquiry. In the example above, £40 may be a really good figure if you are selling high-priced items such as bathroom and kitchen renovations. However if you are selling low-priced items such as flowers, then £40 just for an enquiry would be very expensive.

How we can help

Here at Get Noticed Locally, we not only build professional websites with great landing pages, but can also set up and manage pay-per-click campaigns. We are experts at installing conversion tracking codes through Google Tag Manager so that all enquiries, telephone number clicks and sales on your website are counted as conversions in your Google Ads account. This enables us to analyse the data and make effective tweaks to your bids, keywords and advert text so that you get the best possible value for your money.

Get Noticed Locally are proud to be a Google Partner company. Google Partner status is awarded to businesses who have passed the necessary Google exams, meet Google Ads spend requirements and deliver improved performance for their clients over time. Please contact us today if you are interested in our pay-per-click management services. Combined with a new website which has great landing pages and call-to-actions, this can generate lots of high quality leads for your business.