6 Best Practices for Conversion Tracking in Google Ads

Accurate conversion tracking is crucial for optimizing your Google Ads campaigns. By following these six best practices, you can ensure the reliability of your data and improve your bidding and targeting strategies.

1.Define Primary and Secondary Conversions

Distinguish between primary and secondary conversions to focus your optimization efforts. Primary conversions are used for bidding and directly impact your campaign goals. Secondary conversions are for observation only and appear in the “All conversions” metric but don’t influence bidding. This separation allows you to prioritize conversions that affect ad spend optimization. For example, an e-commerce business might set direct purchases as primary conversions and add-to-cart actions or sign-ups as secondary conversions.

2.Utilize Google Ads Conversion Event Tags

While it’s tempting to import Google Analytics 4 events into Google Ads, using Google Ads’ native conversion event tags provides more accurate tracking. These tags offer unique features like cross-device conversions, view-through conversions, engaged-view conversions, and enhanced conversions. These capabilities are exclusive to Google Ads conversion goals and cannot be leveraged with imported GA4 events.

3.Implement Enhanced Conversions

To combat conversion tracking limitations, such as those imposed by iOS14, Google introduced enhanced conversions. This feature hashes first-party personal information (e.g., name and email address) of website visitors before sending it to Google Ads. This allows for more accurate attribution, even when users return to complete a purchase later. Proper implementation of enhanced conversions can significantly increase conversion rates, especially in video campaigns.

4.Adopt Data-Driven Attribution Models

Data-driven attribution models provide a more comprehensive view of the customer journey by attributing conversions to various touchpoints. While last-click or first-click models may be appropriate in some cases, data-driven attribution is recommended for 90% of scenarios. This approach offers a more nuanced understanding of how different interactions contribute to conversions.

5.Leverage Offline Conversion Tracking

Importing offline conversion data can greatly enhance the quality of your conversion tracking. This feature allows you to supplement existing data, add more conversion information, and include lead conversions. Offline conversion tracking is particularly useful when ad blockers prevent conversion pixels from firing or when order confirmation pages fail to trigger conversion codes.

6.Regularly Audit Conversion Settings

Frequent checks of your conversion tracking setup are essential, especially if your website undergoes frequent updates. Even minor changes to your site’s code can disrupt conversion tracking. As a backup, consider using Google Analytics 4 events or goals as secondary conversion objectives when Google Ads conversions fail. Remember to set these as secondary conversions to prevent smart bidding from optimizing for them.

By implementing these best practices, you’ll improve the accuracy of your Google Ads reporting and gain valuable insights to optimize your campaigns effectively. Regular maintenance and a strategic approach to conversion tracking will help you maximize the return on your advertising investment.

Download Campaign Camp

contact-campaigncamp

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *