All businesses need a strong online presence to attract customers, but for small businesses, an underperforming website can spell disaster. That’s why many professionals invest in an engaging, beautifully branded website – but how can you tell if your website is converting visitors into customers?
Conversion tracking offers you the answer. Marketers also use conversion tracking to assess the success of an ad campaign, ensuring the best ROI and attracting new customers.
A conversion is basically any action that someone takes on a website that generates either income as in a sale or a signal of intent to purchase. This is a phone call to your business or they fill in a form on the website to get in touch with you.
Discover what conversion tracking is, the many different types including phone call tracking, and how to set up conversion tracking in Google Analytics 4.
What is conversion tracking?
Conversion tracking is a quick and simple way to measure the effectiveness of your digital marketing strategy.
It works by tracking the actions taken by users on your website, like the number of users who sign up for your newsletter or purchase your product. Whereas some metrics simply highlight how many users view your website, conversion traffic shows you the journey of those users. It shows where they decided to buy, and where they decided to fill out the form, sometimes referred to as a CVR.
Put simply, a conversion is when a user views your website and then decides to engage with your product or service.
Things you can track as a conversion:
- Form submissions,
- Sign-ups to your email list,
- Filing out a contact page and, obviously, purchases.
Anything that results in a monetary investment or engagement with your brand is a conversion. By converting viewers into customers, you are broadening your business’ scope and securing new clients.
Step by Step: How do I track phone calls in conversion tracking?
An important aspect of conversion tracking is knowing how many customers or clients reach out and contact your business. Business owners will agree that every phone call is a potential lead and long-term customer. Google Analytics 4 and Google Ads combine to allow you to track phone calls through their conversion-tracking features. Learn how below, starting with Google Ads.
Step 1 – Sign into your Google Ads account and click the spanner icon in the top right-hand corner. There you will find ‘measurement’ and under that, ‘conversions’.
Step 2 – Click the ‘phone calls’ option and select ‘calls from ads using call extensions’ or ‘call-only ads.’
Step 3 – Click on ‘category’ and select a description from the drop-down, this will allow you to segment your conversions in reports and identify similar conversions.
Step 4 – Under ‘value,’ identify how much each call is worth or select ‘don’t assign a value.’ Move to ‘call length’ and enter a minimum length in seconds that a call needs to be considered a conversion.
Step 5 – Click ‘conversion window’ and choose between one and 60 days, then click ‘create and continue.’
Once you have outlined the type of conversion in Google Analytics, you can then set up ‘call conversion events,’ otherwise known as ‘goals,’ in Google Analytics 4, to track the success of your conversions.
Step by Step: How do I set up conversion tracking in Google Analytics 4?
With Google Analytics 4, you can easily track the conversions on your website and analyse the data.
Step 1 – Log into your Google Analytics 4 account and select the desired property. Then go to ‘admin,’ ‘property,’ and ‘data streams.’
Step 2 – Select your data stream and click on ‘configure tagging.’ Under ‘tagging method,’ choose ‘Google Tag Manager.’
Step 3 – Follow the set-up instructions on your screen and install the container snippet on your website.
Step 4 – Return to ‘configure tracking’ and click on ‘create conversion event.’
Step 5 – Name your conversion event, select the type, configure the event options and click ‘create.’ Then, follow the instruction to set up the conversion event in Google Tag Manager.
Finally, make sure to test the conversion by completing the process on your website and checking that it records correctly in Google Analytics 4. You can then use the conversion data you receive from customers to adapt and improve your marketing strategies.
How does conversion tracking help ads perform better?
Conversion tracking helps businesses to make the most of their ad budget. The best decisions are based on data, so by tracking the conversions you can adapt and optimise your ads, improving their performance. The process of setting up conversion tracking also allows you to identify your unique goals. You can have a clearer understanding of what you want your website or ad campaign to achieve, like driving product sales or brand awareness through newsletter sign-ups.
It is important to know which ads are generating high-quality conversions and which are a waste of your ad budget. With that information, you can avoid overspending on ads that fail to perform and therefore have poor ROI.
Why is conversion traffic important for small businesses in the UK?
In a small business, money can be tight. Whereas an expensive and unsuccessful ad campaign for a large business can be annoying, it can put small businesses at risk of collapse. Therefore, conversion tracking is essential. By knowing which marketing strategies are successful, you can better measure their ROI and invest in profitable ad campaigns.
Conversion tracking can save small business owners time too, because you will spend less time developing website features that fail to engage viewers. With a strong understanding of conversion performance, you can make informed ad decisions and optimise your website’s user experience.
The how and why of conversion Tracking
With a few simple steps, you can utilise Google Ads and Google Analytics 4 to spell out exactly how well your website and ad campaigns are converting users into customers.
Ensure you consistently check in with the data and make decisions based on the numbers, so you can adapt and optimise your strategy depending on your users’ preferences. This can result in better ROI, a stronger understanding of your target audience and less time and money wasted on fruitless marketing strategies.
To find out how we can help you utilise the data and transform your marketing strategy, get in touch. We are driven by the success of our clients and can provide support on user experience, branding, digital marketing and more. We do more than provide a service, we become an extension of your marketing department.
