Google Ads Conversion Tracking - Doing Success Measurement Correctly

1. What are conversions and what does conversion tracking mean?
2. Why should companies track and measure their conversions?
3. How does conversion tracking work anyway?
4. What is the difference between Google Ads and Google Analytics Conversion Tracking?
5. What do you need for Google Ads Conversion Tracking?
6. What can I measure in Google Ads using conversion tracking?
7. Setting up Google Ads Conversion Tracking - the guide
8. Where can you view the achieved conversions in Google Ads?
9. Conclusion to Google Ads Conversion Tracking

Google Ads offer businesses a great way to quickly and relatively easily drive traffic to their website. And not just any traffic, but targeted traffic, bringing potential customers to the website. With the goal of increasing sales.

So that you also know if your campaigns are bringing in conversions, there is Google Ads conversion tracking. Once set up, you get information about which keywords, ads, and campaigns deliver the most results for your business.

In this article, we show you how you can set up Google Ads Conversion Tracking - once via Google Ads itself and once via Google Analytics. If you want to know more about both tools, then check out OMR Reviews in our Search Engine Advertising (SEA)-category.

What are conversions and what does conversion tracking mean?

The term conversion is often used in the field of marketing and online marketing. But what does it mean? If you look at the corresponding German verb "convert", it quickly becomes clear that it is a change. So a conversion is the change in the status of a person or a target group. This is the case when, for example, interested parties become customers or newsletter subscribers.

And in order to be able to measure this status change, there is the so-called Conversion-Tracking. Here, a small JavaScript (often also called tracking code or tracking tag) is integrated into the website, through which the website visitors are "observed" - provided they have agreed to the use of cookies. As soon as the visitors perform a desired conversion action (e.g. the purchase of a product or the registration for the newsletter), this is recognized by the tracking code and issued as a conversion.

Why should companies track and measure their conversions?

No company in the world has endless resources and can afford to take arbitrary measures and decide on a gut feeling which ones work well and which ones don't. Instead, every company aims to get as much traffic in the form of users to its own website or its own social media channels as possible. And not just to have the most users compared to the competition. But to win real customers from these users.

In addition to generating website traffic (or new followers) there are two other fundamental factors that are important for businesses:

1. To know how many website visitors the company needs to achieve an average conversion (conversion rate).
2. To know which measures and conversion actions bring in the most customers.

Based on this information, the company can scale its website traffic and roughly knows how much traffic it needs to achieve, for example, 100 conversions per month. On the other hand, the company also knows which measures and conversion actions most strongly influence the number of conversions generated and where the focus should be on implementation and optimization.

The conversion rate can be calculated with a simple formula: Conversion rate in % = (number of conversions / visitors) * 100

Example of conversion rate:

If you have an online shop and sell 100 products per month and have 2,500 website visitors in the online shop, then your conversion rate is 4 %.

This also means that if your conversion rate remains constant at 4%, you will need an average of 5,000 website visitors to be able to sell 200 products.

If, on the other hand, you do not want to change the amount of your website traffic, but want to increase your conversion rate, for example through landing page optimizations, to 8%, you will also sell 200 products a month with 2,500 visitors.

How does conversion tracking work anyway?

As I just mentioned, you need a code snippet, also called a conversion tag, for conversion tracking. This is provided to you by various advertising platforms, such as Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) or even Facebook. It often consists of one or two code snippet elements.

If the conversion tag consists of only one code snippet, you must integrate it on every page of your website. Also on the thank you page of the respective conversion action. If the code snippet consists of two parts, one of them is explicitly intended for the thank you pages and one for the general websites.

The conversion tag contains a cookie, which can track the user and his behavior on the website. That's why it's also important that the conversion tag is stored on every page of the website, so that the user can be recognized on every page. Because only then can it be ensured that the conversion can also be assigned and is not lost.

The usual flow in conversion tracking is therefore that a user clicks on your ad and thus gets to your website. At this moment the cookie of the ad is "activated". The user now surfs through the website or has already arrived on the corresponding page where he triggers a conversion (e.g. registration for the newsletter, sending of a contact form, download of a checklist or purchase of a product). Afterwards the user leaves your website.

Thanks to the conversion tag you know if a conversion was made after clicking on your ad or not. So you also know exactly how much output (e.g. generated sales) you get for your input (your advertising budget). At the same time, you can also see if you might still need to optimize your campaigns or landing pages and if this has a direct impact on your conversion number.

What is the difference between Google Ads and Google Analytics Conversion Tracking?

So far you have learned what conversions are, why you should track them in your company and how conversion tracking works in a simplified way. Now we slowly get to the implementation and you have two options for Google Ads Conversion Tracking, both from Google:

• Google Ads tracking via Google Ads itself
• Google Ads tracking via Google Analytics

But what is the difference between the two types of tracking and which one is better?

Short spoiler: both types of tracking have their quirks, which is why ideally you should use both in parallel to have the best data possible.

But from the beginning. Basically, there are two main differences between the conversion tracking with Google Ads and with Google Analytics. Because on the one hand, the tracking process of both tools is slightly different and on the other hand, the measured values are not the same - Google Ads measures the number of clicks, for example, and Google Analytics measures the number of sessions.

To help you imagine this a bit better, we will go into it a bit more in depth.

Google Ads tracking

To measure a click on the Google ad, no JavaScript is loaded at Google Ads. Instead, the click tracking works in such a way that when a user clicks on a Google ad, they are indeed directed to the URL of the ad, but in between there is a redirect from Google Ads. Through this redirect, the Google Ads system then knows when a click on the ad was made. The click is thus counted at the moment the users leave the Google search and visit the website.

For conversion tracking at Google Ads there is a tracking code that consists of two parts. A general website tag for all websites and an event snippet that is integrated on the thank you page of the conversion action. For these two tracking codes, a JavaScript is loaded, which is why the conversion tracking only works if the website visitors agree to the cookie regulations. If this is the case, the users are "accompanied" across all pages and, using the event tracking on the thank-you page, the completed conversion is assigned to the Google ad the users came to the website through.

Google Analytics tracking

In the Google Ads tracking via Google Analytics, not clicks but sessions are measured. For this, a Google Analytics tracking code is integrated on all pages of the website and linked with the Google Ads account. As soon as a user clicks on a Google ad and calls up the website, a JavaScript is loaded in the background (if the user has consented to the cookie regulations), which "marks" the user in order to be able to recognize him on all other pages he might still visit. The session is thus only measured when the user is already on the website and the JavaScript can be loaded.

For the conversion tracking you have to create socalled goals (your conversion actions) in Google Analytics and link them with your Google Ads account. As soon as the user then performs a conversion and lands on its thank you page, this action is recognized in the JavaScript and assigned to the masked user.

Reasons for possible differences in the number of clicks and sessions

You just learned that both types of tracking consider different measured values, which is why comparability is not 100% given. In addition, you will probably also notice differences in the number of clicks and sessions, which can also not necessarily be avoided 100%. And this can have several reasons:

• The user has not confirmed the use of cookies, which means that without consent, the JavaScript may not be loaded and the tracking is thus blocked. In this case no Google Analytics data is collected, but the Google Ads click is displayed in the campaigns.
• It can also be that the user uses ad blockers that block the tracking. In this case, the tracking behaves exactly as described in the previous point.
• The user indeed clicks on the ad, but cancels the page view before the page could finish loading. Then a click is measured at Google Ads, but no session at Google Analytics.
• If a user clicks on a Google Ads ad and lands on the target page, a click is measured in Google Ads and a session is measured in Google Analytics. If this user now leaves the page and comes back a few hours or days later (by remembering the URL, for example, or saving the page in the browser), the following happens: In Google Ads nothing changes and in Google Analytics the user is perceived as a returning user and causes a second session. Although the user only clicked on the ad once.

So it's clear that both tracking systems have their own way of measuring metrics and conversions. For you and your company or your online marketing department, it is advantageous to have both sets of data. So you can check whether the differences are within a reasonable range or whether they deviate too strongly from each other. This could then indicate that somewhere the tracking does not work cleanly or there is another (technical) error in the campaign setup or on the website.

What do you need for Google Ads Conversion Tracking?

So that you can set up Google Ads campaigns and perform a conversion tracking, you don't need much. You only need the following:

• A Google Ads account including a stored means of payment
• A link between your Google Ads and Google Analytics account
• Active Google Ads campaigns
• The general and event-specific Google Ads Conversion Tag as well as the tracking tag from Google Analytics
• A concrete conversion action in Google Ads as well as a goal in Google Analytics
• A landing page including conversion action for your Google advertisements and a corresponding thank you page

What can I measure in Google Ads using conversion tracking?

Google Ads provides you with three different types of conversion tracking. These vary depending on the campaign or ad type.

• Website tracking:Link or button clicks, purchases/booking, registrations or just page views
• App tracking:App installation, in-app activity (e.g. in-app purchase); sometimes Google Firebase is required
• Call tracking:Via ads (Call-only ads, ads with call extensions or location extensions) and with phone numbers on the (mobile) website; for call tracking a Google forward number is required

Setting up Google Ads Conversion Tracking - the guide

Create Conversion Action

a) Create Conversion Action in Google Ads

1. Create a Google Ads account or log in to yours.

2. Click on the gear symbol in the top right menu to go to the settings.

3. Go there under measurements to conversion.

4. Click there on the plus sign to create new conversion.

5. Then you have to choose your desired type of conversion tracking (e.g. website).

6. Once you have selected your tracking type, you need to provide various information about the conversion action. We show you how to do this using the example of website tracking.

Provide the following details about the conversion action:

• Category of the goal
• Conversion name
• Conversion value
• Counting method
• Conversion tracking periods for different metrics
• Attribution model of the conversion

7. Once you have provided all the necessary information, you can click on Create and Continue.

Your conversion action is now created in Google Ads.

b) Create Conversion Action in Google Analytics

1. Create a Google Analytics account or log in to yours.

2. Click on the gear symbol in the bottom left side menu to go to the settings or administration.

3. Go there in the right column for the data view and click on Goals (Conversion).

4. In the new overview, then click on the red button to create a new goal.

5. Now come the settings for your goal. Here you will be guided through in three steps:

5. a) Setup of the goal

5 b) Goal description

5 c) Goal Details

6. Once you have made all the information, click on Save.

Your goal is created and can now be imported into your Google Ads account.

Set up conversion tracking tag

The conversion tracking tag at Google Ads consists of two parts: the general website tag, which must be integrated on every page of the website, and the event snippet, which is integrated on the thank you page of the conversion action. For conversion tracking via Google Analytics, there is only one tracking tag - the gtag. This is integrated on every page of the website.

• Insert conversion tag yourself: With this variant, you insert the tag into the source code of your website. It is important here that the tracking code is integrated into the head area of the pages (i.e., between <head> and </head>) so the tracking code is loaded as soon as the page starts to build.
• Add conversion tag with GTM: With this variant, you use the Google Tag Manager, whose tracking code must also be integrated into your website once. After that, you can set up every subsequent conversion tracking using the Conversion ID and the Conversion label via the Tag Manager - without cumbersome IT effort and IT coordination.
• Insert conversion tag with plugin: If you are using content management systems (CMS) that also offer plugins (e.g. WordPress), then you can also use a plugin to set up your conversion tracking code for your website.

Where can you view the achieved conversions in Google Ads?

Phew, it's almost done - your conversion actions are created and the tracking codes are stored on your website. So the tracking can start. Now we just need to clarify where you can actually see in Google Ads or in your Google Ads campaigns which campaigns, ad groups, ads or keywords are actually bringing you conversions?

To do this, go to Google Ads on the corresponding level and click on Columns right above the performance columns and add the column Conversion there. Now you should also see the generated conversions in the performance overview.

If this is not the case, you would have to check your conversion settings again, because there you could specify whether the conversions should run into the conversion column or not.

Conclusion to Google Ads Conversion Tracking

As you can see, it's not that difficult to set up conversion tracking for your Google Ads campaigns. But it is incredibly valuable and the only way you can evaluate the performance of your campaigns based on data and derive action measures.