💰 This Is the World’s Most Boring Email

Hello Sellouts,

If you’ve ever spent more than a dollar on paid ads – today’s episode is a must read.

Cyber Week is over and it feels like everyone has turned on their ‘out of office’ emails early this year, punting those ‘strategic projects’ to next year.

For me, it’s a good time to reflect on 2023 and goals for next year – I hope you’re doing the same.

If so, check out this great video from one of our clients on how they set up a vision and goal for the business.

Until next Monday, safe travels.

Stop Wasting Money: Why Conversion Tracking is the Key to Winning with Ads

I’m going to be honest with you, today’s episode is boooooring.

BUT

It’s the most important element of any digital marketing campaign.

And dare I say it, 90% of the time when I heard that a campaign wasn’t performing at Google, it was because of this exact issue.

Today we are talking about conversion tracking (insert 😴 emoji here).

What Exactly is Conversion Tracking?

Conversion tracking is the core event that tells you if your ads are working or not.

Whether you’re running campaigns on Facebook, Google, or similar platforms, conversion tracking shows you the online actions that are driving revenue for your business such as purchases, signups, or add-to-carts.

When setting up a campaign, you choose a conversion action to focus on, and your budget is optimized to achieve that goal.

Without this, platforms can’t allocate your budget effectively, leading to wasted money targeting the wrong audience or objective.

Think of conversion tracking as your GPS for paid advertising.

Without it, you’re driving blind.

You might end up near your destination, but chances are, you’re off course.

When running paid ads, that's a mistake you can’t afford.

Conversion tracking vs Conversion events

These two terms are closely related but refer to different aspects of measuring ad performance.

Conversion tracking is the system or process used to measure whether specific actions (conversions) happen on your website or app as a result of your advertising.

It involves setting up tools like pixels, tags, or APIs on your site that report back to platforms like Google or Meta when a conversion occurs.

Conversion events are specific actions users take that are valuable to your business and are being measured. These are the outcomes you define as a “conversion” within your tracking setup.

Conversion events can occur anywhere along your marketing funnel. For example:

Awareness:

• Video Views: Watching a certain percentage of a video (e.g., 50%, 95%).

• Engagement: Liking, commenting, or sharing an ad or post.

• Newsletter Signups: Subscribing to updates without deeper commitment.

Consideration:

• Form Submissions: Filling out forms for gated content (e.g., eBooks, whitepapers).

• Interactive Tool Usage: Using a calculator or other tools on your site.

• Product View: Viewing a specific product page.

Conversion:

• Purchase: Completing a transaction online or in-app.

• Trial Signup: Starting a free trial for a product or service.

• Account Creation: Registering for a new account on your website.

Why Most People Get Conversion Tracking Wrong

Setting up conversion tracking is challenging for those without knowledge of website code or analytics.

If tracking is set up incorrectly or isn’t measuring events correctly, your campaigns are set up to fail – they’ll either not work correctly or at best you’ll be spending money blindly, not knowing the true return of your spend.

If you’re setting up campaigns for the first time, hire a conversion tracking expert on Upwork to configure the code correctly.

Another area marketers go wrong is setting up a campaign with the wrong conversion events,

For example, they run a campaign focused on sales, but the tracking is set to count clicks or page views instead of actual purchases.

That’s like tracking how many people enter your store rather than how many make a purchase.

Somewhat helpful but not actually the desired outcome they’re looking for.

Most platforms now want you to bid towards one core conversion event – therefore you should select the event that aligns with a) the goal of the campaign and b) the content of the ads you’re running.

How to Set Up Conversion Tracking for Facebook and Google Ads

Here’s a quick breakdown of how conversion tracking works for both Facebook and Google, and how to set it up right.

1. Facebook Ads Conversion Tracking

Facebook/Instagram uses something called the Meta Pixel to track conversions on your site.

It’s a small piece of code you add to your website that tracks actions people take after seeing your ad, whether it’s a purchase, a lead form submission, or even just adding something to their cart.

Here’s what you need to do:

• Install the Facebook Pixel: You’ll need to generate a Pixel in your Meta Ads Manager and place that code on your site (use Google Tag Manager or the Meta app within Shopify to make it easier).

• Set Up Events: Events are the specific actions you want to track, like purchases, signups, or add-to-carts. You can customize these to match your campaign goals.

• Verify the Pixel: Always check that the Pixel is tracking properly using Facebook’s Pixel Helper tool.

2. Google Ads Conversion Tracking

Google Ads has its own tracking method, creatively called Google Ads Conversion Tracking (no surprises there).

Here’s how it works:

• Set Up a Conversion Action: In Google Ads, head to the Measurement tab and create a new conversion action. This could be purchases, leads, phone calls, or even specific page views.

• Install the Tracking Code: Google gives you a snippet of code (called a Global Site Tag) that you place on your website. You can also use Google Tag Manager to make the process (somewhat) easier.

• Import Conversions: If you’re using Google Analytics, you can import those goals directly into Google Ads. This ensures you’re tracking the same actions across both platforms.

• Verify Everything: Just like with Facebook, make sure your tracking is working as expected. The last thing you want is inaccurate data feeding into your campaigns.

Don’t Skip the Basics

Conversion tracking isn’t the sexiest part of digital marketing.

But without it, you’re playing a guessing game.

You can have the best creative, the perfect offer, and the slickest landing page, but if your conversion tracking is off, none of that matters.

Platforms like Meta, TikTok, and Google Ads power the world’s biggest brands, and all of them follow this process to set up tracking correctly.

Get this step correct and you’ll see your return on investment increase quickly.

If you’re struggling with this for your own ads, reach out at [email protected] and our team can help.

Until next time, keep selling out,

Luke

• Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe
• Want to put your Google Ads on Autopilot? Stress Less
• Did I miss something? Let me know at [email protected]