How To Set Up and Use Google Ads Conversion Tracking

Google Ads is far and away the largest pay-per-click (PPC) advertising network in the world, with the ability to reach an unprecedented 90% of internet users, according to DemandSage. But how effective is it? Do you wonder what your customers do after they interact with your ads?

Wondering is not enough. Your marketing and advertising strategy doesn’t stop with the ad. You need to know what impact your ads have, so you can ramp up what’s working and change what’s not. That’s where Google Ads conversion tracking comes in.

This guide takes a closer look at the tracking tool, including what it measures and how to use it.

What is Google Ads conversion tracking? 

Google Ads conversion tracking is a free tool any Google Ads customer can use in tandem with their campaigns. The only prerequisites are a website and a Google Ads account.

Conversion tracking shows you what people do after they perform a Google search and click on your ad, allowing you to measure actions you’ve deemed valuable to gathering leads or making sales.

Google Ads breaks these actions down into three main buckets: 

1. Leads categories. This bucket includes actions at various stages of a customer’s engagement with your business, such as submitting forms, booking appointments, and requesting quotes.

2. Sale categories. Purchase-related transactions, like adding items to a cart and starting the checkout process, fit in this bucket.

3. Further categories. This bucket includes actions that don’t neatly fit in either of the first two, such as viewing pages.

The main benefit of using conversion tracking is to get more data about what ads are working for your business. With an understanding of which keywords and campaigns are most effective at generating leads or driving sales, you can optimize your marketing and advertising efforts.

What Google Ads conversion tracking measures

• Website actions
• Phone calls
• App installs/in-app actions
• Offline conversions
• Local actions

Google Ads conversion tracking can help you track key customer activities—these are called conversion actions. Here’s a short list of what’s possible. 

Website actions

Website actions are anything that a user does once they’re on your website. Using Google Tag Manager, which allows you to add analytics tags to your site, Google Ads can measure everything from newsletter sign-ups and form submissions to product purchases. For deeper insights into user behavior beyond the initial ad click, you can integrate Google Analytics with your Google Ads account.

Phone calls

Google can help you measure phone call conversions in multiple ways, including phone calls made directly from the ad (like a user clicking on the phone number when they see your ad on their phone) and phone calls made from your website. You’ll set a minimum call length so your data will be a more accurate reflection of legitimate sales or marketing calls. Google Ads conversion tracking also allows you to import call conversions from other call tracking tools, like a customer relationship management (CRM) platform. 

App installs/in-app actions

If your business has a mobile app, Google Ads can track app downloads (both iOS or Android) to users’ devices. It can also track customers’ actions within the app, such as adding items to the cart or completing in-app purchases. Additionally, Google Ads offers a Web to App Connect tool that allows you to link from your ads directly to your business app to drive downloads and other actions.

Offline conversions

An ad doesn’t always result in an immediate online sale. Often, it starts a journey that leads to a purchase offline, like in your store, office, or over the phone. Google Ads conversion tracking allows you to import those offline conversions to optimize your data, offering you a fuller picture of how your ads are performing on the web and in person.

Local actions

If you’re running an ad that’s tied to a particular location or physical store, tracking local actions lets you see when users take an action related to a specific place. This may include placing a call to your store, looking for directions to your store or office, or even viewing photos of your place of business. Cafés and restaurants can use this functionality to track menu views and orders from their ads as well.

How to use Google Ads conversion tracking

1. Establish a conversion action
2. Set up a conversion action
3. Install a Google tag on your website
4. Analyze your data

Using Google Ads conversion tracking, of course, requires you to set up and use Google Ads. Once that’s done and you’ve got some ads to monitor, you can get started tracking conversions. Here’s how: 

1. Establish a conversion action

First, decide on the type of conversion you’d like to track. If you’re an ecommerce company looking to measure actions related to sales, you might start by tracking when items are added to a cart or when a customer begins the checkout process. If you’re a local destination (e.g., a neighborhood barbershop), you might be more interested in tracking local actions, like users getting directions to your store.

Consider the goals you have for your PPC ads. Are you trying to generate leads, boost app downloads, or simply increase sales? You’ll want to track conversions that can give you insight into how effective your ads are in helping you achieve your goals.

2. Set up a conversion action

Once you’ve decided on what you’re going to track, you need to create the conversion action. If you only want to track page views from your ad, you can keep things simple and set up conversions with a URL. If you’d rather track clicks on buttons or links in your ad, then you’ll need to set up a new conversion action manually.

To set up conversion actions from your Google Ads account, click on the Goals icon in the account menu, then Conversions and New conversion action. From that point, you can select the type of conversion (website, app, phone call, etc.). Google has detailed instructions on how to set up conversions.

3. Install a Google tag on your website

After you’ve set up your conversion action, you’ll come to a screen with instructions for installing a Google tag. Depending on how you set up your conversion (using a URL or manually), you may see slightly different screens. Either way, you’ll need to ensure you’ve got a Google tag on your website. This is simply a single snippet of JavaScript (Google tag code) that you add to your website code as the foundation for collecting and measuring a variety of data.

You can use Google Tag Manager (GMT) to install and manage your conversion tags. Google Tag Assistant, a Chrome browser extension, can also help you manage that tag, making sure it's properly installed and accurately collecting data. It also offers tips along the way.

The Google tag must be installed on each page of your site, although you only need one tag per Google Ad account. For full instructions on installing your Google tag, including using Google Tag Manager and Google Tag Assistant, check Google’s Help Center.

4. Analyze your data

Once conversion tracking has been running for a while, you’ll want to use that valuable conversion data. You can set up various reporting columns in your Google Ads account (under Goals → Conversions → Summary). Reporting columns include:

• Cost per conversion. This metric shows you the average cost for each conversion.

• Conversion rate. The conversion rate indicates how often an eligible interaction (like a click or video view) leads to a conversion.

• Conversion value per cost. This ratio shows how much value your conversions are generating for every dollar spent on ads.

• Conversion value per click. By dividing the total conversion value by the number of eligible clicks, this metric helps you measure the effectiveness of each click in terms of revenue generated.

• Value per conversion. This metric tells you how much each conversion is worth on average.

If your ads are delivering as you intended, keep doing more of the same. But, if they’re missing the mark in any way or can simply be improved, analyzing metrics like the ones above can help you optimize your Google Ads campaigns.