Conversion Tracking: What It Is & Why It Matters

If you’ve advertised your business online before, there’s a good chance you’ve heard about conversion tracking. But what is conversion tracking exactly? And why does it matter for your business?

Put simply, conversion tracking is the means by which businesses can measure the effectiveness of their online advertising campaigns. Thanks to conversion tracking, advertisers no longer have to wonder whether their online ads are actually working.

There are two fundamental parts to any online advertising campaign. The first is to set a specific and measurable goal; the second is to measure the results in relation to said goal. Whether your goal is to increase leads, sales or web page visits, conversion tracking will help you check the extent to which your goals are achieved.

Each goal, or conversion action, is tracked by way of a snippet of code placed on the respective conversion pages of your website. For example, if your goal is to increase leads by way of an online enquiry form, the tracking code can be inserted on the ‘thank you’ page that loads once the form is submitted.

In this way, conversion tracking will allow you to track valuable actions on your website and attribute them to your online advertising efforts. This is why we can’t overemphasize the importance of conversion tracking. Without it, there isn’t a solid way of knowing whether your ads are achieving their desired results and whether you are seeing a return on investment.

Conversion tracking also gives advertisers valuable insights during the campaign – not just at the end when it’s time to analyse the results. While your campaign is running, you can see what is and isn’t working and make real-time changes to improve results. For example, you can see which keywords and ads drive the most valuable actions. This knowledge can in turn be used to make informed decisions about where to allocate your budget going forward.

Conversion tracking is especially important for pay-per-click (PPC) and social media advertising campaigns. Facebook and Google Ads both offer free conversion tracking tools which give advertisers access to what happens after a customer clicks on their ads. These tools can be configured by following a series of steps which are clearly outlined by both platforms.

For Facebook specifically, you will need to install the Facebook pixel code on your website and specify the events you want to track. For an online store, this might be “Complete Registration”, “Add to Cart” or “Initiate Checkout”, for example. With Google Ads, the process largely depends on the type of action that’s most valuable to you. Anything in relation to your website will also require an installed code snippet.

Wondering how these codes are able to track conversions in the first place? The process is a relatively simple one. When a customer clicks on your ad, a ‘cookie’ is sent and stored on their device. This cookie can then be used to track the customer’s movements within the site. Should they complete the desired action, the tracking code reads this cookie and records the conversion.

If all this sounds too overwhelming to attempt, our team of experienced web developers and digital marketers would like to assist you with your conversion tracking needs.