Google is a powerful search engine that has dominated the online marketing industry. It handles over two trillion searches per year, meaning people turn to Google when they need answers or information on anything. More importantly than this though – you can target your audience differently depending how far into their buying process they’ve gone and give full control of campaign settings with ads from Google ads!
But what if you want to track the conversion rates of non-Google campaigns, such as Microsoft search, Quora or even e-mail? Luckily your Google Analytics account can help with that too.
Here’s how to track conversion data from non-Google campaigns.
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Campaign Tracking in Google Analytics
You can use your Google Analytics account to track traffic from two referring sources:
- Organic campaigns – Traffic that comes from organic search results, such as a blog post or referral from another website.
- Paid campaigns – Traffic coming from clicks on your ad, either they are from Google or other advertising providers.
As you can see in the data below, user behavior has been trending steadily upwards over time. This tells us that people are finding our website more often than ever before!
The campaign tracking feature found within Google Analytics will help us understand what needs tweaking when it comes to targeting an audience because we now know where they’re coming from – which means different things for advertising campaigns with non-Google ad platforms like Facebook or Twitter Ads.
Maybe our keywords were too broad and didn’t have enough specificity? Or maybe some of those potential visitors weren’t converting due solely
How to Collect Campaign Data with Custom URLs
To start collecting campaign data, you need to add parameters to the destination URLs you use in your non-Google campaigns. That way, you can get a better view of which campaigns are effective and which need to be optimised. For example, your End of Season campaign may be generating a lot of sales, but if you are running the campaign on several platforms, you want to know which ones send the most conversions and which just drain your budget. Because if the user clicks without taking any action, then you will need to determine why they are not converting. Or if you are running different versions of the campaign, you can see which ad group generates results.
There are five parameters that you can add to your URLs, as defined by Google:
- utm_source: This parameter is used to identify the advertiser, site, or publication that is sending traffic to your landing page, such as Google, Quora, and so on.
- utm_medium: This parameter defines the advertising medium used for sending traffic, such as a banner or email newsletter.
- utm_campaign: This parameter defines the individual campaign name, slogan, promo code, phone number, etc. for a product.
- utm_term: You use this parameter to identify the paid search keywords used in your campaign.
- utm_content: You can use this parameter to differentiate between ads with similar content. For example, if you have two call-to-action links within the same mobile app ad, you can use utm_content to track them and see which one is more effective and which one has a high bounce rate, for example.
Setting up Custom Campaigns
If you don’t want to manually add these parameters to your ad campaigns, you can use an URL builder tool to create the URLs and attach the parameters.
Be careful when generating the URLs, as the URL to a website and the ones to Google Play Store and Apple App Store differ from one another. Here you can find more information about the Google Play URL Builder and here you can access resources regarding the IOS Campaign Tracking URL Builder.
If you want to set up your parameters and values manually, then make sure to separate the parameter from the URL with a question mark.
Why Should You Bother Tracking Your Ads?
Let us ask you this:
Do you want to find out what’s working and what not?
Do you want to improve your campaigns and increase your ROI?
Do you want to grow your business?
If you’ve answered yes to all these questions, then conversion tracking is a MUST.
Reports show that less than 50% of the active Google Ads accounts are tracking their conversions, which may mean a lot of advertising dollars are thrown out the window. Implementing a campaign without tracking it’s similar to throwing darts in the dark – there’s no real way of telling if you are succeeding.
By tracking your ads campaigns you can:
Reduce (Or Completely Eliminate Wasted Ad Spend)
One report found that 72% of businesses haven’t checked their ad campaigns in over a month. Failing to monitor your campaigns makes it easier to miss low-value clicks that come from users that aren’t really interested in your products or services. You may also end up paying a higher cost per click (CPC) because your keywords and target audience aren’t really in line.
Create a Campaign That Connects with Your Audience
Tracking your ads gives you more than just information about who clicks on your ads. It can also tell you how and why people are clicking and give you valuable insights into the interests, behaviour, and motivations of your target audience. Instead of creating ad campaigns that you think might resonate with your audience, ad tracking allows you to refine your ads and targeting.
Increase Your ROI
The average ROI for PPC ads is $2 for every $1 spent. That’s not bad at all, but to get this kind of ROI or even increase it, you need to know first how your ads are performing and what adjustments you need to make to get more and better results.
With ad tracking, you can refine your ad copy, landing page, keywords, or target audience so that you deliver the right message to the right audience and at the right moment.
Do You Need Help?
Even if you are aware of the value of tracking your Google and non-Google ad campaigns, the reality is that most business owners simply don’t have the time for it. Instead of wasting resources on strategies that don’t deliver results or that aren’t used to their full capabilities, it’s better to hire a team of experts who can set up, implement, and track your ads for you.
Australian Internet Advertising has helped businesses big and small reach their audience and increase their revenue with digital marketing. So, if you are looking for a way to grow your business, then look no further than AIAD.
Have a look at our services and contact our team of experts today and we can start discussing about your business and how we can help you expand your reach.
Contact us today at (02) 9062 4022 or fill the form on our website if you are ready to talk.
