Setting up Google’s Conversion Tracking: how to get started

Conversion Tracking: what can this Google tool do?

Conversion Tracking is a free tool from Google Ads. It captures what happens after a customer or interested person interacts with your ad and with your website. This can be the purchase of a product, the registration for the newsletter or a click on a link to a subpage.

With the data collected, the software measures the success – or failure – of a digital ad on Google’s platform. The analysis of the information results in answers to questions such as:

• Which parameters of an ad are especially effective?
• Where does the ad need to be optimised?
• How and where can the advertising budget be best invested?

This Google tool also captures on request of the user several types of conversions. The following interactions can be tracked on a website, amongst others:

• Page visits
• Purchases via the website
• Newsletter registration
• Booking an appointment
• Clicks on buttons
• Clicks on external links

The three most significant applications

Page layout

Most users choose to use this function. It registers conversions as soon as visitors have called up the page aimed for and have interacted with it. The relevant actions could be a purchase or a registration.

Event tracking (button click)

This option counts conversions when customers have clicked on a button or a link. These could be buttons such as “Buy now” or a link to a website offering additional information.

Transmission of cart value

Which items did customers buy after clicking on an ad? This and similar information are captured by the cart conversions function. It delivers relevant data about sales and profits with individual items. And lets you determine which products lead to a high conversion rate. Hint: for the tracking of cart values, the tag and website codes have to be adapted accordingly. You may want to leave this additional programming effort to a professional.

Integrating the tag on the website using Google Tag Manager

To ensure Conversion Tracking by Google works and can collect data on interactions, a general website tag and an event snippet are required. Both of these have to be integrated into the website in question. Tags or snippets can be set up and configured via your Google Ads account. The features available include, amongst others:

• Category
• Name
• Value
• Payment method
• Time
• Attribution model

A possibility for integrating the respective tag is provided by Google Tag Manager. Together with Conversions Tracking and Google Ads, it generates wide-reaching analyses without any major effort. Here is how to set it up, taking the example of a registration form as the conversion aimed for on WordPress site:

How to integrate the Google Tag Manager code:

1. First, open an account in Google Tag Manager.
2. Afterwards, you will receive a code.
3. Now go to the backend of your WordPress site, which can usually be found at https://deineSeite.de/WP-ADMIN.
4. Go to “Design” > “Editor”.
5. Look for the file “header.php” and click on it.
6. Enter the two codes from Google Tag Manager into the respective gaps in the body and head area.

Generate the tag for the registration form in Google Tag Manager:

1. Go to “Variables” > “Configure”.
2. Activate all the ticks with “Clicks”.
3. Go to the tab “Trigger”.
4. Click on “New” and add a title to your trigger(e.g. “Click send”).
5. Click on the trigger type “Clicks” here too, and then on “All elements”.
6. Under “Integrated variables” and “Configure” is where you’ll find a list of all the previously defined variables. Choose “Click text” and enter the text for the registration button on your website, “Send” in our case.
7. Set up Conversion Tracking by going to the backend in Google Ads and choosing “Tools” > “Conversions”.
8. Click on “+” to generate a Conversion.
9. Generate a Conversion for your website.
10. Give your Conversion a title and choose the category, “Registration” in this case.
11. Choose “One” as a counting method.
12. Click on “Next” and then on “Google Tag Manager”.
13. Here is where you’ll find entries under “Conversion ID” and “Conversion Label”.
14. Have this page open up on your Google Ads dashboard.

Generate your first tag:

1. Switch back to Google Tag Manager.
2. Under the tab “Tags”, generate a new tag by choosing “Google Ads Conversion Tracking” under “Tag configuration”.
3. Transfer the respective entries , under “Conversion ID” and “Conversion Label”, from the Google Ads dashboard.
4. Click on “Trigger”. Now use the previously defined trigger “Click send”.
5. In the preview mode, monitor if your tags are being triggered as desired.
6. If yes, deactivate the preview mode and publish your change.