PPC in 30 Days, Day 20: Conversion Tracking

Tracking the return on your investment is an important part of any PPC campaign.

Tracking consumer behavior is a challenge for many organizations. Firms want to know if the money they are spending on advertising is actually generating new business. This is why it is not unusual for consumers to be given surveys that ask how they came to be connected with the organization. When it comes to pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, firms seek to assess whether web searches actually result in increased sales. In order to gather this information, there are a variety of tools and strategies.

As mentioned in the article “What is Conversion Tracking?,” traditional tracking was focused on how many visitors came to a particular website. This, however, did not tell organizations if the visitor actually conducted any business or was interested in future commerce. The goal behind current conversion tracking practices is to assess whether the initial click on an ad leads directly to new business.

There are various software packages that can be used to track more details about consumer behavior. For example, firms that use Google can use the AdWords conversion tracker, which uses cookies on a person’s computer to track their activity and transactions. This helps differentiate the casual visitor from the consumer who is specifically interested in the product or service.

For more complex data, organizations can take advantage of third-party software packages or make use of utilities such as Google Analytics. When firms use Google Analytics, they have access to more extensive reports that help organizations in setting and tracking campaign goals. This is a more sophisticated way of measuring ad effectiveness.

A more simple approach is to build landing pages that are created as a destination for users who click particular ads. Firms that use a unique landing page are able to measure specific traffic generated through a search for “Pennsylvania mesothelioma lawyers” as opposed to a search for their firm name, creating a much better sense of whether the ad is being clicked. If business is conducted through that landing page, firms are able to further measure an ad’s effectiveness.

Day 21 of PPC in 30 Days will review the purpose of landing pages and how you can best use them to your advantage. Read on for more information about creating a landing page to support your PPC campaign.