You just started a new AdWords campaign.
Youโre trying to drive some easy, instant sales to your site.
But you quickly realize that you have no idea how to tell if those visitors are converting. No clue if youโre wasting your hard-earned budget without a return.
Youโre not alone.
76% of marketers are still struggling to track the ROI of their campaigns.
Even worse is when marketers think theyโre tracking the effectiveness of their campaigns, but theyโre doing it in the wrong way.
So it looks and seems and feels like theyโre on the right track. All while budgets get squandered, and results continue to lag.
Hereโs how to get started tracking your return on online advertising campaigns.
Outline What a โConversionโ is For Your Campaign
Conversion tracking can be complex.
Itโs not cut-and-dry like most people think.
The first step to tracking the return on investment for an online advertising campaign is to outline what your campaign goals are.
Are you trying to build brand awareness? Are you trying to drive e-commerce sales? Consultations? Free trials?
Depending on your goals, conversion tracking will be vastly different.
For example, a conversion for e-commerce sales is quantifiable without much extra effort.
You can tell exactly what someone bought and how much you spent to acquire that customer via ads.
But what about consultations or free trials?
When AdWords shows a conversion for your campaign, itโs not a sale.
Meaning you arenโt getting a return on investment just yet. Your bank account isnโt increasing when someone signs up for a consultation.
So those conversions donโt tell the whole story.
If youโre not tracking something quantifiable, such as items sold or likes generated to your Facebook Page, then you need to start with some basic math.
If you are trying to get consultations (or other similar conversions) that donโt have a dollar amount to tie back to, you can set up a basic equation to give them value:
(Average Closed Lead Value X Rate of Lead Close) = Per Lead Value
This simple equation will give you insight into how much a lead is worth in your business, making it easier to tie back ROI to your conversions.
Set up Google AdWords Tracking
Setting up Google AdWords conversion tracking correctly is critical for measuring your ad ROI.
It helps you track data on how your campaigns are performing and whether or not you are finding success.
To get started, open up your AdWords account and navigate to the conversions section:
Here, you can begin setting up conversion tracking elements for multiple parts of your campaigns.
From basic call data to website conversions, you have a few different options:
Depending on your campaign, you might need more than one of these elements to track conversions.
For example, if you decide to run AdWords ads with call-based extensions, youโll want more than just website tracking.
The most common one will be your website conversions, or the people who buy a product or convert on your site.
Select the tracking type and give it a name and a category to recognize it:
Next, under โValue,โ youโre going to want to input some basic numbers.
Remember that equation in the section before?
If your product/service isnโt a direct sale like e-commerce, you want to set your lead value as the conversion value here.
This will give you some insight into ROI fast without having to dig through each conversion.
Once youโre ready, save the conversion tracking element, and itโs time to install your tag.
I can tell youโre already jumping for joy. Tone it down, I know itโs exciting stuff.
Now you can scroll down to the box called โEvent snippetโ where you can select between two options:
The most common one will be the Page Load option.
This simply means that whenever someone lands on a page, AdWords will mark it as a conversion.
So, the key here is to place this tag on the right page.
If you place it on your landing page, your conversion data wonโt make sense.
You need to place it on a thank you page that a user will land on after theyโve converted.
So, if someone fills out a form somewhere on your site, they need to be directed to a thank you page. Thatโs where you want to place the tag.
Simply install the code into your thank you page header, and youโll have live tracking for your campaign.
If you want to double-check your tag installation, use the Google Tag Assistant to make sure itโs installed correctly:
Voila! Thatโs it.
Now you can start to track the fundamentals of ROI on AdWords.
But thatโs not all. This is just the first step of tracking your advertising ROI.
Itโs time to go into some depth.
Setup Facebook Pixels
Facebook advertising is amazing because of all the diverse options it gives you.
The options are virtually endless. You can create campaigns to fit almost any goal you might have.
However, thatโs also part of the problem. Determining exactly how likes, comments, awareness, visits, and clicks translate into new paying customers isnโt easy.
First, you need to set up tracking scripts, just like you did for AdWords.
This is the only way to start collecting the initial data on how your campaigns are performing.
To start setting up your Facebook Pixel for tracking, head to your Facebook Ads Manager and click โPixelsโ under the Assets section:
Now, click the green โSet Up Pixelโ button to get started:
Facebook is easy to work with because theyโve got dozens of integrations that make installation a breeze:
If you know how to install code, you can do it yourself.
If you donโt (or youโre just lazy like me), select the first option.
Once youโve integrated, be sure to head back to the Ads Manager to make sure thereโs a confirmation in the top right corner:
But youโre going to need to take it a few steps further before you can glean any ROI insight.
Letโs do it.
Take Advantage of UTM Codes
UTM codes โtagโ your URLs to give you extra data about where your traffic is coming from.
For example, letโs say youโre doing paid promotion with an influencer on Twitter.
They are posting a few of your blog posts every day to get you more traffic and sales.
But when you look in Google Analytics, this is all you see:
Thereโs no way to pinpoint which activities or campaigns are generating those sessions. Meaning, you have no clue if your efforts are working or not.
UTM codes allow you to add tracking data like source, medium, campaign, and even keywords to your URL to properly record each visit.
For example, hereโs what a completed UTM could look like:
Hereโs what your data will look like inside Analytics when you start to add UTM codes:
Now, you can tell exactly how you got the traffic, why itโs coming to you, and where itโs coming from.
So, how do you set these up?
There are a few ways to go about it.
If youโre running smaller advertising campaigns and just need to track a few links, head to Googleโs UTM builder:
You can use this page to fill out the desired tracking tags like campaign source, medium, name, and keywords.
You simply type the final URL that you want to track into the โWebsite URLโ section and generate your new URL.
Use that in your next campaign to get better data in Google Analytics.
If you run tons of AdWords ads and donโt want to make new UTM codes for every landing page, thereโs a shortcut.
Head to your AdWords account and navigate to your shared library.
From here, select the URL options tab from your settings:
Then, make sure that auto-tagging is enabled. Head to the โTracking Templateโ and hereโs where you can enter UTM information.
Enter lpurl, then a question mark, and then any ValueTrack parameters you want to use, separated by ampersands (&).
For example, letโs say you wanted to track the campaign it came from. Youโd add a string like this:
lpurl?ads_cmpid=49
Doing this will enable tracking at the account level, meaning youโll never have to set up UTM codes for each new AdWords ad you create.
Track Your Phone Calls
Now that youโre tracking basic conversion data on the top advertising networks, along with more laser-focused link tracking, itโs time to pull it all together.
Without phone call data, youโre missing out on a big piece of the puzzle.
Tons of AdWords conversions are from phone calls.
Why? When someone is going to book something like a consultation or hotel room, they often call in.
Itโs easy, especially from mobile phones.
But what happens when this is all you see in AdWords?
You ainโt got nothinโ to show who converted or where in the heck they came from.
Tracking offline events is critical to success.
If youโre getting a lot of conversions from phone calls, you need to know which ones came from advertising and which were already coming from organic traffic.
Otherwise, itโs a shot in the dark as to whether youโre better off spending your dollars on SEO or PPC.
One of my favorite tools for tracking call data is CallRail.
You can set up keyword pools on your site that give each user their own tracking data.
Using dynamic number insertion, CallRail gives each user their own phone number rather than 1,000 users seeing your standard business line.
Meaning you can track each individual as they move throughout your advertising funnel.
You can see how they got to your site, the keywords that brought them to you, and the landing page they landed on.
You can record phone calls for even better conversion tracking.
If you want to tie ROI back to your advertising campaigns, you need tracking at every level.
That includes boring, old-school things like phones.
And yes, people still call businesses (as much as we hate it).
Conclusion
When youโve started a new online advertising campaign, whatโs your first step?
If itโs not setting up conversion tracking, you might be making a big mistake.
Tracking return on investment is critical to understanding how well your online campaigns are doing.
First, you need to start by outlining what a conversion means to your campaign.
Is it a direct sale via e-commerce, or is it a consultation?
The idea here is to tie your efforts directly to ROI and understand that a conversion isnโt necessarily money in your pocket.
Next, set up tracking scripts with the top advertising outlets.
You need these to collect critical data.
Be sure to take advantage of UTM codes to get insight into where your traffic is coming from.
Lastly, track your phone calls. People often forget how important call tracking is for getting an understanding of ROI.
Want to prove that your campaigns are worth it?
Clicks donโt tell you that. Neither do leads, opt-ins, or consultations. Only revenue does.
About the Author: Brad Smith is the founder of Codeless, a B2B content creation company. Frequent contributor to Kissmetrics, Unbounce, WordStream, AdEspresso, Search Engine Journal, Autopilot, and more.