How to Track Google Ads Traffic

Recently a prospective client asked me for some help. They wanted to know how to track their Google Ads results. This was a great question because I'm a firm believer in starting any project with the end in mind.

I see far too many business owners set up a Google Ads account with the sole purpose of generating more traffic. They haven't considered how a paid traffic campaign will result in new business. There's no thought to whether their advertising budget is increasing subscribers, prospects, customers, and sales.

This is understandable and I can appreciate how in their quest to get their ads live, thoughts on tracking get forgotten. Thus, in this article, I have decided to explain the different ways you can track and measure your success within Google Ads.

Tracking Website Visitors Contacting You Via Your Contact Form

The most common form of tracking is recording the number of new enquiries completed via your contact form. This is simple to set up. When someone completes your form and clicks on the submit button, you simply need to ensure the enquirer is redirected to a new page. I call this page the thank you page. It's a page where you thank the visitor for making contact and you advise on a timescale for getting back to them. I also often recommend my clients add a friendly introduction video to this page in order to make a great first impression. It's always worth going the extra mile to illustrate you are someone they can trust. Finally, copy and paste the conversion tracking code from Google Ads between the body tags on the thank you page.

Tracking Website Visitors Asking You A Question Via Your Enquiry Forms

I recommend embedding short enquiry forms at the bottom of your other landing pages. It is bad practice to expect your visitor, to click on a link to your contact page in order to enquire further when you have the opportunity to make the whole experience easier. At that very moment, a question pops into their head, it should be easy for them to access and complete a form right in front of them. The form should ideally be in the main copy of the landing page and at the top of the right-hand side column. Each landing page should have its own unique enquiry form so as it redirects to a different thank you page with its own unique conversion tracking code.

Tracking Website Visitors Asking You For A Quote Via A Form On Your Website

Similarly to asking your website visitors to complete a contact or enquiry form, you can track people asking for a quote. When your visitor submits a completed quote form they should be redirected to a unique conversion code tracked thank you page.

Tracking How Many Website Visitors Download An Online Resource Like An eBook Or White Paper

Likewise, you can track visitors signing up for a free ebook or industry white paper by ensuring the download button redirects to a thank you page.

Tracking How Many Website Visitors Sign Up For Your Online Newsletter

Typically you will receive a higher conversion rate on your newsletter sign up form using only one field to collect the email address. The sign up here button should be redirected to a unique conversion code tracked thank you page.

Tracking Calls Made By Visitors Calling A Phone Number On Your Website

Many prospects will want to phone you having learnt about your products and services on your website. Using Google's website call conversions, you can dynamically insert a Google forwarding number on your website. Whether they call the number from their phone or click on the number, you will be able to attribute it back to the keyword you bid on. The forwarding number's colour, font and size can be customised to match your website style and design

Tracking Calls Made Directly To Your Business From Your Mobile Ads

Within Google Ads, you have the option of adding a call button to your mobile ads. This button is generated by adding a call extension to your mobile ads and enables you to track how many paid searches resulted in a call to your business. A mobile website visitor has the option of clicking on your ad or the call button. You may only desire calls from visitors, perhaps you are a pizzeria and you are driving traffic to your order line. If this is the case you should create a call-only campaign. The ads can be set up to only appear when your business is open for business.

Tracking Offline Conversions That Happen After A Visitor Has Left Your Website

You can further measure what enquiries convert into sales by importing offline conversions into Google. This allows you to generate a detailed view of which keywords convert into actual new business. This involves placing some Javascript code on each web page is as you can store a unique ID for every click. This is called the GCLID. It's recommended this is placed immediately before the closing body tag. I recommend adding it to your web page template. This was you always automatically have it on your web page. You will need to ask your developer to modify the form you use to collect your enquiries. It will need to read the GCLID and pass it into your lead management system. Adding a custom field to each lead that comes in allows you to easily store the GCLID. You can then import data from your lead management system e.g. Marketo, SugarCRM & Mongoose Metrics into Google Adwords by uploading the data as an Excel or CSV file. Alternatively, you can transmit the data to the Adwords API. Google provides full instruction for developers in their API Developer's Guide.

The Number And Cost Of Conversions Are More Important Than Your Cost Per Click

Once you begin to track conversions you will become less concerned with your cost per click and much more interested in conversions. The important metrics to continually review will be the number of conversions, cost per conversion, the conversion rate.

This article focuses on using Adwords conversion code though it's important to point out some businesses use Google Analytics to measure success in the form of goals. In my experience, Google Ads conversion code has been more reliable and I generally import Analytics goals into Google Ads as a backup.