It's the Conversion, Stupid
If you are determining your paid search metrics by numbers other than conversions, you need to pay attention.
If you are determining your paid search metrics by numbers other than conversions, you need to pay attention.
One of the most colorful political strategists of our time is James Carville. I once saw him crack an egg, a raw egg, on his head on the show “Meet the Press.”
He came up with the saying “It’s the economy, stupid.” It’s possibly one of the most reused sayings in politics.
I wanted to steal it for paid search today.
I’ve been talking to multiple people about the topic of paid search over the last couple of weeks. The importance of tracking by conversions has come up repeatedly.
Now, if you already track your paid search by conversions, then good for you. You are not my target audience for today. But, if you are determining your paid search metrics by numbers other than conversions, or if you don’t know what I’m talking about, please keep reading.
To steal another political saying, I want no paid search advertiser left behind.
In Google AdWords, under “reporting and tools,” you will see a link for “Conversions.” Just click on that. In Microsoft adCenter, go to your specific campaign and click on “Change Settings.” In the top right corner of the page, check the box “Track Conversions.”
Conversion tracking is getting increasingly more sophisticated and advanced. But today I want to just focus on the good old “paste some code on the thank you page” conversion tracking.
Conversions can be many different things. They could include things such as:
One of the easiest things to do is to track an online form. Someone fills out a form requesting more information. They press the submit button and are taken to a page that thanks them and tells them you will be in touch soon. This is called the thank you page. This is the page where the code goes. Conversion code goes on the page that follows the desired action.
As I was driving into work today, I was wondering how many people actually use conversion tracking. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that statistic. If you have, please tell us in the comments below. But I have a feeling that it is a very small percentage of the overall paid search advertisers. It’s simply because this is mildly technical. You have to get some HTML code and paste it into a page. That is oftentimes outside the comfort zone of many small-business owners.
But I want you to force yourself to do this. It will change how you think about your paid search. It will make you a smarter advertiser.
When you look at your standard paid search statistics, you see columns like this:
Clicks
Impressions
Click-through rate (CTR)
Cost
Average position
Most people make decisions based on these numbers. If you are one of these people, you should be aware that you are probably misspending your money. Here’s why:
Once you add conversion metrics to your paid search, you are going to see three new columns:
Conversions
Cost per conversion
Conversion rate
These are the numbers that are going to determine all your future decisions.
Those last three columns are where you want to focus your attention. Once you look at those numbers, then you can go back to the other numbers and tweak them intelligently.
I know what it feels like to force yourself to do something new. It hurts your head. I know it does mine. But I’m here to tell you this is what you need to do to be a savvy paid search advertiser. If you are not doing this, please make it a priority to start tracking by conversions. You will thank me for it.