You are going to make some mistakes in your pay-per-click marketing endeavors, but some PPC mistakes will hurt your campaign more than others. Often times business owners will avoid focusing on the one thing that matters the most in PPC advertising: CONVERSIONS!
We see a lot of PPC campaigns that don’t have conversion tracking implemented, making it difficult to determine what is working and what isn’t within the campaign. There is absolutely no reason why a company shouldn’t be taking advantage of conversion tracking. Here are five conversion tracking mistakes that we see all to often when doing PPC audits and consultations.
1. Conversion Tracking Code Installed Incorrectly
Often times we will do PPC audits and when we ask them if they have conversion tracking set up they are under the impression that they do, but in reality they have installed the code wrong or placed it in the wrong location. It may sound like a very simple task to some, but many small businesses don’t have a dedicated IT or web team.
If you are doing it yourself make sure to read and follow the instructions carefully. There are several tutorials available online, both in video and written format. If you are working with a PPC agency they will handle all of the conversion tracking installation for you, ensuring that it is done correctly.
2. Lack of Conversion Tracking
Not only do some businesses have their tracking code installed incorrectly, but some don’t have it installed at all! It is very common to encounter PPC campaigns that are not taking advantage of conversion tracking or analytics. The reason? Many small business owners aren’t aware of the conversion tracking options that are available to them.
Several businesses have been doing offline advertising for years, where conversion tracking is next to impossible. When they start PPC advertising they aren’t aware of the ability available to them. It is completely useless to start a PPC campaign without conversion tracking in place. Before we take over any PPC campaign we establish goals and get the conversion tracking set up.
3. Lack of Goals
Diving into PPC without establishing goals first is something that is very common. This is the equivalent to setting a pile of money on fire. Without knowing what you want to accomplish it is impossible to create a campaign around conversions.
Every single business has a goal. Determine what you want your website visitors to do when they land on your site. Do you want them to complete a form? Are you trying to get sales? Do you want them to pick up their phone and call your business? Download a white paper resource? Watch a video? You need to establish your goals, because without them there are no conversions, just confusion.
4. Not Linking Analytics
Google Analytics can help provide a lot of insight, yet the majority of PPC campaigns we audit do not have their AdWords and Analytic linked. The geographical data that you can pull is priceless, and it can help you in so many ways beyond just your PPC campaign.
Imagine if you were able to determine that you had a conversion rate that was through the roof in a particular region. You could then explore additional advertising opportunities in that market. To really dominate your market you need to pull as much data, and linking your AdWords and Analytics is a great way to get additional information about your market.
5. No Call Tracking
The percentage of mobile traffic making search queries continues to rise on a daily basis. Your business needs to be found on mobile devices, and your PPC campaign should be targeting mobile users. Enabling call tracking allows you to really dig into the phone calls received through your PPC advertising.
Imagine if you were able to listen to the conversations your sales team had with each call that originated from your PPC advertising? With call tracking it is possible to determine what keywords prompted the call. This is a great way to identify profitable keywords that bring warm buyers, which can then be worked into your SEO and content marketing effort as well.
It is important that you first determine the goal of your PPC advertising, and then establish your conversion tracking according to those goals. Are you looking to generate lead form submissions, purchases, or phone calls? By ignoring conversions you are missing very valuable data that can help you scale your PPC efforts and really grow your revenue.