Your Google AdWords campaigns may be performing well, with high CTR, low CPC, or any other metric (such as average position, impression share, or number of impressions) . But if you're not measuring your return on investment (ROI) with conversion tracking, it doesn't make any sense -- and don't worry, it's not complicated in most cases. Conversion tracking is the best way to tell if your AdWords campaign or ad group traffic is converting and driving quality traffic to leads, sales, downloads, subscriptions, and more. Without conversion tracking, you won't be able to see how many of those clicks actually lead to actions, or if any ad groups are not keeping up and should be optimized. In this blog, we'll assume you've already set up your account and you're happy with the performance, but here are some tips to make sure you're on top of things. You also need a landing page to track conversions, so read this article to make sure your landing page is optimized as well. Basic settings, click click The most common conversions people want to track are events . Let's look at a scenario where the purpose is to track sales: Click the Wrench tool in the upper right corner of the page. Look under the Measure column on the Conversions tab . Click the blue "+" in the upper left corner to add a new conversion event. You'll have four options to choose from, and as we said, we'll choose " Website". Give the event a clear name so you can see at a glance what it's actually for or what it's measuring. Don't simply call it "Conversion 1" or "Sales." Be as specific as possible, especially if you want to track events on a single page . Choose from Buy/Sell, Sign Up, Lead, Key Page View, or Other. For this example, we'll look at Buy/Sell, but don't worry - the others are very similar. Next, you can choose to assign a value to the conversion event , so ask yourself what the average value of a single conversion is. Type it here, but you can also leave it blank and come back to it later. Google also provides examples to help you make your choice. Next, you can ask to track multiple conversions, or count all actions as a single Event . "Every" is recommended at the time of purchase, adding value with every conversion. Example: If someone clicks your ad industry mailing list then makes 3 purchases, AdWords will count 3 conversions. "One" is recommended for leads, signups, and other conversions where only one conversion per click adds value. Example: If someone clicks your ad and then fills out three registration forms, AdWords will count them as a conversion. Google will then ask you how long you want to keep the transition window open. This allows you to see how long it took someone to convert on your site, the time between impressions, and the value of conversions. Next, set up the View-through Conversions window. It's a bit abstract, but it counts a conversion even if they don't click on the ad but just view it. Google defines it as "the number of days post-impression that a view-through conversion is recorded. A view-through conversion occurs after an ad is displayed, and will occur later if the user does not interact with the ad." The next question asks if you want to be "included in conversions." This setting lets you decide whether these conversions should be included in the " Conversions" and " Conversion value" columns. If you uncheck it, the data will still appear in the All Transformations column. I recommend never using Smart Bidding as you have less control over your spend. Finally, the last option is about attribution models. There's no right or wrong here, but most people choose the "last click" option because they want to see what action led to a conversion, but it might eliminate traffic that was working before. "Linear" or "Time Decay" might be worth looking into if you want a more accurate model. Now click "Create and Continue". You can now send installation instructions to someone or install it yourself. If you choose "Global Site Code", you only need to install the Global Site Code once per account, even if you are tracking multiple actions. You can choose "Page Load", which is great for thank you pages, or click to add a code snippet to a page with a button or link you want to track clicks on. celebrate! You are a rock star. Get ready to see those sweet conversions and start tracking data over time. Does it work? If you want to check that your code is working, you didn't go through it for nothing, here are some ways to double check. The first and easiest way is to check in again after a few hours and look for the green circle to the left of the transition you set. Next check "Status" to read "Record Transition". You should also be able to see statistics on conversions, repeat rates, and some other metrics you selected during setup. This can sometimes take hours, especially if conversions are low or the account isn't getting much traffic, so if you come back a few hours later and don't see results, don't think it's not working right away. Here's some more advice from Google: "For conversion tracking to work, you need to add the global site tag and event snippet to your website, including the onclick tag for the button, link, or image you want to track. Learn more to make sure Your tag is valid, please check the tracking status on the Conversion Actions page. Verifying that the tag is on your site may take a few hours. Learn more You can also use the Google Tag Assistant plugin for Chrome to make sure your tag is working . You can edit the settings for this conversion action at any time." Use data now! The best part of setting this up is using data to optimize your account, so think strategically about how best to use data. Combine conversion data from AdWords with other sources such as Google Analytics or your HubSpot portal to get a complete picture of your sales performance. Nothing is perfect the first time, there is always a way to get better. Continue A/B testing and iterating over your ad groups looking for other conversion opportunities. If you need help, take it to the experts at Impulse Creative. We have the marketing expertise to put your business on the map with the most effective strategies and a genuine interest in your business and success.