Conversion tracking provides AdWords advertisers with valuable information as to how well their AdWords-derived traffic performs once it reaches the advertisers’ websites.
Most advertisers who use conversion tracking do so in order to track sales or purchases.
The problem with purchase conversion tracking is that it is based on a cookie which lasts for 30 days.
Many people routinely delete cookies from their systems, and in so doing, they wipe out any chance you have of recording their purchase as a AdWords conversion.
The 30-day time limit can also be an issue. If most of your customers download and purchase within that time frame, they should be trackable. However if it does take longer than 30 days between the time the ad is clicked and the visitor returns to make the purchase, that purchase will never be tracked or counted as a conversion.
The other problem with tracking purchase conversions occurs when the person who initially clicked on your AdWords ad (and gets the cookie on his/her system) is not the same person who ends up purchasing the product. Oftentimes, especially with business products, the person who initially discovers a product is not the person who ultimately decides what to buy and makes the actual purchase.
For all of these reasons, AdWords advertisers, such as software vendors, who offer a downloadable trial version of their product, should also setup conversion tracking for downloads as well as purchases.
We’ve found that most of the time, download conversion tracking is more accurate than purchase conversion tracking.
This is because there is a much better chance that the tracking cookie will still be on a visitor’s computer when they download the software, as opposed to when someone is ready to purchase the software. While the ultimate goal is for people to make a purchase, the more immediate action that a visitor usually takes is to download the trial version. The ability to accurately track downloads is therefore far greater than tracking actual purchases.
Download conversion tracking can add a whole new level of performance data for, and understanding of, your AdWords efforts.
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