Tracking your Google Ads return on investment.

When you start using our Google Ads management service, we will apply various methods for tracking your Google Ads success.

We feel that the more data we have for analysis, the better equipped we will be to make well-informed decisions when optimising your Google Ads account.

Google provide conversion tracking from within the Google Ads system. If you already have this configured on your website, we will make sure that it is correctly set up, and we may suggest additional forms of tracking.

It is, however, important to understand why this form of tracking is extremely inaccurate, and how we can use this data within our managing of your Google Ads account.

It works by placing a small piece of JavaScript code on a particular page or pages of your website. Visitors clicking on your Google Ads are considered as conversions if they land on these pages.

The problem with this approach is that it can be unreliable, and also that it’s becoming increasingly less accurate as it relies on a cookie.

That cookie might not be available in the following situations, even though Google Ads may have contributed to the conversion:

• Your website visitors are using multiple devices. Clicking on your Google Ads on their laptop, tablet or smartphone and then making the purchase on their desktop will sever the connection between Google Ads and the sale.
• The Google Ads cookie only lasts for a set amount of time. If the conversion occurs outside that window, it won’t be tracked back to Google Ads.
• The person who clicked on a Google ad might not be responsible for purchasing. This can often occur with business purchases. If so, the conversion would not be tracked.
• The general public are becoming more concerned about the risks to online privacy, and how advertisers track their online activities. It has become a lot easier to delete cookies or not be tracked when browsing the internet.

Taking these limitations into consideration, Google Ads conversion tracking offers a less than perfect solution. This is why our company views conversion data as a useful indicator, but not as a reliable metric.

When viewing the data within your Google Ads account, you have access to some metrics that are reliable – for example clicks, impressions and cost. Conversion tracking, however, can not be included within this category. Even though we may be able to track some conversions such as sales conversions through Google Ads tracking, we will never know if we have tracked 10%, 90% or even 100% of all these sales.

This is why conversions can only be used as an indicator in most situations.

If you disagree with our methodology, we would advise that you discuss this prior to engaging our services.