Conversion Tracking

Conversion Tracking – Short Conceptual Explanation
What is conversion tracking?
Goals that should be tracked
How those goals are tracked
How to set up conversion tracking

Conversion Tracking – Short Conceptual Explanation

Conversion tracking involves documenting and analyzing the actions consumers take in regards to a business. It enables companies to see detailed data of the people who are converting with a specific business goal in mind, like signing up for a newsletter or adding an item to their cart. It is an effective way to determine the success of a marketing campaign, and it can inform changes that could be made to increase conversions in the future.

What is conversion tracking?

Conversion tracking involves documenting and analyzing certain business goals a company has concerning their website. It’s an effective way to determine areas of a site that need to be made more appealing to customers, and it can also determine the ROI of a current marketing strategy. If the data shows that a new marketing strategy isn’t working, it can be adjusted to increase conversions.

Goals that should be tracked

There are many ways conversions can be tracked, and tracking different conversions can provide a clearer picture of the effectiveness of a website or marketing campaign.

A few goals that should be tracked include:

Number of visitors to a website or webpage
Items added to an online shopping cart
How many people make a purchase through the website
How many items are purchased
Which visitors sign up for a newsletter
How many users download content or play a video

Conversions are not just measured online. Additional conversion that can be tracked include the number of people who visit a physical store, as well as the number of people who call the business to ask a question.

How those goals are tracked

Different kinds of goals require different conversion tracking methods. These are called key performance indicators (KPIs).

A few different ways to measure the conversion goals of a business include:

Number of conversions, like how many clicks
Conversion rate, which is how many people visited compared to how many converted
The cost of each conversion in regards to a current marketing campaign
The bounce rate, which calculates how many people leave the site without doing anything
Number of pages viewed before leaving the website
Events that took place, like videos watched or content downloaded
How long a website browsing session lasted

How to set up conversion tracking

Conversion tracking can be tedious if done by hand. Using technology and having clear goals can make it easier. First, determine clear business goals. For example, an eCommerce store may focus on how many purchases are made on the site, while a blogger may be more interested in tracking how many people clicked on their latest blog.

It is also important to define the marketing or sales funnel being used. Rarely does a user see an item on a website and buy it, for example. Instead, they might see a social media post, sign up for an email newsletter, visit the product page, and purchase the product. Following this journey provides a clearer picture of exactly how and when users convert.

Conversion tracking must be enabled in order to gather data. This can be done in Google Analytics, as well as with other programs. Based on the information gathered, the marketing campaign can then be modified, and the process starts all over again.