Measuring conversions is vitally important in digital marketing.
Measuring conversions is complicated. More devices, channels and touchpoints means data is exploding, yet behavior across devices and the use of different identifiers, such as cookies in browsers, can cloud measurement across the web.
With all that imprecision comes a thought that might keep you up at night: you might not see all the conversions driven by your marketing. These are still happening, but you may not capture them in your reports.
As a high-performing marketer, I get frustrated every time my measurement is incomplete. Missed conversions are about the saddest thing I can think of, but Google has measurement tools designed to help me (and you) get the most out of conversion tracking.
Track all possible conversions in AdWords
Back in the desktop era, advertisers simply installed a conversion pixel on their checkout page and the combination of retargeting and third-party cookie readings at the time of conversion accurately captured performance.
To keep up with changes in browser technology and user preferences, capturing ad clicks on landing pages, as opposed to redirects, is now the most reliable way to measure conversions. This means that to get the most accurate measurement in today's digital world, you should have a tag on every page of your website to enable the cleanest link from click to conversion.
It may seem like a daunting task, but it doesn't necessarily require re-tagging your site. If you are using Google Analytics Today, hopefully your webmaster has already tagged all the pages on your website, including the conversion page.
If so, you can link your AdWords and Google Analytics accounts and that's it! You're done
What else can you do
There are other considerations as you manage your ads.
To start, make it a habit to compare your conversion data with actual sales. Your own numbers and figures are always the best source of truth for your business.
If you know that your campaigns are generating a greater impact on the business that is not fully reflected in your conversion numbers, adjust your approach. You may want to consider adjusting your cost per acquisition (CPA) to return on advertising spend (ROAS) objectives in AdWords to take into account the difference.
Finally, understand how long it takes your customers to convert. There is a wickedly useful segment that came out last year called “Days to conversion".
It's important to understand how long it takes for customers to complete a conversion. The larger the gap between a click and a conversion, the more opportunities arise for the conversion to not be counted (people clearing their cookies, etc.). Understand delays so you can build the right padding in your key performance indicators (KPI).
Conclusion
The best thing I can think of is to preserve the ability to see as many conversions as possible in your digital marketing.
And, in cases where there is something you don't understand, work to understand those gaps and have a strategy to address them. With the right approach, you'll be able to measure impact more effectively and capture more conversions.