Tracking Implementation

Lesson Preview

In this lesson, we’ll be walking through how to set up tracking for your Google Ads account. We’ll be going over creating conversion actions, implementing them via Google Tag Manager, and configuring the Google Ads linkage with Google Analytics to ensure traffic from your campaigns are being tracked correctly in Google Analytics.

What is Tracking Implementation?

Tracking Implementation is the process of creating tracking tags and installing them on your site to ensure data is being collected properly.

Why is this important?

Optimizing PPC campaigns can only be done with proper tracking.  If we do not have the right metrics to examine, there is no way of knowing if you are hitting your goals or what keywords and ad copy are helping you reach them. 

What you’ll need:

• Google Ads Account
• Google Analytics Account
• Google Tag Manager Account

The Process:

Step 1: Sign up for Google Analytics

1. Enter https://analytics.google.com into your web browser.

2. Click “Create Account” or “Sign in” to your Google Account 

3. Enter the email you want to use to sign in to your new Google Analytics account. If you already have a Google Account, use your Google email address. 

1. • If you do not have a Google Account, click “Create Account” and complete the Google Account Sign Up process. After creating your account, return to https://analytics.google.com in your web browser.

4. After signing into your account, read Google’s terms and conditions and click Agree.

Step 2: Link Google Analytics with Google Ads

1. Enter https://analytics.google.com into your web browser.

2. Sign in to your Google Analytics Account.

3. Click “Admin” in the left-hand menu.

4. Click “Google Ads Linking.”

5. Select your Google Ads account and click “Continue.”

6. Configure the link by toggling on the “All Web Site Data” view and clicking ”Link Accounts.”

• The last thing we’ll want to do in Google Analytics before moving on is to enable Data Collection for Advertising Features. This will enable Google Analytics to collect data about your web traffic to be used for remarketing purposes.

7. Click “Tracking Info” then “Data Collection.”

8. Toggle on “Remarketing” and “Advertising Reporting Features.”

Step 3: Creating Conversion Actions

1. Enter https://ads.google.com/ into your web browser.

2. Sign in to your Google Ads account.

3. Click “Tools & Settings” in the header, then “Conversions”

4. Click the “+Converisons” button.

5. Select ‘Website”

6. Assign a category for the action you want to track. Categories are used to help segment your campaign reports.

1. • For Directive, we are tracking leads that fill out our landing page form, so we are selecting “Lead.”

7. Enter a conversion name.

8. Assign a value for the conversion. If you happen to have the average lifetime value of a customer, use that number for the value.

• For Directive, we are just tracking leads so we are not assigning a value for the conversion.

9. Select “One” for the count setting. This will ensure that only one conversion is recorded per ad click.

10. Set the conversion window. 30 days is the default, if you feel someone is likely to convert after that 30 day period, then extend the window.

• For Directive, we are keeping it at the 30-day default window.
• 

11. Set the view-through conversion window. A view-through conversion happens when someone sees your ad and does not interact with it, then converts at a later time. The default conversion window is 1 day.

• For Directive, we increased the view-through conversion window to be the same as the conversion window.

12. Assign an attribution model for the conversion action. The attribution model determines how much credit each click gets for a conversion. The default attribution model is last-click. The last click model gives 100% of the credit to the last clicked ad and keyword. The issue with last-click attribution is that it overvalues the last interaction and ignores any interactions that happen before it. We recommend using the position-based model as it gives us a more holistic view of the customer journey by assigning 40% of the credit to the first and last click and the remaining 20% is split equally across the other clicks.

1. • Here’s a link to additional documentation round attribution modeling: Click Here

13. Turn off the “Enable Enhanced CPC” option.

14. Click the ‘Create and Continue” button.

15. Now that the tag has been created, its time to add it to the website. We’ll be using Google Tag Manager to install the tag. Select the “Use Google Tag Manager” option and save the Conversion ID and Conversion label values somewhere as you’ll be needing them in Step 6. 

Step 4: Sign up for Google Tag Manager

1. Enter https://tagmanager.google.com/ into your web browser.

2. Sign in to your Google account.

3. After signing in to your account, click on “Create Account”.

4. Add a new account by completing the following steps:

1. • Enter Account Name
   • Enter Country Location
   • [Optional] Check the share data anonymously with Google
     • Enable benchmarking by sharing your data in an anonymous form. Google will remove all identifiable information about your website, combine the data with hundreds of other anonymous sites and report aggregate trends in the benchmarking service.
   • Enter container name
     • Example: www.mysite.com
   • Choose the target platform 
     • For the purpose of setting up website tracking, click “Web”

5. Complete Google Tag Manager Terms of Service Agreement

• Read through the Terms of Service
• Check the box at the bottom left corner and click “Yes” in the top right corner. 

6. Install the Google Tag Manager code on your website.

• Copy the code and paste it onto every page of your website.

You’re all done signing up for Google Tag Manager. Once you install the code for Google Tag Manager, you can begin adding the conversion tags.

Step 5: Creating Triggers in Google Tag Manager

Before we start creating the tags in Google Tag Manager, we need to create a trigger for the landing page thank you page that we’ll assign the conversion tag we just created to. 

1. Enter https://tagmanager.google.com into your web browser.

2. Sign in to your Google Tag Manager account.

3. Click “triggers” in the left-hand menu.

4. Click the “New” button to create a new trigger.

5. Name the trigger.

6. Click the “Trigger Configuration” box and select “Page View.”

7. Select the trigger to fire on “Some Page Views.”

8. Select the “Page URL” option in the dropdown.

9. Enter the URL path for your thank you page.

10. Click “Save.”

Step 6: Creating Tags in Google Tag Manager

1. Enter https://tagmanager.google.com into your web browser.

2. Sign in to your Google Tag Manager account.

3. Click “Tags” in the left-hand menu.

4. Click the “New” button to create a tag.

5. Name the tag. We’re setting up the conversion tag we created in Step 3, so the name is the same as the conversion action’s name.