Conversion Tracking Is Vital For Search Engine Marketing

Today a customer called and spoke to one of our Account Executives. This customer had just launched a brand new website selling holiday baskets targeted towards children and was very excited about it. The website looked good and their product seemed solid.

They told their Account Executive that they were looking to drive as much traffic as possible to their site and had just started doing all sorts of search engine marketing. She initially setup accounts on both Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing.

When their Account Executive asked the following question, the response was very alarming:

Account Executive: “Did you setup conversion tracking for both Google and Yahoo?”
Customer: “What’s conversion tracking?”
–
Me Listening From The Hallway: “Oh brother!”

You must and I mean must have some type of conversion tracking in place if you are going to do search engine marketing. One of the biggest benefits of online marketing is that you can get key measurements in real-time to maximize your results.

Conversion tracking essentially means “tell me which ads actually result in the person (or potential customer) reaching my desired goal”. This goal may be purchasing your product, signing up for a free trial, joining your newsletter, contacting you for more information, or anything else you may think of.

If you are not measuring your conversion rates for search engine marketing (SEM) then you are flying blind! And, while you’re flying blind, you’re dumping more and more money into certain ads that may not be producing anything positive for you at all.

There is no excuse for not measuring your conversions since both Google and Yahoo embed conversion tracking options into your advertiser control panel. And, it’s very easy to setup, since you typically just have to copy and paste a little bit of HTML code onto your ‘conversion success’ page.

With 30 seconds of effort you’ll have vital conversion information at your fingertips that Google and Yahoo even show you prominently on the page as you review your account. With this information you can make better decisions to help boost your online marketing initiatives.

So, stop flying blind…welcome to the information age….make sure you HAVE some important information you can use!