TPE #63: 5 advanced tracking techniques

Read time: 3 minutes

Welcome back to The PPC Edge!

Google Ads tracking is a huge mess…

It's becoming increasingly harder to properly track conversions.

• People are using ad blockers
• Browsers block third-party cookies
• Privacy regulations + lack of user consent lead to gaps in conversion data

On top of that, there are huge data discrepancies as ad platforms process and report data differently.

The current landscape causes a huge problem, because without proper conversion tracking, you will never get your desired results.

But did you know there are some advanced tracking features you can implement to not only measure more, but also get better insights?

In today’s issue of The PPC Edge, we’ll show you 5 advanced tracking techniques to unlock new, valuable insights in your accounts to get an edge over your competitors that haven’t set them up:

1. New vs. Returning Customers Data
2. Offline Conversion Tracking (OCT)
3. Conversions With Cart Data
4. Conversion Adjustments
5. Profit Data

If you can find ways to enhance your data, you will win the game. And it all starts with your conversion tracking setup.

Remember: whoever has the most high-quality relevant data, wins.

Let’s dive in!

1: New vs. Returning Customers Data

Why you need this:

• Analyze new versus returning customers
• Use insights to focus more on new customer acquisitions (or not)

After implementing, you can see new vs. returning customers conversion data for all your campaigns inside Google Ads. This is epic, because Google’s algorithm has a tendency to focus more on returning customers. If relevant, you can use the insights to change your strategy and focus more on new customer acquisitions.

2: Offline Conversion Tracking (OCT)

Why you need this:

• Bad lead quality be a huge challenge with Google Ads for Lead Gen
• Measure and optimize toward more profound lead-to-sale events.
• Deliver better input to let Google improve campaign performance.

You can use Offline Conversion Tracking to enhance your dataset with qualified leads, converted leads, closed deals etc. This way, you solve the issue of bad lead quality (which we often see in Performance Max campaigns).

Added benefit: you can use the real conversion values from closed deals to optimize for high-value leads/customers with Value-Based Bidding (VBB).

3: Conversions With Cart Data

Why you need this:

• Users often don’t buy the product in the Shopping Ad they clicked on
• This may lead to wrong decisions, hurting your business
• Cart reporting insights help you make more informed decisions

Unlock new columns in Google Ads and view which products were bought after an ad is clicked, which products are most likely to convert, top sellers, cart size, items sold, and so much more.

These are absolutely essential insights that set you apart from competitors, and make for great talking points with your clients.

4: Conversion Adjustments

Why you need this:

• A customer's conversion path ends after they convert, but the journey is not always over
• Customers return purchases, cancel reservations, or become more valuable
• You can adjust the conversion value, so it affects your bid strategies and reporting

This is great if you want to adjust conversions, so Smart Bidding can optimize for better, more real results.

5: Profit Data

Why you need this:

• Optimize for profit, not just revenue
• Know exactly how much profit you make each day
• Stop spending on unprofitable ads, scale hidden winners

The product ad a visitor clicks on, is not necessarily the product that is bought. Margins of these products can hugely differ. After you unlock this data, you can steer on profit (POAS), instead of just revenue.

You can easily set up Profit Data in Google Ads with ProfitMetrics, one of our favorite tools!

They also offer Serverside Tagging solutions... A no-brainer!

Want help implementing all advanced tracking techniques?

Most of these tracking techniques are technical and difficult to set up. But we can help you implement all of them (and more) in our Conversion Tracking Mastery course.

The 5 implementations above are just the tip of the iceberg, we go super deep on all of them and other implementations like Enhanced Conversions (For Leads), Consent Mode, Server Side Tagging, Custom Variables, and so much more.

We’ll show you the easiest and fastest way to implement advanced tracking techniques with no fluff.

You’ll also get email templates with instructions for technical implementations (which you can copy-paste and share with your developer).

There’s a lot that goes into proper conversion tracking, and these advanced implementations are an absolute must to measure and steer on real business results.

With Conversion Tracking Mastery, we can help you:

• Measure more high-quality conversions, get better results
• Learn from theory + over-the-shoulder implementation videos (step-by-step)
• Master basic and advanced Google Ads Conversion Tracking with best practices for Ecom, Lead Gen & SaaS accounts

And as a result, your value as a Google Ads Specialist will increase!

The regular price is €199, but we want to reward you for being a loyal reader of The PPC Edge.

Use discount code ppcedge50 to grab €50 off! :)

So for only €149, you can master the most important skillset in Google Ads: Advanced Conversion Tracking.

Your value as a Google Ads Specialist will significantly increase, simply because you can measure more.

Go beyond the basics and unlock your biggest competitive edge for 2023 and beyond.

So far, 500+ agencies, freelancers, and in-house PPC specialists enrolled in Conversion Tracking Mastery.

Will you join us too?

Here's an insane testimonial we received from one of our students. Absolutely insane to read his words. Based on that, we know how valuable this course is for every Google Ads Specialist, regardless of your level of experience.

We're convinced you will love this course. And if you don't, just send us an email within 30 days and we'll refund 100% of your investment.

Enroll in Conversion Tracking Mastery here.

See you on the inside?

And if not, all good, we’ll see you in next week’s issue of The PPC Edge.

Thanks for reading. Have a great week!

Cheers,

Bob & Miles