Sometimes a customer might come to your business through pay per click advertising but not make a purchase through your website. A customer could call or email your office, or maybe the final stage of your sales process doesn’t involve your website at all. In that case how would you match up the sales outcome from the PPC campaign they came from?
That’s where offline conversion tracking comes in.
Offline conversion tracking allows you to measure what happened after a customer clicked on your ad. We at Upperdog recognise the importance of determining the accurate conversion rate of PPC campaigns, which is why we list it as one of our key reasons for hiring a PPC Agency.
What is it?
Offline conversion tracking is a method for accurately comparing offline sales to your pay per click advertising. Within PPC management there’s two types of offline conversion tracking – conversions from clicks and conversions from calls.
Conversions from clicks
To record conversions from clicks you’ll need an ID for each time a user has clicked on an ad – Google AdWords for example calls this a “GCLID” (Google CLick IDentification). There’s a wide range of PPC platforms available and each one works a little differently.
To track offline conversions you’ll need to save customer PPC ID’s by inserting a few lines of code into your website form that also records their contact information. Google AdWords has a useful guide for this on their support section.
When a customer fills out your form, you’ll receive their contact information and their PPC ID. You can then upload your sales report directly into your PPC platform. If the PPC ID and the sales value is included in the report, the relevant conversion fields will be populated with this information.
Conversions from calls
Setting up PPC conversions from calls requires you to use a special forwarding number which is a unique phone number for your ads.
Once a customer has called your business you simply record the unique phone number they came from and the sales value. You can then upload a sales report with this information directly into your PPC platform. Much like conversions from clicks, the data will then populate the relevant conversion fields. Another alternative is to use call tracking software which can integrate your data directly with your paid media platforms to measure call conversion rates, but won’t provide information on sale value.
Measuring the offline value of your online ads is important area for determining the effectiveness of your PPC campaigns and justifying changes for the future. Upperdog’s PPC services can help you in setting up offline conversion tracking or any other areas you need assistance with. Call our PPC management experts on 01202 798 820 or email hello@upperdog.co.uk.