Be A Smarter Online Advertiser With Google’s Secure Conversion Tracking

Pay-per-click ads are the latest craze in cyber world today, particularly with website owners. This is mainly due to the fact that it’s cheaper than any form of advertising found online, since you will not be charge for your ad until a visitor clicks on it. Now, is it any wonder why Google is so keen on improving AdWords? Rumor has it that Google’s new secure conversion tracking mechanism will revolutionized the face of pay per click ads.

Just what is conversion tracking you ask? In paid search advertising, their main goal is to lead visitors to the right web sites through clicking a certain ad. After which the visitor is compel to perform some action that meets the goal of the site owner. This normally entails either a purchase, membership sign up for websites and newsletter, page view or lead. Once these goals are met then a conversion occurs.

Conversions can be considered as the lifeblood of a business and Google has found a way for you to track them efficiently. But most importantly, the mechanism is said to be secured. This breakthrough hopes to help you identify whether or not your AdWords ads and keywords are effective.

How so? Google’s secure conversion tracking entails putting a cookie on a user’s computer once he or she clicks on an ad. Once the user clicks on your ad that reaches one of your conversion pages the user’s browser will then send the cookie to a Google server. After which a tiny conversion tracking icon will immediately be displayed at your site. Once the process is completed Google will then record a successful conversion for you. This information will be included in the Campaign Summary section of the “Campaign Management” tab of your AdWords account. Actually, this conversion-tracking mechanism works the same way as the program that Google utilizes in placing contextual ads on websites. This program is popularly known as Google’s Adsense.

Going back on Google’s secure conversion tracking mechanism, there might be CTR or click through rate that helps determine whether your keywords are effective. However, remember that it is only good for measuring the relevancy of your keywords. It might tell you that users searching for that keyword are interested enough in your ad to visit your site, but it cannot determine what happens once the user gets to your site. Therefore, it offers little help in determining whether your ads and keywords are effective. This is where Google’s secure conversion tracking comes in handy.

With Google’s secure conversion tracking; you will be able to see which clicks actually lead to purchases. This is a vital factor in deciding which of your keywords are worth investing in and which are not. What’s more Google is offering this secure conversion tracking mechanism entirely free of charge.

What do you need to get started? To start your secure conversion tracking all you need to do is simply place a few lines of code. This means that you must be familiar with HTML and other web tools, if you want to place the conversion tracking code snippet without hitch. Otherwise, you will need a webmaster to deal with the codes. Also, you will need to have access to your website’s code and of course your Google AdWords account.

Google have provided an online documentation that will guide you through the code snippet insertion instructions. To avoid problems, it might be a good idea to read and understand these setup instructions before you began the actual installation process. The documentation also offers specific snippet insertion instructions for various web programming languages, such as Active Server Pages (ASP), Sun Java Server Pages (JSP), PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP), Macromedia Dream Weaver and Microsoft FrontPage.

Once your code snippet are properly installed, you can now access your conversion tracking reports from the Campaign Summary page and Reports Center at least an hour after the first conversion from your AdWords account. You will also be able to see conversion reports down to the keyword level.

Google’s secure conversion tracking offers great flexibility when it comes to setting up your tracking preferences. If you want to immediate begin tracking aggregate data then you can simply use the initial code snippet that Google provided. Now if you prefer a more detailed conversion statistics then use the advanced tracking settings. It’s all up to you!

Another unique feature of Google’s secure conversion tracking is the tracking notification. This feature is making quite a controversy. Part of the Google’s new secure conversion tracking is that it notifies users that they are being tracked. This notification is created by the Google-supplied code that you add to the results page. Then the tracked user will see a message titled Google Site Stats, which includes a “send feedback” link once the results page is opened.

According to Google they prefer to be upfront with their actions and insist that the send feedback link will give the consumer the chance to understand Google’s privacy policies, and even reject the Google tracking cookie. This can very well be a double edge sword. On the positive side, users might appreciate the honesty and the fact that they are given option whether to proceed or not. However, most users tend to become extra wary once they realized that their actions are being tracked.

Google’s AdWords also include a cross-channel conversion tracking feature. This feature allows you to do conversion traffic coming in to your web properties even if it is from other advertising networks. This will prove to be advantageous particularly if you are sending out ads across multiple advertising ventures. How so? Well, you will be able to use the powerful AdWords reporting facilities to gather all information regarding conversions all in one place.

The search giant that they are indeed a fore to be reckon with. With Google’s secure conversion tracking you can now have access to conversion data in your reports which can help you make smarter decisions when it comes to online advertising, for instance about which ads or keywords to invest in. Moreover, armed with a more accurate and efficient data, you can now better gauge your overall return on investment (ROI) for your AdWords campaigns.