Better Together: Pair Google Analytics With Google AdWords for Stronger Campaigns

If you have had a Google AdWords campaign up and running for a while, you are probably already familiar with the various AdWords tracking tools. With a simple bit of code, you can track every conversion that takes place on a particular “thank you” or receipt page. You can also import offline conversions, which are a bit more complicated to set up, but very much worth the effort. If you have not yet linked your AdWords campaign with Google Analytics, however, you are missing out on some much deeper tracking possibilities that can ultimately help you build a stronger campaign. Here are a few things you can do with Google Analytics. User Behavior Tracking Google AdWords lets you track conversions. However, it doesn’t give you much insight about the visitors who did not convert. Learning more about their behavior on your site can help you identify areas that you can improve, ultimately increasing your conversion rate. For example, Google Analytics will tell you how many pages the prospect visited, the amount of time they spent on your website, and whether or not they immediately bounced away. In other words, you can track the user behavior of your AdWords traffic to see what those prospects are doing. Think of AdWords conversion tracking like a light switch. It’s either on or off. You either have conversions or don’t. And when you don’t, then excuse the pun, but you’re in the dark about why the AdWords visitors are not converting. This is why Google Analytics is such a great tool to add as you analyze your advertising performance. E-commerce and Funnel Tracking Google Analytics allows you to go deeper than Google AdWords conversion tracking does. If you sell products online, you can use Google Analytics’ e-commerce tracking to monitor specific information about product revenues, transaction details, and length of time from initial interest through completed sale. Multichannel funnels in Google Analytics allow you to see each incremental step that buyers go through on their way to a completed sale. For example, your AdWords campaign may be driving 100 sales per month, but your AdWords reports do not tell you if those customers interacted with any other marketing campaign. By using the Multichannel funnels reports, you’ll see if organic search, referrals, email marketing, or another channel is playing an important role in your AdWords conversions. Prospect Segmentation and Retargeting Retargeting, or displaying your ads to prospects who have recently visited your site, is an important part of a solid Google AdWords strategy. Google Analytics can streamline this process for you by automatically segmenting your visitors and creating lists of people who are likely to buy. If you prefer to create your own segmented lists manually, Google Analytics helps you drill down to find your prospects’ demographics, location and online interests. Split Testing Landing Pages Success with AdWords advertising is not just about correctly setting up and optimizing your campaigns within Google AdWords. You must also properly setup and optimize your landing pages to maximize your sales. That means split testing your landing pages to find the best copy and layout for your target market. Luckily, Google Analytics provides a simple and free tool called “Experiments” to split test your landing pages. By using Experiments within Google Analytics you can test two different landing pages to see which one converts more visitors into sales. Layer New Dimensions onto Reports The power of the Google Analytics and Google AdWords pairing is even more evident when you run reports within Google Analytics. For example, you can review ad performance for per ad placement on the page, mobile user behavior per keyword, and many other reports to learn more about your ads performance. Of course, these techniques are just the tip of the iceberg. Both Google AdWords and Google Analytics provide strong, dynamic tools for monitoring your website and ad campaigns. When paired together, they allow you to sift through the data in whole new ways. Think outside the box, play around with the tools, and find your own preferred tracking combinations.

Metrics

Better Together: Pair Google Analytics With Google AdWords for Stronger Campaigns

Phil Frost

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Phil Frost