Keeping track of your online conversions from AdWords paid search campaigns is a simple feat. Whether someone reached the thank you page after checkout, filled out a form, or downloaded an application, these actions are all easily tracked on a website and imported into an AdWords account. But what about the conversions that happen offline? What if a customer decides to call and make an appointment or purchase over the phone? Or what if you only count a conversion when a prospect reaches a certain stage of the sales process or actually becomes a paying customer? Without the right tools, these more qualified types of conversions can be difficult to keep track of and even harder to appropriately attribute back to the original AdWords campaign.
Marketers Need Google Click IDs
The important piece in tracking any conversion from a paid search visitor is to ensure that the Google click ID (gclid) continues to stay attached to that lead as they continue through the sales process. Meaning, whichever application you use to manage and track leads should have a field to store the gclid assigned to the new opportunity.
One of the most popular examples of this feature can be found in Salesforce. By modifying your online form, you can easily capture and send the Google click ID alongside the information inputted by the visitor into the form. The technical details for this can be found on the Google support site.
Importing Offline Conversions into AdWords
But again, what if the person calls and then purchases or becomes a lead? In these situations it is best practice to use dynamic number insertion. By identifying visitors with a unique phone number the gclid assigned to that visitor can be captured and tied to the phone call. From there, this information can be transferred to a CRM like Salesforce or an online marketing automation tool like HubSpot. When the visitor converts by calling, a simple report can be exported which contains the gclid, a conversion name, and conversion time, and then that data can be imported into AdWords. However, some marketers prefer to wait until the caller reaches a certain stage of the sales process before importing their call conversion data into AdWords.
These offline conversions must be added within a 90-day window. AdWords does not allow conversions do be imported after this time frame. Also, it is best practice to wait at least 4-6 hours before uploading offline conversions so that AdWords can fully process the click information. The same gclid can also be used with multiple conversion types. For example, you can submit a conversion when a visitor becomes a lead, then an opportunity, and finally a purchasing customer. We recommend using different conversion names so that you can easily segment your conversion types at the adgroup and keyword level.
Taking the time and resources to gather this data using any of the methods above will allow your business to achieve greater insight and attribution from AdWords campaigns. Meanwhile, these processes will simultaneously provide your digital advertising team with the additional, meaningful conversions that prove the ROI from their AdWords efforts.
To learn more about attributing offline calls to paid search, contact us for a demo today!
