In the dynamic realm of digital advertising, understanding the tools at your disposal is key to achieving success. One such tool that can greatly enhance your Google Ads campaigns is Enhanced Conversion Tracking. In this blog post, we'll delve into the core concepts of Enhanced Conversion Tracking for web, its functionality, implementation options, and the substantial benefits it offers to advertisers.
What is Enhanced Conversion Tracking?
Enhanced Conversion Tracking is an advanced feature provided by Google Ads, designed to offer advertisers improved accuracy when it comes to conversion measurement. It is an extension of the standard conversion tracking feature and enables the collection of first-party data when a user completes a conversion event you are measuring.
What first-party data can I send back to my campaigns?
1. Full Name
2. Email
3. Phone Number
4. Home Address
Google does not require that you capture ALL of the data points above, only one. If you only had one choice, I recommend collecting the user’s email. To capture this information & send it back to Google Ads, you will need to have the user give you this information during the completion of the conversion event; lead forms & checkout forms are common examples of ways to capture first-party data.
How Does Enhanced Conversion Tracking Work?
Google's illustration below demonstrates an example of the enhanced conversion journey, starting from when a user clicks on an ad to when they complete a conversion event.
How/Where do I set up Enhanced Conversion Tracking?
How: Enhanced conversion tracking functions through the existing standard conversion tracking tags, but requires slight modification to collect the user’s data. The modification process will vary depending on which method you use to collect conversion data.
Where: Currently, enhanced conversion tracking functionality is supported in Google Tag Manager, Google Tag, & the Google Ads API.
Benefits of Implementing Enhanced Conversion Tracking
Enabling Enhanced Conversion Tracking in your Google Ads account offers several significant advantages:
- Improved Conversion Data Accuracy: Enhanced conversion tracking utilizes the first-party data to recover conversions that otherwise would have not been recorded due to third-party cookie restrictions. As the third-party cookie is phased out in 2024, loss of conversion data is going to become a more common occurrence. This fact highlights the need for a solution like enhanced conversion tracking!
- Improved Campaign Optimization: The more accurate conversion data points you can supply Google’s algorithm with, the better! These additional conversion events that you collect through the implementation of enhanced conversion measurement will provide Google’s algorithm with additional opportunities for campaign optimization.
- Effective Targeting: Utilizing enhanced conversion tracking allows advertisers to use the hashed data to create custom audiences for advertising. Through the use of these audiences in campaign targeting, advertisers can increase the conversion rate of their campaigns.
Do you need help implementing enhanced conversion tracking?