When setting up a campaign it’s very important to have clear goals in mind and to have conversion tracking setup to track those goals.
Setting up a GDN or Adwords search campaign without conversion tracking or properly defining your marketing goal will result in extreme disappointment. It’s extremely rare for me with 10+ years of marketing experience to launch a profitable campaign day 1. It just doesn’t happen.
Adwords Conversion Tracking is part 6 of our Google Display Training Course found at http://marketingplaybook.co/adwords-display-training-guide-gdn/. All our Adwords Courses can be found on http://marketingplaybook.co/ppc-training/ and our Adwords Search course can be found at http://marketingplaybook.co/adwords-ppc-search-training-course/
We created a video as well covering how to create a conversion pixel. The written guide talks a little more about setting up goals and includes written instructions for setting up a conversion pixel.
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Adwords Conversion Tracking Video
Defining Goals
Setting up a campaign goal is the first thing you need to do, even before setting up conversions.
If you are attempting to generate leads for your business you will need to know how you plan on processing those leads. Will it be from phone calls. If so you need to setup call tracking (See our supplemental guides in the Adwords Training section). You will also need to assign a reasonable value per call.
If you are attempting to capture a persons name and e-mail you will need to have a form and e-mail integration setup on your website. You will also need to assign a monetary value for that lead.
If it’s selling a product or service online then your end goal is rather straight forward. Make more money then you spend on advertising. Generally the minimum I shoot for would be a 20% ROI. The value for each conversion will vary depending on the product sold on your website so you will have to ensure you setup a dynamic conversion value. Every eCommerce platform out there has this kind of option and nearly all have some easy way for owners to integrate Adwords tracking into the platform.
Setting up Adwords Conversions Pixel
Click the Tools Tab on top-> select Conversions
Select the red button that says +Conversion
Now select from the below menu the option you want
Website: This is what most people select who are attempting to sell products or services via eCommerce or those attempting to capture e-mail address via lead forms. If you are unsure this is probably what you want.
App: This only applies to apps. Android apps should be able to have installs auto post back but iOS versions will have to setup integration into the apps SDK. Your developer should be familiar with all this. They just need the code generated.
Phone Calls: This option is for those setting up Call tracking. It’s a great option to do both on Display and Search so take advantage of this. We have a supplemental guide covering call tracking on the Adwords PPC search page.
Import: This option is more advanced and used for people who can’t post back into Adwords. It’s a bit more complicated and the method used for tracking largely depends on the systems you have in place. This does not apply to most advertisers.
For the purpose of this guide we are just going with website conversions
First up is naming the conversion. This can be any name you want and is not shown to customers. Generally I will call the conversion by the goal I setup. This might Be MarketingPlayBook-Lead or ABC .com sale.
Next up you have the value amount. The first option is used if you have a set value. Maybe you are setting up a lead generation form and have a hard value in mind. You can always change the amount and option you selected at a later date.
If you sell multiple products with different values you will want the second option in the list. You will be asked if you want to set a default value. I generally set my average sale amount. This value should never come into play but in-case something goes wrong at least I have something in place.
The last option is to assign no value. I strongly do not recommend you use this option as all conversions should have a predetermined value or goal in mind.
Next up is how you want to count the conversions. Generally I recommend you count every conversion. If 1 person purchases 3 things this would mean 3 conversions. Depending upon what you have going on this might not be right for you. With many eCommerce stores counting every conversion is the way to go.
The default conversion window is set for 30 days. For most this is fine. Others have a much smaller or longer sales cycle. If you are unsure leave it at 30 days. For most this is a good time frame.
The category really does not matter and more for organization then anything else. I would simply select whatever option fits the goal.
If you want to take advantage of conversion optimization inside Adwords I would leave this checked. It’s checked by default. 
After you select done you will be given your conversion tag. this is the tag you place on the thankyou page or order confirmation page after someone completes and order or after someone opts into a lead gen form.
If you have a dynamic sales value because of multiple products on your website then you will need to edit the code and replace the sale amount with the amount for each sale. This is unique to each eCommerce platform out there so you will have to read up on where the code needs to be placed.
Additional Support Links
Shopify Integration – https://docs.shopify.com/themes/customization/order-status/add-conversion-tracking-to-thank-you-page#conditional-integration
Magento Integration – Without extension -http://magento.stackexchange.com/questions/34042/google-adwords-conversion-tracking
with extension – https://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/luka-google-adwords-conversion-tracking.html
Woocommerce – Plugin – https://wordpress.org/plugins/woocommerce-google-adwords-conversion-tracking/
Bigcommerce Integration – https://support.bigcommerce.com/articles/Public/How-do-I-add-Google-Adwords-Conversion-Tracking
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