In advertising, optimizing your campaigns and tracking conversions correctly is key to staying ahead of the game.
Recently Becky, John, and Chris from StubGroup sat down to talk about Google Ads enhanced conversions. We’ll explain what enhanced conversions are, why they matter, and how you can use them for better campaign results and conversion measurement.
What are Enhanced Conversions?
Enhanced conversions, Google Ads Enhanced Conversions, is a fancy tool in Google Ads that gives you more data from actions on your website back to Google.
Enhanced conversions for leads track offline conversions originating from online leads. Chris sums it up as “giving Google more data from actions on your website”.
This data is key to refining automated bidding by giving the algorithm more information about user behavior before a conversion event like a purchase or lead submission.
Problems with Traditional Conversion Tracking
Traditional conversion tracking relies on cookies and existing conversion tags. John mentions “With regular conversion tracking it’s reliant on cookies. And so there’s a lot of things that prevent those cookies from firing like ad blockers or, you know, Safari incognito, things like that”.
Without enhanced conversion tracking you might not capture all conversions, and end up with incomplete data and less optimal campaigns.
Add to that the phasing out of third-party cookies and you have the perfect storm to capsize your ad boat.
How Enhanced Conversions Work
Enhanced conversions take tracking a step further by using additional identifiers like email addresses or phone numbers which are part of your first-party customer data and user-provided data.
When a user converts these identifiers are hashed and sent back to Google and Google can match the conversion to the user’s profile even if the cookie doesn’t fire.
The hashed data is used to match with Google accounts and attribute campaign conversions while ensuring user privacy. You’re telling Google, ‘Hey we got a conversion from this email address, this phone number’ and Google can see, you know what? Someone you know, with this email address in their Google profile, clicked on your ad.
This fills the gap and gives you more accurate conversion reporting.
Reporting and Bidding Strategies
Enhanced conversions for web can give you more accurate conversion data, Chris has seen 5-10% more conversions in his campaigns. This increased data accuracy is perfect for automated bidding strategies like maximizing conversion value or targeting a specific return on ad spend (ROAS).
It’s the automated strategies like maximizing for conversion value and if you want to target your return on ad spend, those kinds of automated bidding strategies are the ones that will benefit the most from these enhanced conversions.
Getting Set Up
While enhanced conversions are great, setting them up and enabling enhanced conversions can be tricky, especially for new advertisers.
Conversion tracking tags play a crucial role in capturing first-party customer data such as email addresses, names, home addresses, or phone numbers, which are then hashed and sent to Google to match customers to Google accounts, enhancing conversion measurement.
For the average advertiser or someone just starting out with ads, it’s not that easy. Platforms like Shopify have some integration tools but setting up enhanced conversions on other platforms like Meta or TikTok requires inserting advanced scripts into the website’s backend, including modifying the conversion tracking tag which requires some technical know-how.
Accessing your Google Ads account is essential for creating new conversion actions and turning on enhanced conversions.
Using a Google Tag Manager account can make this process easier by allowing you to manage and implement tags more easily. Additionally, the Google Ads API offers more flexibility and control over the data, and it can be used as one of the methods for setting up enhanced conversions along with Google Tag Manager and the Google tag.
This is where professional help can be super valuable to get it set up correctly to get the most out of the data and campaign performance.
Diagnostic Tools and Conclusion
Google has recently rolled out diagnostic tools within Google Ads accounts to help you check if enhanced conversion tracking is working. These tools will give you more confidence and clarity on your tracking setup.
In summary, enhanced conversions are a great addition to the Google Ads arsenal, with more conversion tracking and optimization.
While the setup is tricky, the benefits of more accurate data and better-performing automated bidding strategies make it worth it.
If you need help, reach out to experts like us at StubGroup and we’ll get you set up with enhanced conversions and achieve your advertising goals.