Uncategorized
arnold on Oct 29, 2018
***Update 4/16/2024***
Utilizing Google Analytics to track conversions is a pivotal aspect of digital marketing. A conversion occurs when a website visitor completes a predefined action, providing a crucial data point that signifies a successful interaction.
Conversions vary widely across different types of websites. For a blog, a conversion might be defined as a subscription sign-up, whereas for a law firm, it might be a potential client calling to inquire about services.
If you operate a website and have not implemented conversion tracking, you face a significant limitation in understanding your marketing efforts. Without this critical setup, even if your website generates numerous sales or receives a substantial volume of leads via the contact form, you will lack the ability to discern which specific marketing activities contributed to these conversions.
This gap in data can lead to inefficient allocation of marketing resources, as it obscures which channels, campaigns, or strategies are effectively driving results. For instance, without conversion tracking, you would not know whether a recent uptick in sales was due to a new advertising campaign, an organic social media post, or changes in search engine optimization strategies. Essentially, conversion tracking provides the linkage between marketing actions and outcomes, enabling businesses to optimize their marketing investments and strategically refine their tactics based on performance-driven insights.
Consider an e-commerce platform, where a typical conversion involves a purchase. This conversion is tracked by embedding a specific code on the ‘thank you’ page, which is displayed only after a transaction is completed successfully. If a website visitor follows a link from a Facebook post to your website and completes a purchase, the embedded conversion code is triggered. This allows analysts to attribute the sale directly to the social media activity, offering insights into the effectiveness of the campaign.
Setting Up Conversions In Google Analytics 4
In Google Analytics 4, conversions are configured as events, allowing for customization of what constitutes a conversion based on specific interactions with the website.
In GA4, an event is a distinct user interaction or system occurrence on your website or app that you want to track and measure. Here are some examples of events:
Page view: The act of a user loading a page on your website. This is the initial baseline action – their browser has opened the webpage.
Clicking a button: A user clicking or tapping an interactive element on your website (like a link, form submit button, or call-to-action). This shows interest and engagement beyond just loading the page.
Scrolling down a page: A user scrolling their screen down a webpage. This indicates that the user is actively looking at the content, not just passively having the page open.
Purchasing a product: A user completing a transaction and purchasing an item or service on your website. This is a key conversion goal for many websites.
App crash: An unexpected error or failure of an app, causing it to stop functioning correctly. This is typically a negative event that disrupts the user’s experience.
If an event represents a particularly valuable customer action, you can mark it as a conversion. In GA4, marking an event as a conversion tells the platform that this specific event signifies a significant user action that contributes to your overall business goals. We’ll set up conversions in a bit, but first, let’s set up a couple of simple events to track.
How To Set Up An Event In Google Analytics 4:
For our first example we will set up a simple event in GA4 where we will track if someone visits the contact page of our website. Once the event is set up we will then configure it as a conversion.
***To start we need to locate the contact page of our website. For this website my contact page is located at: https://thedigitalmarketingprofessor.com/contact
If you do not have a contact page you need to make one. (Pages-> Add New). ***
Next will set up an event that tracks if a person visits the contact page.
Navigate to Admin: In your GA4 dashboard, click the gear icon in the bottom left corner to access “Admin”.
Locate Events: Under the “Property” column, click “Events”.
Create New Event: Click the “Create event” button followed by the “Create” button again.
Name Your Event: Give your event a descriptive name (e.g., “contact_page_visit”).
Matching Conditions:
Select “Page_location” from the dropdown of parameter.
Set the condition to “contains”
For the value enter your url of your contact page.
What we are doing here is just letting GA4 know that our contact_page_visit event should be recorded if some visits the page_location of the contact form.
The event is now created. Next we need to mark the event as a conversion. GA4 recently started calling conversions “key events” so you may see one or the other. Go back to the main dashboard and make sure you are still in the admin section.
Click on “Conversions” or “Key Events” under the “Configure” section in the left sidebar.
Click on “New conversion”.
Enter the event name you defined (e.g., contact_page_visit) and save it.
Your Event and Conversion are now set up. To check that it worked navigate back to your reports and check your real time traffic. Then turn off the wifi on your phone and navigate to the contact page of your website where you set up a conversion. You may need to wait 30 to 60 seconds but you should see your configured event and conversion as shown in this screenshot below:
