Every time a client has handed me over their Google Ads accounts after years of managing it themselves, their ad conversions have been measured incorrectly for years.

The metrics reported dozens of conversions every month but those conversions were not aligned with their business’s goals.

For years, Google’s algorithms optimized ad campaigns for the wrong conversion action.

Accurate conversion data helps these businesses make informed decisions about their marketing strategies.

What is a conversion?

Conversions are any online action that we define as a successful ad result. Therefore, they vary from business to business.

• For a financial planner, a conversion could be defined as someone making an appointment through your website from clicking on an ad.
• For an Ecommerce business, a conversion could be defined as someone making an online purchase.
• For a brick and mortar clothing boutique, a conversion could be defined as someone clicking ‘Get Directions’ from your ads.

Obviously conversions for one business will be more valuable than a conversion for another. More valuable conversions will cost more to receive. 

For a high level view of ad performance, determine the value of a conversion for your business and compare it to the ads cost/conversion.

Machine learning improvements:

Running ads under the setting ‘Optimize for Conversions’ delivers the most long-term ad efficiency. This setting gathers data from your advertisements and shows your ads to audiences who are most likely to convert based on past conversions.

If your ad conversions are set to an action that has no value for your business, your ads will still optimize for this and run low value ads on your behalf.

If your conversions reflect the actions you want your ads to drive, over time your ad results will improve.

Strategic Oversight:

Accurate conversion data is helpful for me managing ad campaigns.

Cost per conversion is perhaps the single piece of data I use most to compare one campaign to the next. It reflects how efficiently your ads are driving the results you want.

Without accurate conversion data, I’m lacking an important piece of data when deciding how to manage your campaigns.