So you want to track conversions in your Google
Ads? Well then you have two methods to choose from. You could either, if you already have Google
analytics installed, import your existing goals or e-commerce conversions into Google
Ads or use the built in Google ads conversion tracking installed onto your website and track
it that way. What are the differences? What are the similarities? Which one is better? All and more coming up. Hey there measuregeeks. Julian here back with another video for you. Today in a bit different camera set up. Let me know if you like it. But it's not the only thing that's new because
today I want to show you a video from our MeasureMasters membership program. Now this is a premium membership for any marketer
who wants to master the art of tracking analytics and data. And we have a little segment within MeasureMasters
where our members can ask questions. And if I don't have a good resource to send
them to or a video, then I produce a video for them. So this is a video from our Ask Measuremaster
section where the question was asked what are the differences between Google ads conversion
tracking and the import of goals via Google analytics. We've got lots to cover, so let's dive in. Hey there, MeasureMasters. Julian here. Back with another MeasureMaster Ask Question. This time it comes from the community. I don't have a direct quote here but I was
asked by several person in the last few weeks whether I could explain the Google analytics
conversion tracking versus the importing of Google analytics goal conversions into the
Google ads settings a little bit more closely and examine this a little bit more. So if you don't know what this is all about,
if you are setting up goal conversions in your Google ads account here under tools and
conversions, you can first of all set up a conversion via the website. And if you fill this all out, you will get,
let's go back here exactly this for example, a purchase conversion. And this will actually give you a tracking
code that you either install through Google tag manager. So you need to install the conversion ID in
the conversion label or a tracking code right here that you need to install on the thank
you page, for example, where the conversion actually happens. And then Google ads will start tracking this. And this is the setup of Google AdWords. You don't have to have Google analytics at
all to set this up and this will then record AdWords conversions or Google ads conversions
in your account. Now you also have the ability to set up or
import conversions from Google analytics. So if you have Google analytics connected
to your Google ads account, you can click here on Google analytics and you can choose,
for example, your eCommerce contractions. Or the goals that you have set up, let's do
this and import and continue them. So then these goals will be imported. So we have two rows here now. We have one time the sources analytics and
the purchase, um, which is the conversion tracking that we have set up through AdWords. And the question is what is the difference
between those, because presumably they have the same data set to work with, right? So we have set up Google analytics in our
conversions. So we have a goal conversion setup and we
have set up in Google tag manager for example, our conversion tracking. So these should be the same, right? Um, sometimes you see discrepancies. Where do these discrepancies come from? So the question really here is, is there any
difference or what is the difference between Google ads conversion tracking that you set
up and the important of Google analytics goal conversions? Well, there is a crucial difference. And first of all, how do we set up this tracking? If we utilize the conversion tracking from
Adwords, we would have a tracking code. We either install this through Google tag
manager or directly on our conversion site, and then this will send data over to Google
Adwords. And on the other side we could set up Google
analytics, our tracking code on all websites. We could declare one of these website views
as a conversion and then pipe this all into Google Adwords. So there's a difference between the actual
sending the data directly into Adwords or piping it through Google analytics. So far, not a big difference here, but in
the system that actually takes up this data, there is a crucial difference and we need
to examine how Google AdWords or Google ads for that matter. Sorry, I always use them interchangeably since
they have changed the name over the last few weeks. Um, how they actually differ from sending
Google analytics data into Google AdWords. So let's take a look. First of all at Google ads conversion tracking. What Google ads conversion tracking sees is
the actual ad click because they have that tracking installed obviously on google.com
for example themselves. And they can see the ad click, the user clicked
on the ad. That is something that the system of Google
ads will register. And then you have the conversion tracking
the code installed on your thank you page. And this will also be registered through Google
ads because every time somebody goes to the page or the code is executed, it will send
data over to Google ads. Now this system is set up that every time
somebody goes to the conversion page, every time a conversion is actually triggered, it
will send data over to Google Ads. Now these two crucial data points need to
be in place in order for it to register within Google Ads because the questions that are
actually asked at first of all, was there an ad click and then did this ad click lead
to a conversion. So these are the two crucial data points that
Google ads will actually look at. If you have the Google ads conversion tracking
code set up and say, okay, I'm going to count this as a conversion. Now sometimes I get to ask the question, well,
is that right that the Google ads conversion tracking code needs to fire every time a conversion
happens? And that's correct. You need to fire the conversion code every
time a conversion happens, even if the user didn't have a prior ad click. That's not something you decide. But the ad, um, platform or in this case Google
ads itself will just take up the signal of your conversion tracking code and see if there
was a prior ad click attached to it. So send all the conversion tracking information
that you have available. So every time a user converts over to Google
ad words on their server side, on the side of Google ads itself, they will decide, okay,
was there prior ad click? And if so, we will count this as a conversion. So these two crucial tracking points need
to be in place for Google ads conversion tracking to work and actually the ad click. That's not something that you control. Google ads does that automatically, but you
need to install that conversion tracking code on your thank you page, um, or on your conversion
action that you want to track. So send the data over and then you Google
ads. Conversion tracking code will work. Now post to that, Google analytics works a
little bit different. Google analytics doesn't really see if there
was a prior ad click or not. It just registers where did you use a come
from. It can see that that the user came from Edwards. But you have also the Google analytics code
installed on all pages obviously on your website. Also on the thank you page and if the user
visits the thank you page inside of Google analytics, you can declare or tag or configure
your installation. So it actually tells or classifies the user
who has visited that thank you page as a conversion. So that is where you would say, I want to
classify this page, you or this event as a goal conversion. You could also in um, e-commerce tracking
into Google analytics, this will also be counted as a conversion obviously. So Google analytics works differently in that
sense that it's only installed on your website, but on the whole website itself. So every time a user comes to a landing page,
it will look at where did they use a come from. And then if you convert, he will say, okay,
the user came from Edwards and now I'm going to send that data over to Edwards. The crucial difference here is the two questions
that I ask, first of all was their conversion. If so, okay, we are gonna evaluate whether
we should send data over to Adwords or not. And the second crucial question that is asked
is, was the last known source Google ads? So did the user come from Google ads and then
convert? If this is not the case, then there will be
no data sent to Google ads. Um, so there's also a crucial part that we
need to examine further. What if the source was not the last as Google
ads, will Google analytics actually send data? So let's examine that in a little example
here. Let's say a user visits the website three
times and he comes from three different sources. The first time, for example, it comes from
Google ads because he saw an ad for a dishwasher that was cheap. So he clicks on a Google ad result. He comes to your website. He says, okay, I really like this product
but I'm not going to buy right now because I need to talk to my wife for example first. Then he forgets all about it, but he's retargeted
by your genius re-targeting methods on Facebook. And he sees the ad again and says, Oh, I want
to come back to buy this dishwasher. He comes back to your website, but, uh, he's
not ready to buy just quite yet. He talks to his wife first at home maybe,
and then he says, okay, we are going to buy this product. So he Googles for your shop and uh, your product. And he finds that dishwasher on google.com
in the organic search results. So he doesn't click on a Google ads but actually
clicks on a Google ads Organic result, comes to your website and converts. So he has converted on the third visit. And what ah, how does that now translate to
the AdWords conversion tracking or um, yeah, the conversion tracking if you import it to
Google analytics. So Google ads conversion tracking would actually
say, okay, the two crucial questions that I asked myself is, was there prior ad click? Yes. And did you use a convert? Yes, he converted. And therefore Google ads would simply say,
okay, the user has now converted through my ad and I'm gonna put this into the interface
of Google ads and counters as a conversion. Now, crucially difference is here when you
look at Google analytics and the import of Google analytics code because Google analytics
sees all the sources that you user came from. So he sees that Google analytics, uh, uh,
Google ads was one source. Google, Facebook ads was one source and then
Google organic was one source. This is going to ask himself was there a conversion? Yes, there was a conversion was the last known
source Google ads. No, it wasn't. And therefore it will not send data over to
Google ads and will not import this conversion into Google ads. So we need to look at this attribution rule
in detail. The last non direct source, what does that
actually mean? Well, if we look into a Google analytics account
right here and we go into our acquisition, all traffic reports, that's a report that
you probably use a lot if you are a digital marketer. You look at all your different sources here
and you may see, okay he will go completions for example, the purchase, um, go right. So you see 15 goal conversions came through
Google organic and there is just one source known here that is actually um, attributed
to this sale. So 15 sales were coming, came through Google
organic. How does it actually know that this was just
one source here? Well, Google analytics actually has a attribution
rule that says the last known, non direct, uh, source will be attributed. So you know that Google analytics generate
sessions. So every view is a session. And then if the last session, uh, came through
the source and it's not a direct, it will then attribute it to Google organic as opposed
to if we look at, for example, the conversion and we have the multichannel funnel that we
can look at and we can look at the top conversion paths. If you look at these top conversion paths,
let's make it a little bit wider here we see different conversion paths, especially those
that are a bit more complex. So the user came to first through organic,
referral, organic, referral, and then direct. Now how would this be attributed in the reports? The standard reports that we see up here,
Google analytics will always say, okay, the last non direct source, so this is the direct
sources. The last one was direct. I'm going to ignore this and I'm going to
go for the referral. So the referral, willl get the attribution
for that last non direct source. In this case it would be referral to, I don't
know if I can find a good example here with um, here would be social network. Um, yeah. So every time you look through any kind of
these reports except the multichannel funnel report, um, obviously it will be attributed
to with this rule in mind. So even if you look here under the goal report
source medium, we see Google organic had 15 and being organic had one. Now if there is no, um, if there is no known
source that is not direct, it will still attributed to direct none, uh, just a second here. So it will be in direct none and a lot of
times, but the crucial difference here when we look at our conversion tracking is obviously
that there is no data that is sent over to Google ads, although we are kind of tracking
the same thing and that sends a conversion. But although Google analytics sees that it
at some point came through Google ads, it will not send that data on to Google ads. So look at this a little bit in more detail
for the attribution, both of them count a conversion, both tools counter conversion,
but um, the sources that are counted for Google ads, it's only sees Google ads prior ad clicks. It will always say, okay, if the user has
clicked and there was somehow a contact with my ad, I will attribute this and this will
be counted in Google ads. But in Google analytics it looks at a more
broader spec perspective and it will only count the last known source. In this case it was organic and therefore
it will not send any data on to Google ads. So you would not see this conversion in Google
ads if you only had the import functionality of Google analytics installed. Again, differences here are the attribution
rule that is deployed. Google ads only attribute sales that had a
prior ad click, so it only sees that prior ad click. Doesn't matter if there were any sources in
between or anything that happened on the website. If the session got terminated or so, uh, it
doesn't care about any of that. It only cares about the prior ad click and
then the conversion. And Google analytics as opposed to that is
the only attribution to that rule of last known source, last known direct source. Some people also call it last click or last
cookie. Um, some people say that it's a bit outdated
and we have attribution modeling nowadays, but I would say that when you set this up
by default, it will still use this last click attribution rule unless you, um, well you
can't really change this around in the Google analytics interface. Now the advantages of Google ads conversion
tracking are definitely that there is more data available. As you have seen in our example something
Google analytics only cares about the prior ad click. Therefore it would potentially, um, gather
more data than using Google analytics and therefore you would have more data available
for optimization. The disadvantage here is that it might duplicate
data. So let's say you had a, let's go back to our
example here. You have a conversion tracking also was set
up for Facebook and in Google analytics you have three tracking system. Let's say you have Google ads, you have Facebook
ads and you have Google analytics. Now all of these systems would count conversions. Google ads would say, okay, I have one conversion
from my prior ad click. Facebook ads would say, Oh, I have also a
conversion countered from my prior ad click. And Google analytics would say, Oh, I have
a conversion counted for Google organic. So if you add us all up, you have three conversions
that were counted, although only one conversions in the backend system that actually happened,
right? So potentially if you would take all these
different tracking systems together, they would all count one conversion and therefore
generate three conversions and duplicating or tripling your conversion count. So this is potentially, if you only would
look at Google ads in that sense, um, doubling the conversions and not attributing the conversions
to one source. So keep that in mind. The third thing, uh, that, uh, the advantage
of Google analytics in that case would be that you have more accurate data because you
don't duplicate data, it's only attributed to one source. So you can also attribute costs to just one
source. So generally when you do marketing optimization,
so you want to attribute, um, one source to one sale and then split up your budget. For example, this is easier done in Google
analytics. Then taking a stab at, um, the different tools
that you have available and saying, Oh, Google analytics counted 50 sales. And in my backend system I have 60 sales. So that's 90%. Um, and it's not 90%, but, uh, it's, it's,
it's a majority of my ads. That's why I give a Google ads my, my budget. That would be a false math obviously. And you should have some kind of, um, attribution,
um, looking at all your sources and Google analytics is a better tool for this. So again, best this in the Google analytics
conversion tracking code is better used for if you do specialize Google ads channel optimization. So if you look at all the different ads and
how they perform, you want to use Google analytics conversion tracking. Ah no Google ads conversion tracking and if
you want to use, uh, if you want to do channel optimization or marketing optimization on
a whole with different channels, then you might want to look at the Google analytics
import feature or Google analytics in particular, um, for that matter because you only get one
source that everything was attributed to. All right, what is my recommendation in the
end? I would always say to install the Google apps
conversion tracking. Why? Well, you get more data for optimization. So you, um, if you are somebody who invests
money into Google ads, you want to be able to have signals that a keyword performed better
or worse. And I would always say that a good signal. So I, um, a conversion at some point feeds
into your system and then you can say, okay, I'm going to turn off this ad campaign because
it's not profitable for me anymore. Or it seems widely profitable for me because
I have a lot of conversions. Obviously you can go into detail if, uh, this
actually, um, is something that that lines up with your Google analytics tracking in
the end as well. With the background of Google ads also introducing
more and more machine learning signals, you might want to feed the system with more signals
in order to do these calculations that are needed for machine learning. So you might be familiar with bid strategies
or attribution modeling that you have in the system. And if you want to, um, let Google ads the
side, which ads should be optimized for, uh, which goals should be optimized for, then
you might want to load the systems with more and more signals in order for it to do its
job correctly and a better job. And yet, and I also am a fan of rather gathering
more data and more conversion data than too little, then you have more positive signals
in the system again, for optimization. Now, if you don't have Google ads conversion
tracking set up yet, um, what would I recommend? Well, there are always like these three cases. First of all, I don't have any tracking set
up. Google AdWords needs data or conversion data
to work with. I would definitely recommend to set up the
Google ads conversion tracking first in order for it to work correctly. If you have Google ads, Google analytics already
set up and connected to your Google ads account, then you and you have Google analytics goals
set up, then I would rather tell you to import the goals first of all. So you get data into the account. It's very crucial to get data into your Google
ads account. And then later, um, once you have time and
it's also resourcing with Google tag manager if you have the skill set and also the people
to set this up. I would then um, argue to set up Google ads
conversion tracking as well. And then the last part is having set up both
of these tracking codes. So if you have both of these tracking codes
set up, this is always a good practice because in Google ads you will actually be able to
set this into the account. So, for example, in, um, Google ads, we can
go in and actually if you have both of them set up, we can use a column here, include
in conversions. So when you optimize your account, let's go
back here into your campaign settings. You always have your data in here and you
have your conversion column. But also you can set up a conversion column
that is called conversions and then all conversions. So if you want to include your one of your
data points into these conversion columns, you can do so by using again going into, um,
one of these and saying, okay, I want to include them into the conversions. And then they will be shown in that one conversion
column and not the all conversion columns. So the crucial difference here between the
conversion column and the all conversion columns is that the all conversion columns shows all
the conversions. So as it says, the name says, but the conversion
column only says the ones that you include in the conversion. So you can always choose to only set up one. And I would actually recommend to only set
up, I would recommend to set up both but only to include one of these conversions in your
conversion column. So you only optimize against one. Otherwise you would be doubling your conversions
obviously. Again, so this actually faulty setting, you
should decide, okay, let's say I decide again, um, this is my analytic setting. This is my website setting. Now I want to only use the Google ads conversion
tracking. So I'm gonna set this to yes and this one
I'm going to set to, no, uh, like this, it will still be counting in my
account in the end, but I will be able to only use the website conversion as my optimization
goal that I optimize against and the sale conversion tracking, um, or the analytics
conversion tracking that I import will not be something I will use. But I will still be able to check against
that and see whether, um, under the all conversion paths I have all the conversions in there. So I would, if you have both installed, uh,
click one of these tracking setup mechanisms on include conversions on yes and leave the
other one turned off. So you will be able to still see the differences
but not use them in your account to optimize against. So just as a summary here, what are the two
differences? One is the tracking mechanisms, how Google
analytics sees the data and how Google Ads sees the data with the just caring about the
last prior ad click. The second part is the attribution of sales. This is a crucial difference as well. And therefore I hope I could show up how these
two tracking mechanisms differ and what you should choose in the end and what the difference
is between Google ads conversion tracking and Google analytics conversion tracking import. All right, so there you have it. These are the crucial differences, similarities
between Google ads conversion tracking and the import of goals from your Google analytics
account. Now as I said at the beginning, this video
came from our premium membership MeasureMasters. If you want to check it out, link is in the
description down below. And that's already it with this week's video. If you liked it, then I'd love to have a thumbs
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is also pretty interesting. Now my name is Julian. Til next time.
