February 21, 2025
Google Ads is the bread and butter of PPC and a large part of Digital marketing as a whole. Hundreds of thousands of brands use it on a daily basis to boost their revenue and presence online. Data is a key part of making sure Google Ads is working as effectively as possible and creating the best ROI. Tracking is key to ensuring this is accurate and gains as much valuable insights for your business as possible. Without tracking, success can be hard to quantify. Ensuring this is set up accurately can go a long way to building lucrative campaigns.
Why Tracking is Essential for Google Ads Success
Measuring campaign effectiveness is the key to optimisation. Knowing what campaigns, ad groups, and ads are performing best is the first step to account optimisation. Understanding what is and isn’t working allows you to A/B test and remove underperforming assets, preventing wasted ad spend.
Data-driven insights ensure the optimisation you are completing is backed up with evidence. You can also then track the effectiveness of your changes, allowing you to continually improve your campaigns. These insights improve targeting and audience segmentation.
Key Metrics You Need to Track in Google Ads
a) Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Measuring how compelling your ads are is a key factor in ensuring that your ads are performing well. Google Ads is designed to put your ads in front of the right audience, at the right time. But if your ad isn’t engaging or relevant to your audience, they won’t click through. Ensuring your keywords are in your ad copy and that you are answering the right questions will put you on the right track. Adding in offers or temptations specific to your audience will also improve your CTR.
b) Conversion Rate
This metric shows how many clicks turn into actual sales or leads. Keeping this in mind when optimising your campaigns is important. Landing page optimisation is a factor to consider here. Ensuring your user can easily navigate around your website and follow the conversion funnel is necessary to improve the conversion rate. Tracking conversions allows you to see which stage of the funnel users reach and whether there are any roadblocks in this process.
c) Cost Per Conversion (CPC & CPA)
CPA is crucial to understanding cost-effectiveness and return on investment (ROI) for your business. Having a goal for your CPA is advisable to give you an aim and a target for your campaigns to work towards. Keeping your keywords refined and having strict negatives will allow you to reduce wasted spend and improve cost efficiency.
d) Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
Measuring revenue generated from ads is fundamental to making sure your ads are working for you. ROAS is calculated by: ad revenue ÷ ad cost × 100. Tracking allows you to see how much revenue you have made from your ads and which keywords and ads these can be attributed to. This can allow you to narrow down your campaigns to what really works and then rebuild to A/B test other options
How to Set Up Tracking for Google Ads
There are various ways to track Google Ads. One option is to enable Google Ads Conversion Tracking. A Google Tag Manager Supportstep by step guide is provided by Google to take you through it. GA4 conversions can also be imported directly into the Google Ads platform, these can allow direct comparisons between mediums within GA4 allowing further insights.
UTM parameters can be used to track conversions back to specific ads, ad groups, and campaigns. This can be really useful within CRMs to ensure as much data as possible is retained for future learnings and campaigns.
Phone call tracking can be a great way to attribute revenue to calls rather than just the call itself. You can then directly import the revenue data into Google Ads.
Common Tracking Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Not setting up conversion tracking correctly can be an easy mistake to make. GTM can be used to preview and test your conversion actions. This will allow you to perform the desired action in test mode and see the tag fire correctly – or not
Tracking the right things is pivotal to ensuring you are adding value to your campaigns and using the right information to inform your optimisation. If your main aim is phone calls, having landing page information is useful, but not key and vice versa.
Attribution has changed on Google Ads to focus more on data attribution. Multiple touch points are key within Google Ads. It is common to see an ad and then come back through a different medium to learn more about your business.
How to Use Tracking Data to Optimise Google Ads Performance
So how does tracking impact Google Ads changes? This can take many different forms, from identifying and pausing underperforming ads to refining keyword targeting based on data. Adjusting ad copy and landing pages for higher conversions with A/B tests can be a time consuming task, but can produce valuable results and inform future campaigns. It allows for continual improvement and ensures your campaigns do not remain stagnant in the market.
Conclusion
Tracking within Google Ads is a key cornerstone of continually improving performance and ensuring a positive and healthy ROAS. Using data to inform decisions ensures that smarter choices are made to boost revenue and leads for your business. Looking to track your website and gain valuable insights into your campaigns? Get in touch with us today to book a free audit.
