Do you measure your conversions on Google Ads? If you don’t monitor your performance, you can’t make the necessary changes to improve your Google Ads campaign. From tweaking your ad copy to adjusting bids, there are a number of steps you can take to optimize Google Ads. However, you won’t know what changes to make without data on your existing performance. 

Monitoring your campaign performance is only part of the puzzle, though. It only tells you part of the story. For example, if you have set up your conversion tracking efforts to measure when prospects make a purchase via your website. You will start to learn which ads and keywords are driving the most sales. 

Of course, this is important. It will enable you to refine your campaign because you will be able to increase your bids on the most profitable keywords. You can – and should – amend your ad copy to incorporate the keywords as well.

But, what about those clicks that did not convert?

Conversion tracking is great for helping you to understand successful conversions, but what about the ad clicks that did not convert?

If you are to hone your strategy and boost your results, you need to understand the activity of those visitors who did not purchase from your site. You need to learn what part of the customer journey did not live up to their expectations. 

Ad conversion tracking is not enough on its own because it does not give you these answers, and that’s why you need Google Analytics to optimize Google Ads.

Google Analytics provides you with the full picture

Google Ads conversion tracking will give you “yes” or “no” answers, but it is Google Analytics that goes into more detail, giving you the “why.” 

Analytics gives you the ability to assess behavioral metrics, including:

• Average session duration
• Pages per session
• Bounce rates

Information like this can help you to determine where you are going wrong. For example, if you notice that your bounce rate is high and a lot of users aren’t navigating past the first page, this indicates that the problem lies within your landing page.

Without this information, you would simply be taking a stab in the dark. However, with Google Analytics you can diagnose where you are going wrong so that you can make the right improvements and changes.

Google Analytics will only give you the right answers if you ask the right questions

Google Analytics is great, but it is not a mind-reader. You need to ask the right questions to get the answers you need.

For example, let’s say you run a business that has a nationwide audience, targeting the entire country would get very expensive, very quickly. Therefore, you need to focus on your highest performing locations.

It can be difficult to find this information, especially if you don’t have a lot of conversion data. However, this is where Google Analytics comes in.

You can run a report on: “Where are the highest converting customers located?”

Google Analytics gives you the ability to compile a whole host of reports, yet it is up to you to determine the information you really need to ensure that you can get the answers that you need to understand your business. 

By asking the key questions, you will have the data you need to work with.

You can use Google Analytics to layer different reports on top of one and another so you can get all of the data you need in one format. It may sound complex, but it is a lot easier than it sounds!

All you need to do is generate a custom Sequence Segment to filter data so that you only report on the specific visitors you’re looking for. For example, you may want to get data on customers who abandoned their shopping carts, i.e. added products to their cart but did not complete the purchase. 

After you have got the Segment you need, you can then apply it to the report in question, helping you to get the answers you require.

Drive Google Ads performance with Google Analytics

By creating custom reports, you can use Google Analytics to understand your audience so that you can dissect all of the elements of your customer journey to make the required improvements to drive more conversions. This is the only way to ensure that your Google Ads campaign is optimized to full effect.