What if there were no way to track your conversions?
Would you know what is working – or not working – on your website or landing page?
Would you know if your chosen search terms are sending you visitors?
Would you know if your ads are sending you customers?
Would you know if you are making money off of your site or landing page, or losing money?
Leaving money on the table
OK, do I have your attention? Here is the bottom line. Many people put up a website and pray that people will find it, love the content found there, and click on the “buy” button. Over and over.
But if you are not actively determining where those visitors come from, how long they stay on your page, what they are clicking on, when they leave, and how many of them turn into customers, then you are leaving money on the table. Period.
What is a “conversion”?
Basically, the definition of “conversion” is to change something into a different form or properties; to turn to another use or purpose.
For marketing, a conversion is a customer action that has value for your business.
You may automatically think that a conversion has to be a purchase. Yes, purchases count as conversions, but so does downloading an app, signing up for a newsletter, filling out a form, or even just visiting the website – from an ad or landing page – in the first place.
When a visitor to your site takes an action that you care about, like the examples just stated, you have a conversion of some sort.
Conversion goals
Identify which conversions are most meaningful to you and to your goals. Work backwards from purchases to content, then from content to homepage, from homepage to landing page, from landing page to advertisement.
Once you know how many orders you need, you can figure out how many conversions you need, all the way back, starting with the advertisement.
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Measuring conversions
There are a number of reasons that you really MUST measure your conversions. Here are several to consider:
- Connect your ads and keywords to your business goals. This helps you identify if your marketing is meeting your goals, based on the actions of your prospects and customers.
- Identify which ads and keywords actually cause actions. Avoid the ones that aren’t working.
- Save money by focusing only on what is working.
- Identify how prospects interact based on the device they are using, and the platform you are using (eg, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.)
- Identify which message – or part of your message – seems to be resonating with your audience
Clarity
If you don’t measure your conversions, you have no clarity on what is working, and you don’t know where your “holes” are. You are wasting time and money.
You should always be looking for why your prospects aren’t buying. It could be the ad, it could be the copy on the sales page, it could be the copy on the order form…
You can’t fix what you don’t know is broken!
What you need to measure conversions
These are the types of things you need to know in order to track conversions (there are other possibilities; this is a good start):
- Your goal for your page or site. These goals can be such things as: orders placed; visits to a page; shares; CPC (cost per click); shares; website subscriptions, etc. Ask yourself: What is meaningful to my business?
- A specific URL for a page where you ask prospects to take action.
- The platform source of the metric (eg, a Facebook ad; a blogpost; an article on LinkedIn).
- What type of campaign you are measuring, eg, CPC.
- The term and content you are tracking for conversion.
Go with the winner!
If you can only improve your conversion just SLIGHTLy at each step of your sales funnel, it can mean a massive difference to your overall bottom line!
So spend time each week analyzing and optimizing the different pieces of your funnel. Test and tweak little things first, and big things later, to determine what works best! Go with the winner in each iteration, constantly improving your conversion rates.
It’s your turn! What have you been tracking on your site? Which metrics are most meaningful to you in your business?
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