There’s an old maxim in marketing, “Test and track.”
Testing different variables and tracking performance are paramount, no matter which industry you’re in or which campaign you’re running. And, since conversions directly relate to your success, they are one of the most important key performance indicators (KPIs) to track within your business.
WordPress conversion tracking is its own process and may differ slightly from other platforms. Regardless, it’s important to your business that you track conversions correctly and accurately.
Since the process is so vital to your business, we will take an in-depth look at how to properly run conversion tracking in WordPress. Every single lead and sale in your business is too important not to.
How to set up conversion tracking
Each major platform has its own unique process for setting up conversion tracking. The procedure for setting up Google Ads conversion tracking in WordPress significantly differs from the steps to configure Facebook or Twitter conversion tracking.
You can easily connect Google Tag Manager and WordPress via WordPress plugin. As for the other channels, those steps are a little different.
Different platforms you can track through your WordPress site
WordPress’s conversion tracking covers the following platforms:
- Google Ads
- Google Analytics
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Conversion goal examples
Successfully tracking your conversions starts with connecting Google Analytics and WordPress. You’ll need to install GA4 on your site before you can start.
Once you set up Google Analytics and link your site, you’ll need to take the following steps:
- Navigate to the Admin menu in Google Analytics.
- Next, select Goals.
- Click new Goal.
- Select the webpage you’d like to track. This may be an order page, a contact form, etc.
- Name your goal. All goals will show on the Goals page within GA4, so be sure to name each goal something specific and recognizable.
- Prior to this step, you’ll need to create a “Thank You” page for whichever form you plan on tracking. This is the form users will see after they enter their information and click Submit. You’ll select this page as the unique identifier of a successful conversion on your website. You can even assign each conversion a monetary value. So, for example, if each successful conversion is worth $100 to you, you can track that in GA4.
- **Note: Be sure to mark your “Thank You” page as no-index in your SEO plugin. You only want people landing on this page if they’re a true conversion, so it should be hidden from Google.
This is where the power of adding Google Analytics to WordPress comes in handy.
Once the goal is set, you can monitor its progress within Google Analytics. Navigate to the Conversions menu, then click Goals, then select Overview.
From here, you’ll be able to see the name of the goal and how many times it’s been successfully completed (i.e., how many conversions have come from it).
Steps to setting up conversion tracking in WordPress
Now that your Google Goals are set, you’re ready to install your conversion tracking in WordPress. Since we’re already talking about Google, let’s tackle Google Ads first.
To set up Google Ads conversion tracking, all you need to do is link your Goals to Google Analytics. In Google Analytics, navigate to Admin, then click Google Ads, then click Linking. Once there, select your Google Ads account and turn on the link for your website’s default view.
All that’s left to do now is import your chosen goal into Google Analytics. In Google Ads, select Tools, then click Google Analytics. You should see your list of goals on this screen. Select the goal you want to track for this particular campaign and click Import.
That’s it. Now, conversions will show up for anyone who takes the action you’re tracking for this campaign.
With Google out of the way, let’s move on to the other platforms WordPress conversion tracking covers.
As we mentioned earlier, the other major platforms – Twitter and Facebook – each have their own specific steps for how to add a conversion tracking tag to WordPress. But there are some steps involved in both platforms that it pays to know. They are:
- Creating a pixel for each respective platform
- Setting up your pixel in WordPress
There are subtle differences in the individual steps for Twitter and Facebook, but the processes are largely the same. Follow the step-by-step instructions we’ve made available, and your conversion pixels should be up and running without a hitch.
WordPress conversion tracking best practices
Setting up your pixels across platforms is only the beginning of the process. Once your pixel setup is complete, you’ll need to ensure your tracking stays neat and organized to pinpoint which leads came from which source.
As time goes on, you’ll see trends begin to emerge. Certain campaigns will win you more conversions than others. This is the “tracking” part of the “test and track” maxim we mentioned at the start of this guide. With this information, you’ll be able to quickly cut losing campaigns before they cost too much money, recalibrate average campaigns, and test new variables in messaging, creative, or medium with your winning campaigns.
To make your tracking pixels as effective as possible, consider these conversion tracking best practices:
- Use tracking URLs – When a user clicks on this URL, you will receive a compiled report of detailed data on how they interact with your site.
- Measure sales – It’s important to realize that a conversion doesn’t mean a sale in all cases. But Nexcess customers are in the business of ecommerce, where tracking sales is king. The good news is that most WordPress ecommerce plugins, like WooCommerce, allow you to measure and track your sales performance easily.
- Leverage third-party analytics tools – Conversion tracking WordPress plugins allow you to customize your KPI tracking to fit your business’s needs. You can customize goals and execute detailed targeting and tracking thanks to tracking URLs. While sales are the most important metric in ecommerce, they’re not the only metric. Analytics tools allow you to track other key numbers like time spent on site, bounce rate, cart abandonment ratios, and more without even worrying about what a tracking pixel is.
Top 4 tools for WordPress conversion tracking
If you’re wondering where to get started with analytics tools, here are four you should consider implementing on your site:
Advanced WordPress conversion tracking techniques
Your pixels are set up properly. So, what now? You may think we’re done, but advanced strategies can get you even more ROI from your conversion tracking efforts.
A/B testing
A/B testing is how marketers manipulate and test different variables in their campaigns. Let’s say you’re marketing a particular product. In each advertisement, you have your marketing creative, copy, messaging, calls-to-action, etc., that you can manipulate to see what performs the best.
The trick to effective A/B testing is only manipulating one variable at a time. For instance, if you’re A/B testing marketing creative, you should keep your copy, messaging, and any call-to-actions all the same.
Over time, you’ll see which elements perform the best, and you can combine them all to create your best-performing ad yet.
Personalization and segmentation strategies
Every time a person interacts with your site or a conversion is successful, your list of potential customers grows. Over time, however, you’ll end up with a large list of customers, all at various stages of their customer journey. Some may have interacted with your brand but haven’t bought yet, others may have made their first purchase, and others may have been repeat customers for years.
Since all of these customers are at different points of the overall customer journey, the same language won’t land with each of them. They need to be treated in their own unique way.
List segmentation and personalization allow you to do exactly that. You can segment your customers by unique identifiers and send them the marketing or message most likely to resonate with them.
Personalization within the ecommerce ecosystem can actually be twofold. You can personalize email communication to include unique data about a customer when you contact them – making them more likely to open and act on the emails you send. But personalization can also expand to a customer’s entire ecommerce experience.
Contemporary ecommerce tools and plugins allow you to custom-tailor a user’s shopping experience based on their browsing behavior. Brands and products they love can be displayed to them front and center as soon as they visit your platform. The result is an even higher number of conversions and increased revenue.
Advanced analytics
Once you become adept at tracking and using your baseline KPIs, you can then move on to track advanced metrics to improve the ROI on your campaigns. Things like advertising impressions, reach, number of items added to cart, bounce rate, and more can all be used to paint an even clearer picture of customer behavior. You can even track video or photo views, as well as get a sense of your brand sentiment among your target audience.
WordPress hosting from Nexcess
To power effective WordPress conversion tracking on both the basic and advanced levels, you need a strong hosting provider you can rely on. Not only does Nexcess offer enterprise WordPress hosting, but we’re also your go-to WordPress implementation experts.
If you want to get serious about tracking your conversions in WordPress, contact us today. We’re always here to help, and we’re here to do whatever’s necessary to take your business to the next level.
