Inny Vaiciute, PPC Manager at Circus PPC Agency, talks about the importance of PPC tracking and how it can positively affect the performance of your ad campaigns.
What is PPC Tracking?
If you’re reading this blog as someone already experienced in PPC, you likely know what PPC tracking is, as well as how important it is when it comes to campaign performance and reporting.
However, for those who don’t know, or just want a refresher, let’s recap.
PPC tracking is essentially, a way to monitor how your PPC ads are performing. So, when running ads on platforms like Google or Bing and you only pay when someone clicks on them, PPC tracking helps you see which ads are getting the most clicks, how much you’re spending, and if you’re actually getting conversions from those clicks. It’s like having a report card for your ad campaigns, designed for you to figure out what’s working and what’s not, and make adjustments to drive better results.
Like PPC in general – there’s really no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to tracking. Different businesses have different metrics and KPIs they want to measure, along with different types of conversions that indicate success. For example, an ecommerce company wanting to drive sales might focus on a purchase as their most important conversion type, with revenue or ROI as their KPI. On the other hand, a nightclub wanting to raise brand awareness might focus on a form submission for more information as their conversion type of choice, with CTR (click-through rate) as their KPI.
Effective PPC tracking will deliver the right data around the metrics that you want to see, and will help you to identify both high-performing and under-performing activity, so that you can make necessary changes to drive your PPC activity in the right direction.
Why is PPC Tracking So Important?
Tracking is potentially the most important aspect of your PPC.
Crucially – correct tracking.
Incorrect PPC tracking could be even worse than no tracking at all, as this means that the algorithm is using the wrong data to improve and optimise ads. In turn, budget is then funnelled towards the wrong areas and being wasted.
Some of the areas that effective tracking can benefit are:
- Account optimisation: understanding what’s working well and what’s not means that you can optimise your ads with this information in mind. The best, and often only, way to accurately do this is through tracking that works and captures the data you need to best optimise your campaigns. Poor or no tracking means you’re optimising blindly, without that all-important, data-backed strategy.
- Performance measurement: whether you’re managing the PPC for your own brand, or someone else’s brand, being able to report on what’s working and what’s not is extremely important. Reporting on the account highlights ROI and how efficiently budget is working, which can then lead to budget justification and if the results look positive, additional investment.
- Budget efficiency: with effective tracking in place, we can identify both high-performing and underperforming activity. As a result, we can optimise ad campaigns in the most effective way, channelling budget into what’s already working, and eliminating the activity that isn’t working for the account. This way, we can drive a better ROI, and ensure that budget is being pushed towards what’s definitely working, rather than what could be working.
- Machine learning: the more effective the tracking, the better the accuracy of the data stream being fed into the algorithm. This helps the algorithm to discover and learn the activity that drives desired conversions, and target the right audiences that are more likely to contain high-intent users. Faulty tracking, or no tracking at all, confuses this process, and can lead the algorithm to learn from misinformation – leading to budget potentially being pushed into the wrong areas.
Ultimately, without effective, working tracking in place, important insights and data around your PPC performance are restricted, which means that you’re missing out on key information that could help you to recognise what’s going well, and where changes need to be made.
Your A-Z Guide To Effective Tracking
We’ve only just touched the surface, but our A-Z guide to effective tracking will provide you with all of the insights and information you need to make sure that your tracking is in the best shape to help drive results from your PPC ad campaigns.
And yes, we’ve even included X and Z – register to get your copy when it goes live here.
Privacy in a Data-Centric Online World
Over the past few years, there has been a number of privacy and data usage-related concerns, with global scandals such as Cambridge Analytica making matters even worse. People began to pose questions around how their data was being used, especially when it comes to intimate data such as email addresses, phone numbers, and bank details. How is this information being stored? How is it protected? Ultimately, people began to look into how they can best protect themselves online.
According to Google, 81% of consumers state they their concerns around how various businesses use their data have increased over the past year, with 59% of consumers stating that they aren’t confident about the protection of their data when they shop online, and 48% of people around the world stopped buying from specific businesses due to privacy-related concerns.
So, what does this mean?
These concerns mean that there’s an increasing amount of people refusing cookies, which unfortunately for businesses that operate online, this stops analytics from tracking user behaviour and conversion data. This doesn’t just negatively affect businesses’ ability to optimise their website, carry out marketing activity, and improve online performance, but a lack of online data can also stagnate business growth and the ability to maintain competitiveness in their respective markets.
Due to marketing using cookies to capture performance data, when people refuse website cookies, marketing channels see less performance data, thus reporting less conversions, lower ROI, and higher CPA. In addition, marketing uses this data to inform smart targeting algorithms to better target the audiences that drive conversions. Today’s smart targeting algorithms for marketers are extremely advanced, using a number of triggers to decide the ads that show up for individual people.
Some of the information that can influence these triggers includes online activity, demographics, interests, and even work industry information – all of which Google can capture from each user, which helps to provide better targeted ads, and achieve better ROI. However, when people start refusing cookies, this makes it impossible for the algorithm to understand audiences, leading to ‘blind targeting.’
Earlier this year, in order to best address the privacy concerns of consumers, Google announced a change in their cookies policy, which now states that online websites will no longer be able to use 3rd party cookies from 2023, meaning that businesses will be obliged to:
- Collect and store their own cookies, removing 3rd party organisations;
- Protect the data of customers to prevent information misuse and data leaks.
Despite these changes, this doesn’t address the issue of people continuing to refuse cookies.
Due to the importance and influence that data has on online marketing, Google is currently working on solutions to maintain tracking and conversion visibility, despite the concerns around cookies, two of which are enhanced conversions and consent mode. But what exactly are they?
Enhanced Conversions
Enhanced Conversions offer a different data storage solution, and allows Google to store data about users signed into their Google account, regardless of how they choose to approach cookies. For example, if someone converts online, but has refused cookies upon entering the website, Google will capture the information and store it. This way, marketers – despite not being able to access any personal data – will still be able to see transactions on Google Ads and Analytics.
According to Google, the implementation of Enhanced Conversions could lead to a 5% increase in tracked conversions from search traffic, and a 17% increase in conversions from YouTube or Action campaigns.
Consent Mode
Consent Mode is a feature that allows data modelling when people refuse cookies, meaning that if people convert after agreeing to cookies on a website, conversions are recorded as normal. However, if they refuse cookies, data is modelled on previous user behaviour, and is able to recreate up to 70% of tracking, despite cookie refusal.
So, what now?
Ultimately, privacy policies are changing, and will affect everyone shopping or selling online. Therefore, if companies conducting business online want to maintain data visibility and the ability to inform smart targeting algorithms about the audiences that should be targeted, they need to quickly adapt to and understand said changes.
At the moment, all we know is that to do so, businesses must ensure their website removes 3rd party cookies by 2023, and begin to consider the addition of new Google features to their marketing strategy in Q3 and Q4 2022.
This blog was written pre-GML2022, visit our specific GML2022 blog for more information regarding the updates announced at Google Marketing Live, where we go into even more detail and explore the changes being made.
Meet The Team – Inny
Time to introduce another member of our fantastic PPC team… meet Inny, one of our wonderful PPC executives!
Name: Inny
Date Started at Circus: March 2021
What first made you want to pursue a career in PPC?
Before I started working at Circus, I saw PPC as the most dynamic marketing field with the quickest showing results. I thought that unlike other marketing fields, PPC can show whether you’re doing well or not in a short space of time.
However, after gaining more experience in this field, I started understanding how complex it is. Now, I know that my previous view was not entirely right and that sometimes the best result comes after months of hard work. If you continue working on your campaigns, the longer you do so, the better results you see. Hence, what didn’t work in the first months after launch, might bring golden results after a longer time.
What’s your favourite thing about working at Circus?
I love the amount of trust and control we have over the accounts we work on. Each client becomes a personal project and you know you are responsible for the wins as well as the mistakes. It’s exciting. Plus, you work in a team of wonderful people who are knowledgeable and kind, who help and advise you whenever you feel unsure about something.
Who is your dream client?
I am a bit of an aviation freak so I would love to work with airlines or better still – planes manufacturers. However, the latter ones do not usually use PPC in their business strategy so unless I come up with a fundamentally new business model for them, it is unlikely they will ask for PPC work! If I had to choose a dream airline to work with, I would go with Qatar Airways or Emirates – potentially huge budgets and lots to do!
If you could solve one PPC issue forever, what would it be?
I would make all attribution models the same so we could see tracking numbers that match across all platforms (and if I am allowed to dream to the fullest, I would also ask this tracking to be correct at all times).
What’s your dream holiday destination?
The Maldives
What would be your desert island meal?
Lamb shank and cous cous.
Tell us something about you that might surprise people.
I love aviation and anything to do with planes. I once piloted a plane myself.
If you could guest star on a TV show, which one would it be and why?
I love James Corden so I would definitely love to star in his show! I find him always funny and the videos from his show always cheer me up.
Home or Office?
Home
Morning or Evening?
Evening
Dog or Cat?
Dog
Countryside or City?
Countryside
Spender or Saver?
Spender
Tea or Coffee?
Both – don’t make me choose!
Summer or Winter?
Summer