Tracking Conversions in AdWords

It's not always easy to track conversions in a PPC ad campaigns such as Google AdWords. One reason for this is that AdWords - unlike some other analytics applications - doesn't display visitor IP address. (There is a way to get this data in AdWords, but to do so requires a configuration which violates the AdWords TOS). Nevertheless, even without IP address tracking, it is still possible to track a conversion.

* Using Google AdWords and Analytics Together
The first step is to use AdWords reporting in conjunction with Analytics reporting. Of course, to do so requires that you have Analytics scripts properly inserted on your Web pages. Using a combination of AdWords and Analytics together helps you gather more information about your website's visitors.

Analytics allows you to see which cities visitors come from. It also tells you which keywords they typed in that led them to your site. Sometimes you can track a conversion by matching up the visitor location and keyword in Analytics to the same keyword in AdWords.

*Tracking Built into Conversion Objects
Some software used to create engagement objects automatically collects tracking information about your visitors. For example, we like to use http://emailmeform.com to generate Web forms. We have used EmailMeForm to create contact forms and other engagement forms, like our free press release form (http://gnosisarts.com/pr). The nice thing about the service is that it records the IP address of the visitor filling out the form, making conversion tracking easier.

*Other Analytics Software
Some analytics programs do record the visitor IP address. One example is StatCounter. Thus, if your Web form tells you the IP address of the person filling it out, then you can locate that same IP address inside StatCounter. This way, you know exactly how a particular visitor found your Web site: which keyword they entered, which ad they were shown; which geographic location they are in; etc.