Optimizing for Conversions within Google AdWords

Tony Fazzini - April 2, 2013

One of the most common mistakes when running online advertising campaigns is how to effectively measure success.  What areas should be focused on; impressions, click through rate, or number of clicks?  Typically, the most effective way to measure a campaign’s success is through conversions.

Within AdWords (and most other cost per click platforms), you are able to set up certain page view as goals.  These goals can then become measurable as what to strive for within the campaign.  For e-commerce companies, typically you would want the order confirmation page as your primary goal.  For service based businesses, you would want your “Thank-you” confirmation page for forms or other types of lead generation queries as your goals.

It’s an important practice to make sure every goal type has its own unique code (pixel) attributed to it.  This way, you can see which goals searchers are completing (whitepaper vs contact form submission).  These can be set up within the AdWords interface with the destination URL that you would like the searcher to reach at the end of the search cycle.

Once set up, you can begin running campaigns and evaluating the results of the campaigns.  Using the goals will allow you to see the conversion rate of each campaign as well as the cost per conversion.  With this data, you can make more intelligent decisions on which keywords and campaigns are more successful and profitable for your business.