One of the most important challenges marketers face when it comes to lead generation is understanding which marketing channels are most effective and provide the biggest ROI (return on investment). Tracking your lead sources can help you determine which marketing channels are worth the investment and which need to be optimized.
There are several conversion tracking programs available, but one of the most reliable heavy-hitters is Google Analytics — which can track leads, form conversions, and determine which marketing campaigns are performing well and which campaigns need to be further optimized. Read on to learn more about Google Analytics conversion tracking and how to track leads in Google Analytics.
How to Track Lead Sources
Data analytics is one of the most valuable tools in your digital marketing arsenal. If you’re not using data to inform your marketing decisions, you won’t know if those decisions are the best for your business. By tracking lead sources, including landing pages, traffic sources, and funnel steps, you can identify ways to increase your webleads. The best way to track lead sources is with the following Google Analytics conversion tracking tools:
- Conversion Goals
- Google Tag Manager
Google Analytics Conversion Tracking: How to Track Leads in Google Analytics
Conversion Goals. Before you can begin to analyze anything, you’ll need to have some lead data to work with — which is where setting up conversion goals comes in. It’s imperative that you create these goals as part of your Google Analytics conversion tracking strategy, or there won’t be any data to analyze. You can create your goals in Google Analytics by clicking Goals in the Views areas; Google provides very thorough instructions for setting up goals.
Keep in mind that you’ll also need to create a coordinating funnel for each goal you set up. Doing so will allow you to identify the landing pages that have the greatest potential for conversion rate optimization.
Google Tag Manager. Google Tags can be used:
- Cross-domain linking with Universal Analytics. Universal Analytics, according to Google, “introduces a set of features that change the way data is collected and organized in your Analytics account, so you can get a better understanding of how users interact with your online content.” Universal Analytics has custom dimensions and custom metrics that allow users to “collect data that Analytics doesn’t automatically track.”
- Enhanced Ecommerce. With the appropriate tag, Enhanced Ecommerce reports can “analyze your users’ shopping and purchasing behavior, the success of your internal and external marketing efforts, and the economic performance of your products.”
- Google Ad conversions. To set up conversion tracking on your website for the first time, you’ll need to add two snippets of code to your website: the global site tag and the event snippet.
- Global site tag. The global site tag, according to Google, “adds website visitors to your “All visitors” remarketing lists (if you’ve set up remarketing) and sets new cookies on your domain, which will store information about the ad click that brought someone to your site. [Your] Google Ads conversion tracking tag will be able to track this click information to attribute a conversion to your Google ads campaigns.” While you’ll have to install the global site tag on every page on your website, you’ll only need to install one global site tag for each Google Ads account.
- Event snippet. Google defines the event snippet as the piece of code that “tracks actions that should be counted as conversions.” Because each type of conversion has its own accompanying event snippet, you’ll need to install this snippet onto all of the website pages you want to track the conversions for.
Need Help Tracking Leads in Google Analytics?
Yes, Google Analytics can provide you with the right information to help you track your leads, but it can also be an intimidating program to tackle. Stealth Search & Analytics offers customized, private-label digital analytics solutions that can help you understand how to track leads in Google Analytics. We also provide custom reporting, ad traffic tagging, conversion tracking, and training and consulting. Contact us to discuss your customized white-label analytics solution for your agency.