Question

NEED ADVICE.  I am working at a full service agency as the only PPC specialist.NEED ADVICE. I am working at a full service agency as the only PPC specialist. The only other person who kinda knows PPC management sets up page views as conversion actions for lead gen businesses and reports what he calls "pseudo" conversions like the account is doing great. His excuse is that there isn't a better tracking option available yet and this is a way to know how many people are interacting with that page. But it is really set up for destination tracking. And I told him why don't you just look at page data through Analytics. I am not okay with this, I feel like it is unethical and what would you do if you were in this situation and it was effecting your own PPC accounts too?  

Answer 1

Have you tried a third party tracking provider to track, calls, form submits, etc. picking up where the pages leave off?  

Comments

The agency can't afford any 3rd party tools. All we have is GTM and GA. My question is have you ever heard anyone doing this?  

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@hebraic79 sounds like he might not be getting desired performance and wants to hide the transparency. A lot of agencies do this so they can report good stats since they’re not confident in the results.  

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Agree with @dumm10 on this regarding blending results. lots of assumptions being made. usually you should track a post completion event such as the thank you page after the form submit. also look into tools like hotjar or lucky orange very inexpensive. you can also get call tracking lines very in expensive too if you are looking to prove our return on investment. with all that said it truly depends on the campaigns key performance indicators.  

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@hebraic79 the conversion action could be a form submission instead of page view. can be setup via GTM triggers. why don't you do that if it's lead gen?  

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@iselaisenberg93 I wasn’t managing this account at the time. His defense is the developer was still working on an either different form id or a thank you page.  

Answer 2

I would recommend dynamic number insertion with a call tracking number w/ call recording. That will provide the best lead gen stats and you’ll know exactly how the clicks perform. Meaning what clicks key phrases trigger a call. That’s what I do for my clients and they love it.  

Answer 3

I would leave and start your own agency.  

Comments

Such great, relevant advice for someone looking for an actual solution for a real-world problem shes having. Thanks for dropping this bombshell of advice, its SUPER helpful.  

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@giuseppe1085 ikr? I LOLed when I read his response

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@loaiasis i would be lying if I said that wasn’t my first thought

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@hebraic79 I wasn't saying that to be rude or anything at all. I was genuinely saying that to encourage you to take the leap. I did last june and am crushing it on my own. I will be bringing on help soon, but my point is you sound way to talented to build someone else's dream when you can build your own. As for the naysayers in this thread, don't allow their limited vision to limit you. I wish you much success whichever route you go!  

Answer 4

If it's a lead gen, are visitors to submit a form to contact or to get a quote? I guess my question is, what is considered a lead?  

Comments

@bratislava56420 form fills

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@hebraic79 I would either do a thank you page tracking or if there is none, then at least do a button click tracking. You can do it as an event tag on GTM. There's no reason for this type of "workaround" unless they're simply trying to inflate the numbers. If someone on your team is already handling it that way, you might have an uphill battle! I'm sorry this person is making you have a moral conflict inside!  

Answer 5

Lol they know, they're just playing dumb so they can keep billing clients for shit work.  

Comments

@daughterinlaw exactly my thoughts

Answer 6

Track it, but don't include it in the conversion column.  

Answer 7

What is the actual objective for the client?  

Comments

@abstemious not page views!  

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@hebraic79 depending on the situation (which there aren't enough details) a specific pageview could be a micro conversion. With that said there is almost always a better metric. If you don't know the objective, find out. Then determine a better metric to measure for the goal. Suggest it to the person. If they don't go for it, then it might be time to take it to your direct supervisor.  

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@abstemious it’s a page with a form.  

Answer 8

Can you talk to your managers about it. If you’re business is reporting to client that these are “conversions” then it will come unstuck pretty quickly when client gets his report and cross checks

Answer 9

I'd explain (internally) that tracking/reporting page views isn't necessary as GA will pick that up (as it sounds like you well know). It'll also throw off any potential for smart bidding or meaningful analysis, so I'd say just challenge why he thinks this should be done. Shouldn't be a hard argument to win as it's not an opportunity, but rather actually detrimental to the account.  

Answer 10

Best practice is to get the conversions ad accurate as possible and you should inform the client about the limitations of tracking. When you have data, it’ll make your job difficult if not impossible to optimize the campaigns properly.  

Comments

@silicious91 I totally agree. I wanted to see how many people think the way I do and I wasn’t wrong. Thank you.  

Answer 11

Install Google Tag Manager and track the form submits on click or page load. A good data specialist can do this from Upwork. Costs $50. No excuses for not tracking proper leads in 2020.  

Comments

@deannadeanne we normally do that but in this case the website didn’t have a separate thank you page to track or something like that. The point is I find this behavior very shady. Especially when he says conversions are doing great. I’d rather not have a conversion action set up then fake conversions. The reason why I posted here is I wanted to see if I’m too ethical or being difficult. I see that this group has so many honest people and it makes me happy.  

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@hebraic79 you don't need a separate thank you page. Conversions can be tracked via in-line JavaScript "form submissions" in GTM. Whenever a form is submitted, conversion occurs.  

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@iselaisenberg93 I really need to learn more JS

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No need to learn JS. You just have to track a form success message, it's simple to implement.  

Answer 12

Much appreciated guys thank you!  

Answer 13

Just track the click on a phone number if you can't afford phone tracking solution. Though, if a marketing agency can't afford to bill a client for phone tracking then you may want to consider finding a new agency when you're ready. I'm really not surprised though. Most full service agencies treat PPC as an afterthought and don't put in the resources for the PPC department, as you are starting to find out.  

Answer 14

Page VIEWS is very literally NOT "a way to know how people are interacting with the page". All it tells you is someone visited the page for more than 0 seconds. You knew that already because you have the click data. I'm OK with importing ACTUAL quality conversions like time on site or page depth at a low dollar value if you want something in ADS that will give you relative traffic performance and you genuinely can't track actual conversions, but definitely not page views unless we're talking views of a critical thankyou page or something like that.  

Answer 15

Jesus lol. Redirect to thank you page after form submission, thank you page visit triggers conversion. Use call rail to track phone calls if they are a big part of the business as well. I do lead gen for an insurance agency, wish i could count page views as a conversion I’d be rich  

Answer 16

You can install a pixel to track form submissions. The google ads account should perform better over time when using this objective in your campaigns