Setting Up Offline Conversion Tracking in Google Ads

Are your Google Ads campaigns accurately reflecting the full impact of your marketing efforts? 

Despite the increasing reliance on digital channels, a significant portion of consumer interactions, such as phone calls, in-store visits, and form submissions, remain offline. Recent data indicates that mobile spending in the U.S. reached a record $128.1 billion during the holiday season, with over half of online shopping occurring on mobile devices. This shift underscores the importance of capturing offline conversions to gain a comprehensive understanding of ad performance.

For businesses in sectors like retail, e-commerce, and advertising agencies, effectively tracking these offline interactions is crucial. By integrating offline conversion data into your Google Ads campaigns, you can achieve more accurate ROI measurement, gain deeper insights into customer behavior, and optimize your campaigns for better performance.

This guide provides a detailed, step-by-step approach to setting up offline conversion tracking in Google Ads. You'll learn how to create conversion actions, import offline data, and ensure accurate tracking to enhance your advertising strategy.

TLDR

• Offline Conversion Tracking: It tracks offline actions, such as phone calls, in-store visits, or lead form submissions, and links them to Google Ads campaigns for more accurate attribution.
• Benefits of Offline Conversion Tracking: It provides deeper insights into customer behavior, enables better ROI measurement, and helps optimize campaigns by refining targeting and bidding strategies.
• Prerequisites for Setup: This requires an active Google Ads account, basic conversion tracking, and tools to collect offline data, such as CRM systems or call tracking.
• Step-by-Step Setup Process: This involves creating conversion actions, defining offline conversion types (e.g., phone calls or in-store purchases), and manually or automatically importing offline data for accurate reporting.
• Common Mistakes to Avoid: It’s important to ensure correct tagging, avoid data mismatches, and always test your setup with sample data to provide accurate conversion tracking.

What is Offline Conversion Tracking?

Offline conversion tracking is a method for tracking actions that occur outside the online world but are still connected to your Google Ads campaigns. For example, if someone calls your business after clicking on an ad, offline conversion tracking allows you to associate that call with the ad that triggered it. 

This can include various events, such as phone calls, in-store purchases, or lead form submissions, that result in a final offline action. As 56% of shoppers globally researched products online before finalizing purchases in-store, this highlights the critical need for offline conversion tracking.

Offline conversions help measure ad effectiveness for physical or non-digital actions, improving attribution and optimizing Google Ads campaigns.

Now that we know what offline conversion tracking is, let’s explore why it’s essential for maximizing your Google Ads performance.

Read: Guide to Effective Ad Tracking

Why Set Up Offline Conversion Tracking?

Setting up offline conversion tracking in Google Ads offers several key benefits that go beyond what’s possible with online conversion tracking alone:

• More Accurate ROI Measurement:
  • Track offline sales and leads: For businesses such as retail or service providers, where the final purchase or lead generation occurs offline, offline conversion tracking enables you to measure the actual impact of your ads on these conversions. 
  • Connect online ads to offline actions: By tracking offline conversions, such as phone calls, in-person visits, or quote requests, you can directly link them to online ad clicks, ensuring accurate attribution.
• Deeper Insights into Customer Behavior:
  • Understand multi-channel customer journeys: Offline conversion tracking provides insight into how your ads influence customers across different stages of their buying journey, whether they engage online first and then visit a store or inquire via phone.
  • Measure phone calls and store visits: For many businesses, phone calls and foot traffic from ads are vital indicators of ad effectiveness. Offline tracking allows you to connect these crucial interactions to specific campaigns or keywords.
• Optimized Campaigns:
  • Refine targeting based on real-world results: By incorporating offline conversion data, you can identify which ads, keywords, and demographics drive offline actions, allowing you to target those audiences more effectively.
  • Adjust bidding strategies: Offline conversion tracking enables you to focus your budget on high-converting ads, utilizing Smart Bidding strategies such as Target CPA or Target ROAS, which automatically adjust bids based on offline conversion data.
  • Maximize ROI: With better attribution and tracking of offline conversions, your Google Ads campaigns become more efficient, ensuring that your marketing spend is focused on driving the highest-value actions.

Before beginning the setup process, let’s review the prerequisites required for offline conversion tracking.

Prerequisites for Offline Conversion Tracking

Before setting up offline conversion tracking on Google Ads, ensure that the necessary tools and systems are in place. Without these prerequisites, you may encounter difficulties importing and accurately tracking offline data, which could result in incomplete or inaccurate conversion reports. Here’s what you need to get started:

• Google Ads Account:
  • Active and Set Up: You need an active Google Ads account with administrative access. This ensures you can manage and configure conversion actions, as well as import offline conversion data.
  • Permissions: Ensure that you have the appropriate permissions to access and modify the conversion tracking settings in your account. Without this, you won’t be able to set up or modify conversion actions.
• Conversion Tracking Setup:
  • Basic Conversion Tracking: Before importing offline conversion data, ensure that basic online conversion tracking is set up in your Google Ads account. This provides the foundation for integrating offline actions. For example, you should already have actions like page visits, form submissions, or purchases being tracked online to capture the full performance of your campaigns.
  • Conversion Action Setup: You’ll also need to set up the specific conversion actions in your Google Ads account, such as tracking purchases or sign-ups. Without this, the system won't know which conversions to track and report.
• Data Collection Mechanisms:
  • Tracking Phone Calls: If you're focusing on monitoring phone calls as offline conversions, you'll need a call tracking system in place to track these calls effectively. Google Ads allows for unique call extensions or call forwarding numbers, which will track calls coming from your ads. These systems are essential for linking phone calls to your campaigns.
  • In-Store Visits or Purchases: For businesses tracking foot traffic or in-store purchases, you’ll need to have a method for monitoring and linking those conversions back to your Google Ads campaigns. This could include systems that capture visit data, sales transactions, or customer interactions within your physical location.
• CRM or Data Integration Tools:
  • CRM Integration: Many businesses rely on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools, such as Salesforce or HubSpot, to track and manage customer interactions. If you use a CRM, ensure it can sync with Google Ads so that offline conversion data (such as sales leads or appointments) can be automatically imported into your Google Ads account.
  • Data Import Tools: If your CRM doesn’t directly sync with Google Ads, you’ll need tools to import your offline data manually. Ensure you have either an offline conversion data import file or an integration tool that can map your CRM data to Google Ads for seamless import.

Now that you know what’s required for offline conversion tracking, let’s dive into the step-by-step process of setting up offline conversion tracking in Google Ads and how to make the most of it.

Read: Complete Guide to How Personalized Ads Work and How to Manage Your Settings for Better Control and Privacy

Step-by-Step Guide: Setting Up Offline Conversion Tracking in Google Ads

This step-by-step guide will walk you through the process of creating conversion actions, importing offline data, and ensuring everything is set up for accurate tracking. By following these steps, you can gain deeper insights into your ad performance and optimize for a better return on investment (ROI). Here is how it goes: 

Step 1: Create a New Conversion Action

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account and navigate to the Tools & Settings menu.
2. Under the Measurement section, click on Conversions.
3. Click the blue + button to create a new conversion action.
4. Select Import and then choose Other data sources or CRMs.
5. Select the type of offline conversion you’ll be tracking (e.g., phone calls, in-store visits, purchases from form submissions).

Ingest Labs' solutions, such as Ingest IQ, enable marketers to efficiently manage and track multi-channel data, making offline conversion tracking a seamless part of your marketing strategy.

Step 2: Define the Type of Offline Conversion

Offline conversions can vary depending on your business needs. Some common types include:

• Phone Calls: For businesses that rely on phone calls generated by ads, set up call tracking in Google Ads and assign unique tracking numbers to measure call conversions accurately.
• In-Store Visits: If you’re a brick-and-mortar business, you can track foot traffic triggered by your ads and link it to in-store purchases.
• Lead Forms: For businesses collecting leads through forms (online or offline), track conversions when a lead turns into a customer or sale.

Define the offline conversion by entering the necessary details, such as conversion name, value (if applicable), and conversion window.

Step 3: Set Up Conversion Tracking System

There are two ways to upload offline conversion data:

• Manual Uploads: If you prefer a hands-on approach, you can manually upload your offline conversion data to Google Ads using CSV files.
• Automated Data Imports: For seamless integration, you can use the Google Ads API or connect your CRM system to Google Ads for automatic data synchronization.

Follow Google Ads’ instructions to set up your preferred method of data import. Once connected, you can begin uploading your offline conversion data.

By utilizing Ingest Labs' Event IQ, you can integrate customer data across platforms for more accurate attribution and optimized conversion tracking.

Step 4: Import Offline Conversion Data

Once your conversion actions are set up and data collection mechanisms are in place, it's time to import your offline conversion data into Google Ads. There are two primary methods for this:

• Manual Upload: If you're using CSV files, ensure that your offline data matches Google Ads’ required format, including details such as the conversion name, value, date, and conversion ID. This process ensures the data is accurately linked to the corresponding ads and campaigns.
• Automated Data Integration: For automated tracking, integrate your CRM system or other data tools with Google Ads. Ensure that your CRM system is configured to send conversion data directly to Google Ads, enabling real-time reporting and seamless data syncing.

Once the data is imported, Google Ads will process it and attribute the conversions accordingly.

Step 5: Verify and Test Your Setup

It’s essential to test and verify your offline conversion tracking setup to ensure the data is being captured accurately. Here’s how you can do that:

1. Test with Sample Data: Upload a small batch of offline conversion data to verify the setup. Ensure the conversions are correctly attributed to the appropriate ads, campaigns, and keywords.
2. Check for Errors: Review the data for any discrepancies or errors. If any conversions are missing or incorrectly tracked, review your setup to resolve the issue.
3. Review Attribution: Ensure that the offline conversions are being attributed to the correct time frame, conversion actions, and other relevant campaign details.

Ingest Labs provides real-time insights and seamless data orchestration through Event IQ, making it easier to verify and optimize conversion tracking accuracy. Once you’ve verified that everything is functioning correctly, you can proceed with tracking and analyzing offline conversions to facilitate ongoing optimization. 

With your setup tested and verified, let’s review common mistakes to avoid, ensuring your offline conversion tracking remains accurate and reliable.

Read: Setting Up Enhanced Ecommerce Tracking with Ingest IQ

Common Mistakes to Avoid

While setting up offline conversion tracking, marketers often encounter certain pitfalls. Here’s how you can avoid them:

• Incorrect Tagging: Ensure that you tag your offline conversions correctly. Misplaced or missing tags can lead to inaccurate data being recorded. Ingest Labs offers comprehensive solutions, such as Ingest IQ, for efficient media tagging and accurate tracking, thereby simplifying the tagging process for improved results.
• Data Mismatch: When importing offline data, ensure that the data is formatted correctly. Data mismatches can prevent successful imports and lead to inaccurate attribution. With Event IQ, you can centralize and unify customer data seamlessly across platforms, ensuring consistency and preventing data mismatches.
• Skipping Testing: Always test your setup with sample data before going live. Without testing, you risk tracking inaccurate conversions that could skew your campaign performance. Ingest IQ provides real-time tracking and insights, enabling you to test, monitor, and optimize your conversion tracking setup for accurate attribution.

To avoid common pitfalls in offline conversion tracking, ensure accurate tagging, correct data formatting, and thorough testing with Ingest Labs' solutions. 

Final Thoughts

Setting up offline conversion tracking in Google Ads is crucial for businesses to understand their ad performance accurately. By linking offline actions, such as phone calls and store visits, to campaigns, you can optimize strategies, enhance ROI, and measure the real-world impact more accurately. This tool provides valuable insights into customer behavior, enabling marketers to make informed adjustments to their efforts for improved results.

At Ingest Labs, we offer Martech solutions for digital marketers facing data tracking and privacy compliance challenges in a cookieless world. Our tools, including Ingest IQ, Ingest ID, and Event IQ, simplify data management and enhance conversion tracking, eliminating the need for coding skills. Ingest Labs is dedicated to improving customer engagement and marketing efficiency across diverse industries.

Ready to optimize your conversion tracking and unlock the full potential of your Google Ads campaigns? Contact Ingest Labs today to learn how our advanced data solutions can help you track, analyze, and grow your business more effectively.

FAQ

1 How do I set up conversion tracking in Google Ads?

To set up conversion tracking, sign in to your Google Ads account, navigate to "Tools & Settings," then select "Conversions" under the Measurement section. Click the blue plus button, select your conversion source (e.g., website, app), and follow the prompts to set it up.

2 What type of conversions will I get with offline conversions?

Offline conversions track actions that occur outside the digital realm, such as phone calls, in-store visits, or lead form submissions that result in offline actions, including purchases or appointments.

3 When should I use offline conversions?

 Use offline conversions when your business has offline actions (e.g., store visits or phone calls) linked to online ads.

4 What is the difference between enhanced conversions and offline conversions?

Enhanced conversions improve online tracking with first-party data, while offline conversions track offline actions linked to ads.

5 Should I set up enhanced conversions?

Yes, if you want more accurate online conversion tracking using customer data.