Semalt Advice On How To  Set Up Your Website For Offline Conversions



Setting up a website for success goes beyond what happens online. However, it is also possible for you to convert consumers offline. In our world today, offline conversion has become an important marketing strategy. 

Google is pushing the idea of conversion modeling, and iOS 14.5 is making accurate conversion tracking optional for its users. There are many more recent updates like this that make the traditional conversion tracking method obsolete. To get truthful and accurate conversion data, we have to evolve and look at things from a new perspective. 

One way forward is to study offline conversions and what it has to offer. The beautiful thing about offline conversions tracking is that its knowledge is applicable across B2B, B2C, e-сommerce, and lead generation campaigns of an SEO pro. First, let's explain what Offline conversions mean.

What Are Offline Conversions? 

An offline conversion is the type of conversion that starts online but is conclude offline. As a local store, offline conversions are fundamental. Other businesses as well get to benefit when offline conversions are doing well. 

When consumers search for a product online, they find your page on SERP and are convinced that your product is what they need. If they end up calling your store or visiting your local business, we will call that an offline conversion. 

Offline conversions are valuable actions consumers take as a result of an ad. However, these actions can't be tracked using your traditional methods. This explains why you will come across PPC while researching. 

Offline conversions usually lead to:
  • Completed enrollments
  • Funding deals 
  • In-store purchases 
  • Trial for paying customers
With more websites practising PPC, bid prices are soaring, and you need to convert and optimize your performance. 

As digital marketers, we've understood that some aspects of marketing don't take place only when the user is online. For example, if someone requests a free trial via an online form, they will likely have questions for the salesperson to answer. When a homeowner needs a furnace repair, they search for heating companies around them. If they find a company via paid search, they go through the site and go through the site. However, the consumer, like most other consumers, will still need to pick up the phone and call to book an appointment. 

For many brands, tracking just the online interactions of your consumers alone is hardly ever enough. 

Thankfully, Google Ads offers new ways to track offline interactions with your brand. 

How Can You Track Offline Interactions?

There are three major ways to track offline conversions, namely:

Conversion Import

Google Ads allows you to import your offline conversion data. It also allows attributions to be associated with your campaigns. As long as you have a way to save your Google Click Identifier for conversions, you will be able to import the conversion data. 

Call Tracking 

Some businesses require phone calls because they function as the primary source for consumers to make inquiries. Specifically, businesses in the business industry rely heavily on calls as consumers use them to book appointments, as questions, and make up their mind if that service provider is what they need. 

If you receive business inquiries via calls, phone tracking is important for your business. We say this because it will help you attribute your leads more accurately. 

Thanks to the call extensions on Google Ads, viewers can find your number on the ad and place direct calls. Once this has been implemented, you can now track calls from your website. 

In-Store Visit Tracking

This is one clear way to see if your PPC is working as expected. You can track if people visit your local store after viewing your ads. 

Google uses location data from mobile devices to determine if your ads convince users to visit your store. This way, you know if a customer clicked your ad and then visited your store afterward. 

Store visit conversion is, however, only available to advertisers who own a physical location and advertisers who receive high clicks and impression volume. You must also have enough store visit data to meet the privacy threshold. Sadly, this may be a bit challenging as Google won't disclose exactly what threshold we should be aiming to beat. 

Before this can work, you must make sure that you've claimed your location on your Google MY Business Account (this should be hyperlinked to the article on Google My Business Account). Next, link your GMB account to your Google Ads account. Lastly, you will need to activate the location extensions on your account. 

How To Track Offline Conversions

There are two methods of setting up offline conversions, namely:
  • Import from an existing source 
  • Uploads from files or connections
If you use a popular ESP / CRM / Shopping platform, the most straightforward path will be to upload from HTTPS.

Using this method allows you to log into your source of truths and connect them to your Google Ads account. When using the Google Sheets option, ensure you use the right templates. When setting up your conversions, you should have a minimum "standard" level of access, but we recommend that you use "admin." 

Integrating Non-Standard Offline Conversion

While custom integrations don't disqualify your brand from offline conversions, they do require a more technical setup. With custom integrations, most of the imports remain straightforward, and they require some work on the third-party tools you use. 

Once the conversion information has been set as normal, you can then go into your tool to configure your conversion. 

Takeaway

Offline conversions are vital if you truly want to get granular data on your audience. Surprisingly, not many brands pay close attention to these metrics. It is simple to set up, and with our help, you can have it running in no time. 

Understanding your audience is the core of any successful brand. Would your audience like to place calls or visit your store? If so, then you must have a way to compare who calls and who visits your store against the clicks you have on your ads. When you notice that a great number of clicks translate to online and offline conversions, you know you've got your PPC strategy spot on. 

Give us a call today, and we can tell you more. We can also equip your website to track this metric accurately. 

Semalt experts will help you to avoid most of the mistakes.