While merging Google Analytics with Google AdWords can provide increased high quality leads, there are several untapped features in Google Analytics that can improve your lead generation campaign to a great extent. These features can help improve tracking, integrate your Google Analytics data with Google AdWords with increased efficiency, and provide in-depth analysis to improve your campaign with far greater accuracy than ever before.
You can begin by going over your configured goals with a fine tooth comb to make sure that all values including multiple lead values and multiple goals are defined correctly. You should provide values, however insignificant they might seem to all lead generation avenues. For example, if you offer PDF file downloads or have videos on your website then you can assign small values and track them after assigning goals to such events.
Another tip is to enable tracking of all your visitors across different domains. If you have utilized third party services to get hold of leads then you will still receive incomplete Google Analytics reports. By tracking all your visitors across different domains, you will be able to get complete reports. You need to specify your Primary Domains and The Link details on your domain and GA tracking code.
While sharing data between Google Analytics and AdWords, it is important that you insert Analytics conversion data again in AdWords. You should remember to use Auto Tagging while using AdWords, allow data sharing, and apply the cost data feature in Analytics.
Once you have configured your goals in Analytics then you can import those goals in AdWords from Analytics. You can then track if your leads are getting attributed by monitoring conversion data from both avenues and optimize your conversion rate by using this untapped feature.
Another tip that most marketers miss out is to track phone call leads as they focus mostly on leads generated from online sources. Google AdWords has a feature that allows you to integrate call tracking from your service provider with Google Analytics. Several phone tracking firms such as Mongoose Metrics and Marchex Voicestar among others offer this feature.
You merely need to register with the appropriate tracking service, specify the tracking numbers and publish them on your site. You will also need to set up the post back URL that should be visited upon a phone call. In case you have a lot of phone calls as well as extensions then you can try out this tactic over a limited amount of calls and analyze the results before unleashing its full potential. You should remember that even without call linking with Google Analytics, tracking phone calls is still a crucial element in lead generation.
Another ignored aspect of tracking lead generation is when you market your products offline. This could be through advertising on other media such as print or TV, through trade shows, etc. You can now include these leads in your reports by firstly making a new and unique vanity URL for your campaign. You should next use the Google Analytics URL Builder to make a tracking URL and apply a 301 redirect to the vanity URL to your tracking URL. You can now monitor and analyze the performance of each traffic source based on your source and medium. This step will help you track, analyze, compare, and optimize both online and offline campaigns with ease.
In addition, you should also remember to integrate your Customer Relationship Management [CRM] system with Google Analytics. Justin Cutroni from cutroni.com offers an excellent method to extract data from Google Analytics cookies before attaching the same with your lead record in your CRM system. Reports generated through this method will enable you to understand in detail on the kind of traffic that provides the best leads right up to keyword basis.
In addition to applying these untapped methods for improved lead generation, you also need to extract a lot more from your Analytics reports to study your campaign in greater detail.
For instance, in your paid search traffic segment, you need to go to Conversions and then Goals report to compare recently inputted goal values with the same period during the past. Once there, you need to confirm if your results are actually better than before.
Similarly, you need to confirm the first click channel that is most commonly clicked in your Multi Channel Funnel report and check if you have provided enough credit towards it in your reports.
Once you implement the above untapped tips then you need to compare previous results with ones after implementation to find out if these strategies have actually resulted in delivering increased high quality leads.
By merging data from Google AdWords and Analytics, and running closed loop analysis through these untapped Analytics features, you can improve lead generation levels with increased high quality leads.