The Challenges of Importing Conversions into Google Ads
Tracking conversions that happen offline or non-immediately has always been a headache for marketers running Google Ads campaigns. While vital for measuring true return on ad spend (ROAS), offline conversion upload relies on Google successfully matching imported customer details to existing user profiles in their database.
The problem? Match rates tend to be extremely low for conversions uploaded via manual customer lists. A mere 40-50% of conversions get attributed, leading to grossly inaccurate campaign performance data and sub-par exclusion lists.
Why Match Rates Are So Poor with Customer Lists
There are a few key reasons uploading customer lists directly gives such poor match rates:
- Details like names and emails capture at the time of click often differ from signup and purchase details. This causes mismatch.
- Google Ads typically only has website visit data associated with clicks, not later conversion events. So matching relies solely on details, not user behavior over time.
- Uploaded details need to exactly match Google's existing user profiles. Even slight variations result in non-matches.
As a result, ROAS and campaign attribution ends up skewed despite significant resources put into uploading large customer lists. This gives misleading optimization input and inhibits scaling budgets efficiently.
The Solution - Match Clicks to Conversions at the Time of Website Visit
The optimal way to upload offline conversions is to:
- Capture unique click IDs at the time of website visit
- Match these click IDs to later conversion events
- Upload the conversions with associated click IDs to Google Ads
This method provides nearly 100% match rates. Why? Google simply matches the click ID directly rather than trying to connect emails or names accurately.
Doing this manually requires significant engineering effort. Able CDP however fully automates the process:
- Tracking code captures click IDs on the website
- Conversion data from CRM, payment systems etc. gets sent to Able CDP via APIs
- Able automatically matches conversions to click IDs
- Matched conversions uploaded to Google Ads API
Able CDP streamlines this with no IT resources required. Tracking code handles click capture while configuring APIs transfers conversion details.
Accurate Campaign Measurement with Able CDP
With Able CDP, matched conversions can result in 5X or greater reporting and attribution precision compared to manual customer lists alone. This gives tremendously more accurate campaign performance data.
Additional benefits include:
- Auto-exclusion of recent purchasers from remarketing for 540 days
- Multi-channel contribution modeling for each conversion
- No more spending time uploading customer lists!
If you run Google Ads campaigns but struggle with getting conversion tracking right, explore how Able CDP can solve your attribution woes today.