- Website Actions
- Examples: Contact form submissions, newsletter sign-ups, booking calendar actions.
- Relevant for: Capturing leads and engagement from website visitors.
- Phone Calls
- Examples: Calls made via a Twilio-powered tracking number or a click-to-call button on your website.
- Relevant for: Measuring phone inquiries, a critical lead source for service-based businesses.
- App Conversions
- Examples: In-app purchases, form submissions via app integrations.
- Relevant for: Businesses with a dedicated mobile app (less common for wedding photographers).
- Offline Conversions
- Examples: A potential client booking an appointment after visiting a wedding photography booth.
- Relevant for: Businesses that generate leads online but close sales offline.
- Engagement Conversions
- Examples: Watching a promo video, viewing a pricing or portfolio page.
- Relevant for: Building awareness and warming up leads before they inquire directly.
Recommended Free WordPress Plugins for Conversion Tracking
Here’s how a wedding photographer can track these conversions effectively using free tools:
- Contact Form Submissions
- Plugin: Contact Form 7
- Integration: Use the Contact Form 7 Google Analytics Plugin to set up event tracking for each form submission.
- Appointment Scheduling
- Plugin: Simply Schedule Appointments
- Integration: Track booking actions as conversions by setting up Google Tag Manager triggers for clicks on the booking buttons.
- Phone Call Tracking
- Plugin: WP Call Tracking
- Integration: Use Twilio or a similar service to generate a call tracking number. The plugin tracks calls and integrates them with Google Analytics.
- Video Engagement
- Plugin: Embed Plus for YouTube
- Integration: Configure the plugin to track video plays and send events to Google Ads.
- Page Views (e.g., Pricing Page)
- Plugin: MonsterInsights Lite
- Integration: Track key page views (e.g., the pricing or portfolio page) as Google Ads conversions.
Setting Up Conversion Tracking for Google Ads
- Generate Conversion Tags
- In your Google Ads account, navigate to Tools > Conversions.
- Create a new conversion action and define its parameters (e.g., a form submission or page view).
- Integrate Tags into WordPress
- Use the Site Kit by Google plugin to manage Google Ads tags directly in your WordPress site.
- Alternatively, set up Google Tag Manager and embed the tags for more complex tracking setups.
- Test Conversion Tracking
- Use Google’s Tag Assistant Chrome extension to ensure that your conversion tags are firing correctly.
- Verify that the correct actions (e.g., form submissions or calls) are being recorded in your Google Ads dashboard.
Why Conversion Tracking Matters
Without tracking, you’re essentially flying blind. Conversion tracking helps you:
- Understand ROI: Know which ads and keywords drive real inquiries.
- Optimize Campaigns: Allocate budget to top-performing ads and reduce waste.
- Improve Client Experience: Tailor your messaging based on client behavior.
For example, if you notice that video views correlate with higher inquiry rates, you can invest more in video content to attract new leads.