Enhanced Conversions: Tracking long customer journeys across devices

Learn how to better track long buying journeys, which are often the case in all B2B scenarios. Including buying journeys where the customer has time to switch device along the way. The answer is “enhanced conversions”. If you are a marketer in a B2B company where customers are worth more than DKK 35,000, you should…

Indhold

Hvad er det? Hvad får man ud af det? Er det GDPR compliant What is in it for me? Implementering

What are ‘Enhanced Conversions’?

Enhanced Conversions is a method that enables Google Ads to link the original click to a conversion that took place at a later time.

It does this using the information the user entered in the contact form.

For example, if a user clicks a Google Ads ad but only returns to the website 10 days later and fills out a contact form, Enhanced Conversions enables Google to know it is the same person.

This gives you more and more accurate data about the conversions that take place.

This could be information such as:

Name
Phone number
Address
Email address

Our preferred method for sending this information to Google Ads is via Google Tag Manager (data layer on the website). It can also be done via an API.

The information is passed into Google Ads along with all the conversions that are forwarded.

Note: Similar options exist for Meta Ads if you use server-side tracking (also called the ‘Conversion API’).

Here, you would be able to submit data such as:

email address (em)
IP address (client_ip_address)
name (fn and ln)
phone number (ph)

In other words, the Enhanced Conversions concept is an extension of regular conversion tracking, where, as a business, you can get more out of your Google and Meta Ads by sending more information about the conversions into the platforms.

What do you get out of it?

With Enhanced Conversions, Google Ads can better match a user to a conversion. This can be particularly beneficial in cases where a user has clicked an ad but only fills out a contact form several days later.

In this way, it becomes easier to build a picture of your leads’ customer journey, and a previous visitor is less likely to be mistaken for a new visitor because a cookie has been deleted in the meantime.

Example 1:

Anders clicks a Google Ads ad.
Anders’ cookie expires after 7 days.
After 10 days, the user submits a contact form.
In the contact form, Anders has entered “[email protected]” as his email address.
Anders is, or has also been, logged in to his Google account with this email address.

Google Ads can now link the initial click to the contact form. Otherwise, it would not have been able to do so.

Example 2:

Anders clicks a Google Ads ad from his work computer.
Anders goes on his mobile, and he fills out a contact form.
In the contact form, Anders has entered “[email protected]” as his email address.
Anders is, or has also been, logged in to his Google account with this email address.
Google can now link the work-computer visit and the mobile contact form. Otherwise, it would not have been able to do so.
Anders is also logged in to his Google account with this email address.

This results in generally better tracking and—especially for longer buying journeys—more tracked conversions.

In a world where the buying journey takes place across multiple devices and over a longer period, Enhanced Conversions is worth its weight in gold.

And I know what you are thinking, and YES, Enhanced Conversions is GDPR-compliant, provided that you have obtained active consent via, for example, Cookiebot or Cookieinformation.

It is also recommended to encrypt the data with HASH to avoid other tools potentially hacking their way to the data.

So you do not need to get out your GDPR whistle—I am not going to suggest anything that conflicts with an EU directive.

Who can benefit from Enhanced Conversions?

Enhanced Conversions is relevant for you if you already have a solid tracking setup, have upgraded with server-side tracking, and want to collect even more data.

It is particularly relevant for you if the following also applies:

You spend DKK 10,000< each month.
You get some conversions each month.
Your customers’ decision-making process is longer than 24 hours (the lifetime of a cookie).
Your potential customers are worth DKK 15,000< to you.
Your target audience’s decision-making process takes place across different devices (mobile, tablet, work computer, personal computer, etc.).

By the way, if you combine Enhanced Conversions with Google Ads native tracking and Google Consent Mode, you suddenly have the ultimate “tracking hub” with both more and better data.

How do you implement Enhanced Conversions?

There is no way around needing some JavaScript (code) to do this.

The easiest way to implement Enhanced Conversions is to configure your contact forms to send name, email, phone number, address, and IP address as a data layer event when the form is submitted.

In other words, you will need a developer or a Google Ads agency.

This data can then be sent to Google Ads through Google Tag Manager.

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