Conversions Config
It's not unusual
Peter Drucker, the most over-quoted consultant in history, is rumoured to have commanded “you can't manage what you can't measure.” It's a neat sentiment and will ring true for anyone who's involved in digital marketing.
Campaigns need to reach customers in a complex brand and messaging environment and drive the right people to take the right actions. But without good data there's no way to make marketing effective. In the worst cases, marketers are paying for impressions and clicks that don't give any meaningful return. Nobody can tell specifically what's working and what isn't. Hard questions go unanswered.
It's common to see traffic sent into a “black hole” of a website where it's anyone's best guess whether sales are attributable to marketing spend. Poor coordination between the marketing and development teams can lead to “leaky funnel”. Marketers are forced to take Google and Meta's word that those self-reported impressions, clicks and pageviews are the source of business success.
From knowing to growing
Having independent measurement of user activity from impression through to purchase (and beyond) allows proper evaluation of marketing efforts and expenditure. Campaign strategies should be directly compared by user behaviour, not just by what was viewed or clicked. If properly measured, what was successful can be repeated (and what was not can be eliminated).
Conversions are not just for reporting performance at the monthly meeting. On a technical level, modern marketing platforms have (artificially) intelligent algorithms that can target potential customers. If you send data about what a successful customer looks like, platforms will “learn” to match similar customers with your campaigns. This requires a tight integration between the website platform, the user journey and those platforms. This is where we come in: it's not rocket science but it is engineering.
Accurate, independent reporting improves planning and strategy. Data-driven optimisation improves targeting by ad networks. Correctly configured conversions create a positive feedback loop.
The process
Assuming we've performed an initial Analytics Audit and identified the platforms, technologies, people and goals we will work with you and your web development team (as is sometimes required) to:
- Identify and document key marketing conversions required with you.
- Implement and/or correctly configure a Tag Management¹ solution.
- Specify any custom events required for the development team, and manage to completion.
- Configure relevant events and triggers throughout the user journey.
- Associate marketing platform tags/conversions with events.
- Test, validate and deploy.
Dependencies:
- Access to all relevant marketing or reporting systems.
- Ability to process test transactions or interactions. on any sites, such as via a staging site.
- Developer support to add a Tag Management System or custom events on any/all domains.
- A server-side tagging implementation can further improve attribution and reporting accuracy but is generally undertaken once basic client-side conversions are stable.
Typical costs
In order to contain costs and avoid a lengthy quoting process we offer package pricing for new clients. The following table provides a guideline for typical set-ups:
Small
Marketing or lead generation sites without ecommerce functionality, typically with 2-3 marketing platforms such as Meta, Google Ads and one other. Running Google Analytics (UA or GA4) for reporting.
Inclusions
- Configure GTM Container
- Develop basic tracking plan
- Implementation guidance for dev team
- Configure custom event triggers
- Configure tracking pixels and conversions
$560 ex GST
Medium
Typical eCommerce sites (or similar) where purchases or registrations are being tracked. Generally with more complex marketing and reporting needs or cross-domain tracking required.
Inclusions
- All "Small" inclusions
- Up to three additional platforms such as TitTok, Taboola, Reddit, MediaMath, etc.
- Custom parameters for product or user attributes
$1120 ex GST
Large
Complex, multi-interface site or platform with web and native interfaces and complex journeys. Marketing using profiles/audiences and with advanced reporting requirements.
Inclusions
- All "Small" and "Medium" inclusions
- Unlimited custom conversions, audiences and platforms for initial set-up
- Server-side tagging excluded
$2240 ex GST
¹A Tag Management System (TMS) like Google Tag Manager or Tealium is used to add tracking code to your website in a safe and privacy-oriented way without requiring ongoing intervention by your development team. Once it is set-up, it allows agencies such as us to keep building your tracking infrastructure without having to go back to the development team. It functions like a powerboard—once it's plugged in we can add or remove the appliances we need independently.