At the beginning of each year, there’s an influx of “get fit fast” products on the market, targeting people whose New Year’s resolutions involve shedding pounds. It’s natural to want to see results as quickly as possible without all the exercising and dieting. But many people who invest in these tactics won’t achieve their weight loss goals. Why? Because, like most things in life, getting healthy requires a substantial amount of work. There’s no quick and easy solution.

Much like fitness, tracking online data to improve the effectiveness of your marketing strategies takes time and effort. So when AdWords recently introduced Smart Goals as a way to measure conversion rates without actually setting up conversion tracking, I had to look into it. Here’s what I found:

Smart Goals Isn’t Designed to Replace Conversion Tracking.

Smart Goals is designed to help businesses that don’t currently have a way to measure conversions. To set up Smart Goals, you need to link your Google Analytics and AdWords accounts. Your Google Analytics view must also receive at least 1,000 clicks from AdWords over a one-month period. It works by using high quality AdWords traffic to analyze conversion behavior and generate a formula to determine which visitors will convert.

Basically, Smart Goals uses factors such as session duration, pages per session and location to determine which users are most likely to turn into qualified leads. And while that may be helpful for a company that isn’t doing anything to track conversions…

…it’s risky to rely solely on Smart Goals. And here’s why:

Smart Goals isn’t industry specific: A major downfall of Smart Goals is that it doesn’t take the nuances of specific industries into account. Engagement and conversion behavior can greatly vary from industry to industry. For example, the automotive industry expects session duration to be notably higher than average due to consumer research prior to purchasing a car. While increased session duration may indicate a qualified lead for most industries, this may not be the case for car dealers.

Smart Goals doesn’t allow data customization: As of now, you aren’t able to differentiate between goal completions when using Smart Goals. When you take the extra time to set up goal conversion tracking in Google Analytics, you can separate goals to see when an online user signs up for your email list as opposed to scheduling service. The perspective customer who schedules service is obviously more likely to convert to an actual sale than the user who merely provides contact information.

It’s important to track which specific goals are completed in order to prioritize your strategies and maximize sales. If all your goal completions are lumped into one category of wins, you won’t be able to fully optimize your digital presence.

Need Help With Conversion Tracking? Leave it to Blue Corona!

We haven’t found a way to diet and exercise for our clients quite yet, but if your New Year’s resolution is to maximize your online marketing potential and generate more leads, Blue Corona has you covered!

Most business owners are too busy running their companies to track and optimize their marketing strategies alone. That’s where we come in. To get started, contact us, or enter your URL into the form below for a free analysis of your website.