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Performance marketers use different methods when tracking conversions in the online world, including Cost Per Click, Cost Per Action, and Lifetime Value. They can also monitor conversions by checking the people who view the Ad and getting demographic data on conversions. Even though many people are familiar with online conversion tracking, learning and implementing offline tracking is necessary.
Traditional tracking practices as an online-only technique cause a significant problem since you fail to account for offline conversions. Despite being a primarily digital society, you can find a considerable section of consumer activity occurring in the real world. In several cases, they visit or call the store of interest due to a search that started online or via an inviting digital advertisement.
Nevertheless, it is common for businesses to miss these sales completed offline, not including them in the attribution statistics or conversion data. For this reason, you remain with an incomplete vision of your campaign ads' effectiveness in the online world.
So, how can you address this problematic information gap? You can solve this issue by relying on offline conversion tracking, also called OCT. Proper OCT application can drastically boost the effectiveness of your overall marketing approach. Hence, regardless of being a storefront owner or a digital marketer, you cannot afford to ignore offline conversion tracking among your performance marketing monitoring techniques.
How Does Offline Conversion Tracking Work in the Real World?
Looking at a common scenario can aid you in better understanding the gap formed due to the absence of conversion tracking in the real world. You can learn how to apply OCT for suitable and accurate results, helping you address your ad effectiveness and reach concerns using this information.
In this case, you have Mrs. X perusing online when she spots a clickable advertisement promoting a new product for sale at the local retail outlet. Notably, she can also likewise click on an SMS campaign with a shortened URL to the store’s product page. The advertisement features a kitchen utensil set, which is an item Mrs. X requires for hosting the upcoming family Christmas party.
As a result, she commits to buying the set within seconds and promptly seeks ways to seal the deal. This transaction can continue in three primary ways. First, she can click through the promotion and access the outlet’s online storefront. She can then buy the product, with the retailer delivering it to her door for a small fee.
Second, Mrs. X can choose to call the store's phone number provided to inquire further about the utensils set. Once she gets all the responses she seeks, she can order the product via her mobile device.
Lastly, she can decide to spend her free time dropping by the outlet's brick-and-mortar storefront for the purchase. Thus, Mrs. X can purchase the set in person.
The first option provides the traditional online conversion, allowing the retailer to detect that Mrs. X clicked the ad and reached the online storefront. After this, the seller can note that she bought the set during the same virtual visit.
In contrast, the second and third scenarios attribute Mrs. X’s conversion to the online advertisement she viewed. Nonetheless, you can find no methods to use promptly as in the first case to link the ad viewing to the final sale. As a result, you can turn to different tools to help you address this problem.
Tools for Tracking Offline Conversions
As mentioned above, you cannot find a direct way of connecting the viewing of your ad to the eventual sale. This roadblock means you lack a piece of vital information concerning your reach and the ad’s effectiveness. Google Ads and Facebook are the primary tools commonly used to get around this problem:
1. Google Ads
Google Ads needs you to collect and upload particular personally identifiable data to record offline conversions precisely. The platform also requires a Google Click Identifier (GCLID). GCLID is a tracking parameter attached to the Google Ads URLs, and you can generate it in different ways.
One way of generating GCLID is to save the data produced when a user clicks on an advertisement from your site. If a client eventually makes an offline conversion, you can connect it to the appropriate GCLID and upload the information to your Google Ads account using a spreadsheet.
Another way of GCLID generation is via setting up a Google forwarding number usable in your Google Ads. It ascertains to assign phone-based conversions to a relevant GCLID. This process also incorporates auto-tagging and ensures to track the conversions in your customer relationship management system.
2. Facebook
Although Facebook cannot directly determine if a client completed a conversion offline, you can establish the connection with some legwork. Firstly, you have to gather some personally identifiable information from the client at the point of sale. The information needs to include a phone number, email address, and name. It is necessary to note that the email address is the most vital component required for this tracking process. The address is critical if you wish to get successful Facebook offline conversions.
Once you obtain the required data, you can upload it to Facebook. After this, the platform attempts to find three essential pieces of information. It first seeks to determine whether your client owns a Facebook account. Secondly, Facebook looks to learn if the client ever viewed your ad via the platform. Finally, it aims to establish whether the client looked at the ad within a specified period. You can confidently include a sale as an offline conversion if your client meets all three conditions.
It is best to recall that offline conversions are always ongoing, and thus you want to feed the offline data continually to Facebook. You can feed the platform daily to expand the accessible information and enjoy optimum benefits.
Whether you choose Google Ads or Facebook in tracking campaign conversions in the real world, it is critical to apply it consistently. Improper application of your preferred method results in you missing considerable details. This gap prevents you from having the full range of information for accurate and reliable ad evaluation. Hence, entrepreneurs and performance marketers should adopt and implement this significant offline conversion technique to create profitable campaigns.