The bigger problem hiding behind a Google Ads tracking issue

It's easy to get so caught up in the technical details of Google Ads that you miss something much more important.

I was reminded of that during a conversation with H., who joined one of my free Google Ads clinics.

His business organises group activities. They cater for small groups of friends, but their most valuable bookings are bigger events: corporate, weddings, birthday parties and so on.

He wanted help with cross-domain conversion tracking. Google Ads sends people to his site. The booking system is on a different domain. He wasn't able to track as many bookings as he'd like.

He wanted to optimise his ads for bookings and possibly booking values. That's exactly the kind of goal I'd want Google Ads to optimise for, so we had a good discussion about how to make it work

But something bothered me.

Of the last 500 Google Ads clicks, he'd only had seven recorded bookings.

In reality that might not be that bad. There could be bookings that weren't tracked properly.

But I thought figuring out why so few clicks became customers might be more valuable than getting the conversion tracking perfect.

So I asked him if people ever called.

I've worked with similar businesses in the past. It's been my experience that someone organising a group event always wants to speak to the service provider before booking.

Think about someone in charge of a work function. If it goes badly, they get the blame. Maybe they get fired.

Even if all the answers are on the website they want to speak to someone before committing.

He agreed 100%. People making bigger bookings called first, asked a bunch of questions, and then the booking was handled over the phone.

So who's comfortable booking online?

• It's people where the stakes are lower. A couple of friends looking for something fun to do together.
• Repeat customers doing exactly the same activity. They know the business. They don't need reassurance.

Online booking systems are great for these customers.

But a booking for two friends might be worth less than €100, compared with several thousand euros for a corporate event or wedding.

And that led us to three problems.

1. The landing page favoured the least valuable customers

The booking button was in the prime spot at the top of the page and in several other places. It was easy to see and recognise.

The phone number was buried.

The only place you could find it was in the footer. It wasn't clickable and it didn't stand out at all.

There was a click-to-call button on the contact page. That's fine if you're using a mobile phone. But what if you're organising an office retreat from the computer on your desk? You can't even see the number to dial it.

It might be easier to click the back button and find someone else.

They'd built the page for how they wanted people to book. Not for how the best people wanted to book.

Now, I'm not suggesting they get rid of the online booking system. I'll show you what I think they should do in a minute.

2. Google Ads was optimising for the least valuable bookings

When we spoke, H. told me they only tracked conversions from the online booking system. They didn't track calls, enquiry forms, WhatsApp messages or emails from the website as Google Ads conversions.

Here's the problem.

• Someone clicks an ad and books a €100 activity online. Google records a conversion.
• Someone else clicks an ad, calls for reassurance and books a €3,000 corporate event. Google never finds out.

As far as Google is concerned, the first visitor was a success and the second wasn't.

If Google is optimising for recorded bookings, it's learning from the lower-value transactions while missing the good ones.

3. They were undervaluing their Google Ads spend

Allocating resources is one of a business owner's most important jobs.

• If Google Ads is profitable, throw more money at it.
• If it's unprofitable, spend the money somewhere else.

But you can't make good decisions without good information.

They had a rough idea that Google was working. They asked people who called how they found them. That's better than nothing, but it doesn't tell you much.

If someone says they found you on Google:

• Did they click a Google Ad?
• Did they find your Google Business Profile?
• Did they click an organic search result?

And if they clicked an ad, which campaign, ad or keyword brought them to the website?

That brings us back to those original numbers: 500 clicks and seven recorded bookings.

The 1.4% booking rate looked low, but it might also have been misleading. We didn't know how of those clicks turned into bookings after a call, form fill or WhatsApp message.

So what would I do about it?

I'd start with the landing page.

The most valuable customers want to speak to someone before making a booking. I'd make that easy.

• I'd put the phone number somewhere prominent, near the top of the page.
• I'd have a visible, clickable phone number next to each booking button.

Then I'd improve the conversion tracking.

The goal is to tell Google about all bookings, not just those that came through the online booking system. That'll allow Google to better understand which ads turn into bookings and eventually optimise for the highest booking value.

I really enjoyed my conversation with H.

What struck me most was that when I suggested people would want to speak to somebody before booking, he immediately recognised it.

That's exactly what happened in his business.

Yet his landing page and conversion tracking were built around people booking online.

Neither of us had come to the conversation expecting to talk about how customers prefer to buy. But that's where we found something worth investigating.

It's a useful reminder that you can get so focused on solving a technical Google Ads problem that you miss a more important business question:

Are we making it easy for our most valuable customers to buy from us?

Got questions about Google Ads? I run a free daily Google Ads clinic for business owners. Bring your questions, I'll do my best to answer them.

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