YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → Surfside PPC Podcast Episode 1 - Conversion Tracking For Lead Generation

Surfside PPC Podcast Episode 1 - Conversion Tracking For Lead Generation — Transcript

by Surfside PPC · 2,903 words · 416 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00What's up everyone? Welcome to the
0:01Surfside PPC podcast. This is my very
0:04first episode of the Surfside PPC
0:06podcast. The whole goal is for this to
0:08be a Q&A podcast where you can ask me
0:11questions, I can give you answers, and
0:13we can all learn a little more about
0:14Google Ads, pay-per-click advertising,
0:16and everything marketing. So, my main
0:20area of expertise is Google Ads. But if
0:22you want to ask questions about meta
0:23ads, SEO, anything related to marketing,
0:26driving leads,
0:28things, things that will improve our
0:30campaigns and drive us a few more leads
0:32in 2026 and beyond, feel free to ask
0:34those questions. This podcast is brought
0:37to you by SurfsidePC. So, if you go to
0:39surfsideep.com, you can find everything
0:41we have there. We have management, we
0:43have consulting, you can join my premium
0:45section. So, if you join my premium
0:47section, you will get access to my
0:48premium content. You can ask me
0:50questions there and those answers will
0:52be answered on the podcast. So that is
0:54the whole point of the premium section
0:56will be for some community premium
0:58content asking some questions. So go to
0:59surfsideepidpbc.com you can find all the
1:01information you need there. Let's get
1:03started with the actual podcast content
1:06itself. So every single podcast I'm
1:08going to be answering two questions
1:10related questions questions that are
1:12about similar topics and things that I
1:14get frequently or things that people
1:16have asked me. So for the first one,
1:18it's going to be the questions I pretty
1:19much get the most and that is going to
1:21be conversion tracking. So just going
1:24over the importance of conversion
1:25tracking, but basically one of the main
1:28conversions I get is as a lead
1:30generation company, what should we
1:33track? What should we be tracking as a
1:35conversion? And ultimately, there's not
1:38there's not really too many things you
1:40can track besides your actual calls,
1:43forms, contacts. Anytime somebody
1:46submits information to you looking for
1:48you to do a job for them, that is
1:50ultimately the very first thing that you
1:52want to track. Now, what I generally
1:54recommend to people is if you do have a
1:56CRM and you do have a way to qualify
1:58leads, so you know, somebody clicks on
2:00an ad, somebody calls your business, and
2:0410 days later that person actually books
2:06a job with you, and you're able to, you
2:08know, get a job, they go into your CRM.
2:10A lot of CRM integrate with Google Ads
2:11now to where they'll be able to take
2:14that person's initial Google Click ID
2:15and actually assign it to that offline
2:19conversion. So this is also called
2:21offline conversion tracking, conversion
2:23imports, but essentially something that
2:25is happening either at a store or it is
2:29something that is going to be happening
2:30in your CRM where you then have that
2:33data uploaded back into Google ads and
2:36it looks at all the clicks your Google
2:37ads send. So to basically answer this
2:40question, what are you generally
2:41tracking as a lead generation company? I
2:44would say that the main things that you
2:46want to be tracking I would say if you
2:47have no physical loca location you're
2:49just getting people calling filling out
2:51forms that's what you want to track it's
2:53going to be calls directly from your ads
2:56calls from your website using call
2:58forwarding so people who are on a
2:59desktop laptop pull out their phone to
3:02call using call forwarding and then the
3:04other thing is going to be people who
3:05click on call buttons on your website
3:07and actually use that to place a call.
3:10Now the click on call button you have to
3:12always keep in mind that one only
3:13requires a click on a button. So it is a
3:15conversion action that could potentially
3:17be not always accurate. Whereas the what
3:20I call them desktop phone calls but
3:22basically call forwarding calls from a
3:24website those are going to be require a
3:2830-cond 60-cond however you want to have
3:30that set phone call to be counted as a
3:32conversion. Same with calls from your
3:34ads. So ultimately what you're looking
3:36for are you know I'm a big just use the
3:3860 seconds 60C or longer phone calls as
3:40a conversion desktop phone calls that's
3:43going to use call forwarding calls from
3:45ads that is going to be calls directly
3:48from your call assets. Now as I talk
3:50about these things if you're like this
3:52sounds like another language that's if
3:54you're running Google ads if you're
3:55managing Google ads I do provide
3:57consulting so always reach out but the
4:00other one is going to be the mobile
4:01clicks the call. out. Those are the
4:03three main conversions that I generally
4:05always start with with new lead
4:07generation accounts. Mechanic reaches
4:09out, tree service reaches out, plumber
4:11reaches out, electrician reaches out,
4:13any of these types of companies. Now,
4:14mechanics have a physical location, but
4:16you're always want to track that phone
4:18call because that's the first step a lot
4:20of people take before business happens.
4:22So, you're tracking that phone call from
4:24Google Ads. Next is going to be form
4:27completions, booked appointments, other
4:30things on the website where people
4:31submit information to you. I have some
4:33clients who have multiples of these
4:35where, you know, one might be a request
4:38a free quote, another one might be
4:40request a call back. So you could do
4:43different options of these, but
4:44ultimately anytime somebody submits an
4:46inquiry to you, that counts as a
4:48conversion. When I get new Google Ads
4:51clients, it 99% of the time, well,
4:54unless it's a referral, but if I'm
4:55getting it, it's going to be somebody
4:57fills out my contact form, I contact
4:59them back. The conversion is the contact
5:01form. So, that's what you want to track
5:03back into Google Ads. So, the other
5:06thing is going to be if you have
5:08something set up in the case of a live
5:10chat, in case of text messaging options,
5:14any of these, then you want to set all
5:16those up as conversions as well. I have
5:19had people that their main call to
5:21action is a click to email button which
5:24I generally don't recommend but a click
5:26to email button and it wasn't tracked
5:28and it's like hey why don't we just do a
5:30form and you'll get the email anyway we
5:31could track the form and a simple change
5:34like that on Google ads not only gave us
5:36more conversion data because we were
5:38able to track it but the conversion rate
5:39went way up and they got more leads. So,
5:42it's like sometimes what you want to do
5:44is just do what works. Focus on the
5:47easiest way for clients to contact you
5:49and make sure that is tracked back. How
5:52do we do this? I track all my
5:54conversions using Google Tag Manager.
5:56So, you install Google Tag Man. Google
5:58Tag Manager is free. You install Google
6:00Tag Manager on your website. From Google
6:03Tag Manager, you can set up every single
6:06piece that you need to for this to work.
6:07the conversion linker tag, the
6:10conversion tracking tags that you need
6:11to use. Google Tag Manager, the whole
6:14point of it is to create actions for
6:16things that are happening on your
6:17website and using tags and deploying
6:19pixels. Basically, to be able to track
6:22events that are happening much better on
6:25websites, mobile apps, anything. So,
6:28Google Tag Manager is my number one way
6:30to track conversions. You can also use
6:32Google Analytics 4 and import your
6:34conversions directly from Google
6:36Analytics 4. You could also just
6:38hardcode conversions from Google Ads.
6:40So, when you're setting up Google Ads
6:42from the Google Ads interface, that is
6:44how you would want to do it. Now, I do
6:45have videos on my channel on the YouTube
6:47channel for how to set up conversion
6:49tracking, tag manager, all of these
6:51different things. And there's a lot of
6:52resources out there for how to do this,
6:54but set up conversion tracking with tag
6:56manager anytime there is a key action
6:59that's happening for your business.
7:00That's kind of the main takeaway here.
7:03So question is basically you know what
7:06conversions do we set up for lead
7:08generation and it's going to be at least
7:11those three main phone calls calls from
7:13ads mobile clicks to call desktop call
7:15forwarding and then the lead form
7:17contact form so there's always like four
7:19main conversions that you're tracking
7:21any other way people can get in contact
7:23with you want to track that as a
7:24conversion now there's other conversions
7:27that may track when you link your Google
7:29business profile sometimes you can track
7:31calls directly from your business
7:32profile. So there's different things
7:34that you can track from there. Get
7:36directions, store visits. So different
7:38things that you kind of track, but from
7:40a lead generation perspective, that's
7:41generally what I am starting with. And I
7:44always the very first thing I do is
7:46conversion tracking because it's the
7:47most important thing in Google Ads. Your
7:49bidding, your performance, everything is
7:51going to be based on the conversions
7:53you're actually sending back to Google.
7:55So that will finish question number one.
7:58Question number two is going to be,
8:00should I use call rail or another
8:03third-party tool to track phone calls,
8:06forms, text messages, you know, all of
8:09these different actions that people are
8:10going to all these different ways that
8:12people contact us. So my answer to this
8:14question is
8:16if you value being able to look at a
8:19report at the end of the month and
8:21understand where everything for your
8:24business is coming from then call rail
8:26is a good investment. Call rail is
8:28probably going to cost the average you
8:30know a company that is doing let's just
8:31say let's say you're a company that
8:33processes 100 leads a month 100 leads a
8:36month. So through call rail you're going
8:39to have those 100 leads will come
8:40through and basically each individual
8:43lead is going to be tied back to phone
8:45number you know where they called from
8:48they'll have more data about the actual
8:49caller themselves the people that are
8:51contacting you so it does give you a
8:53better picture in terms of attribution
8:55what ads are actually working what which
8:58one of your efforts are driving the best
9:00results so if you're running meta ads
9:02and Google ads and let's say you're
9:03doing you know you're investing in SEO
9:05and you have traffic coming in from your
9:07business profile. You're able to see all
9:09of these things. Here's where this phone
9:11call came from. Here was the call
9:13duration. Here is a call transcript. So,
9:15the transcript is the other thing that's
9:17valuable for companies that really want
9:19to make sure that they don't have drop
9:22offs because of the salesperson or
9:24because of the sales process. That's
9:26where a transcript can actually be very
9:27useful. There are also a lot of AI tools
9:30that Call Rail provides along with
9:32others. So, what converts is another one
9:33that does similar things that Call Rail
9:35will do. Now, the the one thing I'll
9:37always say is you really you really need
9:39a lot of conversion data in Google Ads.
9:41So, one of the biggest challenges I have
9:43at times is you have a client that
9:45reaches out that isn't doing bulk leads.
9:48So, there's certain industries, you
9:49know, a a floor installer is generally
9:52like a floor installer that's targeting
9:54a single city is generally not going to
9:56be doing, you know, 10 floors a day.
9:58They're not going to be doing two,
10:00three, four jobs a day. It's kind of one
10:02of those things where you get a job, the
10:03job is going to take several days, maybe
10:05a week or two, depending on how, you
10:07know, intensive that job is. There's
10:09some that, you know, you may have a
10:10commercial building. So ultimately, you
10:14are trying to get these these jobs to
10:16keep you kind of always busy and and
10:18keep you booked out. So sometimes what
10:20you I mean you really want to track that
10:22phone call, you want to track that lead
10:23form, but that's really where I start
10:25tracking. Okay, this person, you know,
10:27thi things that might not necessarily
10:30include all of that. So sometimes it
10:32might be a key visit to a page that
10:34somebody is on your website for over 90
10:38seconds and they also visit the, you
10:41know, this specific page on your
10:42website. So then you kind of say, okay,
10:43this person interacted with our website
10:45for a little bit. you know, we're going
10:46to start valuing this as, and this is
10:49what I call a precon conversion. Now,
10:51precon conversions are never going to go
10:53into call rail, but preconversions are
10:55things like engaged sessions.
11:33For one client, we have a button on the
11:35actual page itself when people get on
11:37the call to action, book your free
11:38consultation. So that goes to the
11:41contact page. So we just track that
11:42button as a pre-con conversion. The goal
11:44is to get enough pre-con conversion data
11:46in so you can just really optimize for
11:48your conversion data. So, I generally
11:50don't tell people, hey, you need to
11:52optimize for precon conversion data. But
11:54when you're really struggling to get
11:56volume, when you're not doing 5 to 10
11:58phone calls a day, and like for
12:00higherend services, you know, if you
12:01sell retaining walls and you do
12:03driveways and you do, you know, big
12:05concrete work, a lot of times you're not
12:07processing tons and tons of phone calls
12:08and lead forms every single day. There's
12:10just not that level of business out
12:12there all the time that there's, you
12:14know, 10 people inquiring on a given
12:15day. So basically for some of these what
12:18you want is to make sure that you're
12:19just telling Google, hey that person
12:21came to my website, they visited it for
12:23x amount, they engaged with the website,
12:25they visited a key page, they clicked on
12:26a key button. You know, some of those
12:27things can still be worthwhile. And I
12:31tend to do things like that more and
12:33look at the rates of those things than
12:34actually using like a a heat mapping
12:36tool or anything like that. So answer
12:38the question for call rail. The answer
12:40to me is generally you don't have to use
12:42it. It's valuable if you do actually
12:45want more of that data of like where is
12:48everything coming from. You can actually
12:49track text messaging through it. You can
12:51track forms. You can track calls. So you
12:52can track everything through it. Gives
12:54you kind of a cleaner picture than what
12:56Google Ads does. But through Google Ads,
12:58you could still get a call details
13:00report that gives you the phone calls
13:01that are calling you, when they came in,
13:03when conversions came in, which
13:04conversions came in. you just kind of
13:07don't always get the picture of tying
13:09that individual conversion to a specific
13:12click. The final thing with call rail
13:14and this is really where you know
13:16companies that are doing this are
13:17getting a step ahead is with call rail
13:20you could put a value behind each
13:21individual client. So let's just say you
13:23have 20 different phone calls in a given
13:26week and you go back on okay so these
13:29seven different phone calls turn into
13:30jobs for us. this job turned into, you
13:34know, make up whatever, $700. This job
13:36was $1,500. This job was $300. You could
13:39actually put those numbers in and fire
13:41that data back into Google Ads. And
13:43that's going to give you more data and
13:45more value data for Google Ads. So, they
13:47could actually say, hey, you drove this
13:49many leads, but it actually led to X
13:51amount of conversion value of revenue
13:54for your business. So, now we can
13:56actually bid to drive you more revenue.
13:59So, definitely something that you want
14:00to implement. The more you can do that,
14:02the better. But ultimately, what we're
14:03trying to do is track the key
14:05performance indicators, make sure that
14:07we're getting all of that data into our
14:09Google Ads account, tying it back to our
14:11campaign targeting, and bidding
14:14effectively so that we can drive the
14:15best possible results. So, that is going
14:17to conclude episode one of the Surfside
14:20PPC podcast. If you want to get in touch
14:22with me, surfsideep.com,
14:24contact form, consulting, management,
14:27premium. There's a tools page on there
14:29for the tools that I use. So go there,
14:31get everything you need. Thank you for
14:33listening today. Please subscribe, tell
14:34a friend. I'll be back with more
14:36episodes. If you want to ask a question,
14:38so my plan is to make this more
14:40personalized for people that are in the
14:41community. If you want to ask a
14:43question, then basically all you're
14:45going to have to do is join the premium
14:48section and I'm going to go through
14:49questions that people ask in there.
14:50We're going to do a post and just make
14:52sure that post goes out, people ask the
14:54questions, and I will answer them. So,
14:56thanks for listening and I'll see you in
14:58a future episode.

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of Surfside PPC Podcast Episode 1 - Conversion Tracking For Lead Generation by Surfside PPC, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 2,903 words across 416 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to choose a caption track available on the video.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, caption language selection, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.