Conversion tracking: see what your website delivers

What is a conversion on your website?

A conversion is a visitor taking an important step. What that step is depends on your business. For an online shop it's an order. For an installer it's a quote request or a phone call. For a driving school it's a request for a trial lesson.

There are big and small conversions. A big one, also called a macro conversion, brings in revenue or a lead directly. A small one, a micro conversion, is a step towards it:

• Macro conversions: an order, a quote request, a booked appointment, a completed contact form, a phone call.
• Micro conversions: a newsletter sign-up, a click to the pricing page, a brochure download, a click on a WhatsApp button, a watched video.

Start with the big conversions. They tell you the most. Micro conversions are useful when you get few enquiries but still want to see whether you're heading in the right direction.

Why conversion tracking matters so much

Visitor numbers say little. A thousand visitors who do nothing are worth less than a hundred visitors who send ten enquiries. With conversion tracking you can see:

• Which channel brings in customers: Google, ads, social media or email.
• Which pages work well and which make visitors drop off.
• Whether a change to your website actually improves things.
• What a customer from ads costs you, so you can spread your budget more wisely.

With paid ads especially, this is essential. Google Ads uses your conversion data to learn which clicks are valuable. Without proper tracking, the system optimises for clicks rather than customers. Read more about Google Ads for small businesses.

Conversion tracking in Google Analytics 4: the steps

In GA4, conversions are now called key events. Here's how to set them up:

• Decide which actions are worth the most to you. Keep it to two to five.
• Make sure each action becomes its own event. A form, for example, sends an event such as generate_lead after it's submitted.
• Preferably use a thank-you page or a message that only appears after a successful submission.
• Set up the events through your website itself or through Google Tag Manager.
• Mark them as key events in GA4.
• Test every conversion yourself: fill in the form and check that it appears in the real-time report.

New to GA4? Read our Google Analytics 4 guide first. It also explains how to set up the account itself properly.

How do you track forms, phone calls and WhatsApp?

Not every conversion is equally easy to track. A few practical tips per type:

• Forms: track the successful submission, not the click on the button. Otherwise you also count failed attempts.
• Phone number: make the number clickable and track the click. You won't see whether the call happened, but you will see the intent.
• WhatsApp button: track the click on the button, just like a phone number.
• Appointments: track the booking confirmation, for example via your booking system's thank-you page.
• Orders: track the completed purchase, including the amount, so you can see revenue per channel.

Do a lot of enquiries come in by phone? Then simply ask new customers how they found you. That nicely complements the numbers.

Conversion tracking for Google Ads

If you advertise with Google Ads, you want Ads to know which clicks led to something too. There are two ways to do that. You import the key events from GA4 into Google Ads, or you place a separate Google Ads conversion tag on your website. Choose one of the two as your main source, otherwise you count twice.

Give each conversion a value too, if you can. A quote request for a big job is worth more than a newsletter sign-up. Set micro conversions to secondary in Ads, so the system optimises for what really counts. Also read how to keep Google Ads costs under control.

How to calculate and read your conversion rate

Your conversion rate is the share of visitors who convert. You calculate it like this: number of conversions divided by number of visits, times a hundred. If you get 40 enquiries from 2,000 visits, your conversion rate is 2 per cent.

Mainly compare that number with yourself. A good conversion rate varies widely by industry, price and type of enquiry. The more important question is: does it go up after a change? Also look per channel and per page. You'll often see one page that attracts lots of visits but brings in almost nothing. That's where your opportunity lies.

Mistakes that make your conversion data unreliable

• Double counting: the same conversion is counted twice, for example through GA4 and a separate tag.
• You track the click on the submit button instead of a successful submission.
• The thank-you page can also be found through Google, so visitors without an enquiry are counted too.
• Form spam is counted as a conversion.
• The cookie banner blocks tracking without you knowing.
• Tracking hasn't been retested after a new website or redesign.

So test your tracking after every major change to your website. It takes ten minutes and saves you months of wrong numbers.

From tracking to more enquiries

Tracking is the first step. Then you start improving: a clearer button, a shorter form, reviews close to the enquiry, a faster page. You can read how to tackle that in our article on increasing your website conversion rate.

At Violexa we set up basic SEO and Google Analytics on every website. Would you also like us to follow your conversions every month and steer your campaigns on them? That's part of online marketing, from €599 excl. VAT (€725 incl. VAT) per month. There's no minimum term; you can cancel monthly with one month's notice.

Curious whether your tracking is right and where you're missing enquiries? Book a free quickscan. In 30 minutes, online or on site, we take a look with you. Afterwards you get brief written advice with a price indication, with no obligation.

Frequently asked questions