With about 90% of online shopping experiences beginning with a search engine, it’s no surprise businesses are in a fierce fight to take up real estate on Google search results.

AdWords is one of the most commonly used methods to bring search visitors directly to your site, whether it be a landing page or product page. As a S.F. SEO specialist, I’m often asked for ways companies can get on page 1 over night, and since SEO takes time, I’ll recommend a search network campaign.

But as expanding competition pushes cost-per-click prices to new highs (think of it like the real estate market in San Francsico), businesses need to be more careful than ever that they’re not miscalculating the number of conversions, leads or customers their PPC campaigns are generating.

Thinner margins produce smaller room for error, so with this article I’m going to walk you through 3 steps you can take to ensure you’re not miscalculating your AdWords ROI.

Turning off repeat conversions

When a visitor hits a landing page and fills out a form that puts them in your CRM, once is enough. Chances are they’re being put on an automated email list that sends them something from sales, so it’s likely the outreach process has already begun.

But often times visitors will return to landing pages to find a resource or ebook they liked. Maybe because they can’t find it, maybe it’s for a friend. They fill out the form a second time, and a 2nd conversion is recorded in AdWords.

Unless you turn off repeat conversions. You can follow this step by step guide from Google to update the settings in your AdWords account. A 2nd conversion from the same customer is not worth the same as a new lead. This can throw off your AdWords ROI if you don’t stay on top of things.

Checking your assisted conversion data, and using the correct attribution model

The assisted conversions reports of the most overlooked features in Google Analytics. But since Google AdWords syncs with your Google Analytics, you can use it to properly measure the ROI of your AdWords campaigns.

Also, AdWords attribution reports allows you to record assisted conversions in AdWord. When you do this, a keyword might produce 3.5 conversions in a week, as opposed to just 3.

We all know the online touch points are many, and that consumers might have their first experience with your brand through AdWords, and then convert at a later point through another channel.

It’s important to properly credit your PPC marketing when it’s appropriate, because lowering spend in this area could have a ripple effect and lower the volume of conversions across many different channels.

In Summary

Having a professional AdWords expert optimize your campaign with the right bids, demographic targets and ad text isn’t enough. The amount of inaccurate conversion reporting in AdWords accounts can easily be the difference between having a reliable, profitable marketing channel that consistently generates leads for you, and making the decision to abandon that channel.

Use the tips above and see how it affects your cost per conversion. Thanks for reading.