Conversion tracking: what to get right first

It comes up on almost every project, usually later than it should. If you only fix one thing about conversion tracking this quarter, make it the first item below.

Measurement is only useful when someone has agreed in advance what they would do differently. Budget a little time for it every quarter and it never becomes a project of its own.

Start here

If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it. That sounds obvious written down. It is still the thing most often skipped. The practical test is whether someone new to the project could tell, in a minute, that it had been handled.

Then this

Track the actions that map to revenue. The cost of getting this wrong is rarely visible on the day it happens. The practical test is whether someone new to the project could tell, in a minute, that it had been handled.

Eventually

Test that the tracking fires before relying on it. That sounds obvious written down. It is still the thing most often skipped. Write the reasoning down alongside the decision, because the reasoning is what changes first.

In practice

Data you do not trust is worse than no data, because it gets quoted anyway. Three things worth confirming about conversion tracking before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Track the actions that map to revenue — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

Pick the one that would hurt most if it failed, and start there.