How to Set Up PPC Conversion Tracking in Drupal

One of the most important activities in any online marketing campaign, be that Pay Per Click (PPC) or Organic (SEO), is determining what your conversions (or valued events) are. For most people, this is a product sale or contact form submission. It could even be extended to a white paper download, phone call from the website or a page view on an important page. Once you've determined your conversion point, it's important to then track it in your analytics package. In Google Analytics, this involves either setting a goal for your account. In Google's AdWords platform, the process for conversion tracking is a little more complex. Throw Drupal into the mix, and you've got yourself a veritable quandary! But do not fear! Here's how you can set up conversion tracking for Google AdWords and Drupal. Note: This tutorial assumes you're running Drupal 6.x, and using the Webform module for form submissions.

1. Identify your conversion point

   For this tutorial, we're going to assume you've decided that a user submitting a contact form on your website is your primary conversion point.

2. Grab the conversion tracking code from Google AdWords

   Grabbing the code for your PPC campaign can become a little involved. You'll have to drill into your account, then click on the reporting tab, then click on conversions. If you don't have a conversion set up yet, you'll need to add one. Once you have your code generated, copy it to a text file.

3. Edit your Webform to redirect to a unique thank you page

   This is arguably the most important step in this process. Create a unique thank you page, and then grab the internal path for it (i.e. - node/1245). Take that internal path and enter it into the confirmation message or redirect URL field. Then save your form.

4. Add the conversion code to your thank you page

   Go back to your unique thank you page and click edit. Grab the code that was generated from your Google AdWords PPC account, and paste it into the body of your thank you page. Save the form.

5. Test and monitor

   At this point, you should have a webform that redirects to a unique thank you page. Monitor your Google AdWords account to be sure that conversions are being tracked properly.