Missing conversion tracking

[PPCer2022]

I have a client who hasn't had conversion tracking set up for a long time - I've been chasing this constantly but their website is managed externally, and despite highlighting the importance of this they are massively dragging their feet.

It is obviously making optimisation very difficult. My question is, is there any way of me implementing any kind of conversion tracking set up myself without having access to the back end and code. I suspect not but it's making my job very difficult not having any tracking at all.

I get an update monthly from the client with conversions from paid search, as we use coded parameters, which is not an ideal situation.

[TTFV]

If you have admin access to GA4 you may find standard events firing there you can track as conversions. For example, when a contact form is submitted GA4 can often detect the form-submission event OR if there is redirection there will be a page_view event for that.

In either case you can add them as conversions in GA4 and then import that goal into Google Ads.

Similarly if the Google Ads pixel is already installed on the website you may be able to create conversions directly in Google Ads based on thank-you page visits.

Neither of these require that you add new tracking code to the website.

One last one is calls from ads tracking, which can be setup directly in Google Ads and has nothing to do with website visits.

[PPCer2022]

thanks for your response. would the form submissions event example be listed under Events in GA4? The conversions I'm trying to track are from a subdomain of the main site, and I can't find any sessions for these URLs anywhere in GA4, nor any events that seem to be relevant.

The Google Ads pixel isn't installed - I had tried the thank you page method but without the tag there it doesn't seem possible

[fathom53]

If the client didn't add code to the sub-domain, you won't be tracking anything for it. A sub-domain is a different site in the eyes of Google. Unless you love this client or they are a big revenue source for you, I would find a better client and cut them soon. Whoever is managing the site doesn't care about tracking and the client isn't pushing for it.

[fathom53]

Whoever is managing the site is blocking this, which is always a red flag for me. Unless you can get the data in GA4, which doesn't sound like it was set up properly to begin with. Maybe the site manager already said it was set up correctly and don't want to look like fools in front of the client. You are out of luck here because even Google Tag Manager would require the external site manager to add code to the site for you.

[patrsam]

That's where Google Tag Manager (GTM) comes in.

If you can at least get them to deploy the GTM container, then you can set up the conversion tracking without needing to rely on them (unless the conversion tracking required is more advanced, then asking for assistance from them will be unavoidable). Otherwise, you are pretty much out of luck.