Tracking X-Cart sales is vital for continued growth of your e-commerce store. In consultations with clients I noticed there are two common misconceptions in regards to tracking sales (hereon referred to as conversions) when using Google AdWords or Google Analytics. Let’s go over these briefly:
Misconception#1: Google AdWords tracking and Google Analytics tracking are the same thing.
Both Google AdWords and Google Analytics use two DIFFERENT methods of capturing and reporting conversions – each which require their own special tracking script installed on your receipt / thank you page.
The Google AdWords Conversion Script (installation instructions available here) is used for reporting conversions in your AdWords Dashboard. The information your AdWords Conversion Script can report is simply:
a.) If there was a sale
b.) Amount of the sale (viewable in your AdWords Reports)
This is important when evaluating your AdWords account performance and will help you build on campaigns that are successful while optimizing or trimming down those that are not.
Google Analytics e-commerce tracking is a powerful reporting script that captures more relevant data – product name(s), shipping revenue, category, product revenue & integrates it throughout your reports. This information is the backbone of your analytics reporting and should be used when evaluating any website or online marketing decisions.
Misconception#2: Successful conversion tracking depends on the X-Cart order status
Google AdWords and Analytics tracking are completely independent of x-carts order processing system. Changing your order status from ‘Processed’ to ‘Complete’ does not update or modify the conversion information for Google AdWords or Analytics.
In order for a conversion to be successfully recorded your visitor MUST visit the ‘Receipt / Thank You’ page since that is where the tracking scripts are stored on your site. If a visitor leaves your site (say to a 3rd party payment processor like PayPal), completes the order – but DOES NOT return to the receipt page of your store after paying that sale will not be counted as a conversion.
For Paypal there is a way to automatically send your customers to the receipt page after completing a transaction. This will help you capture more transactions via Google Analytics (assuming it is properly configured – which it is not out of the box).
To enable this do the following:
1. Login to PayPal and click My Account -> Profile
2. In the right hand column click ‘Website Payment Preferences’
3. Turn on the first option ‘Auto Return’ and in the Return URL place
http://www.YOURDOMAINHERE.com/cart.php?mode=order_message&orderids=
That’s it. Place a test order to verify.
Tags: adwords tracking, e-commerce tracking google analytics, x-cart conversion tracking