Last week we learned what PPC remarketing is. Now I’m going to walk you through how to set up remarketing through Adwords.
In order to re-target effectively you’ll need a Google Adwords account and a Google Analytics account. If you don’t have one or either of these accounts you’ll need to create them. You can easily find how-to articles and instructions online.
However if you do have these accounts I will show you how to link them, a very necessary step in our setup process.
To start off, login to your Analytics account and navigate to the Admin tab in the top right corner of your screen. Under the account column (leftmost column) select the “AdWords Linking” menu item.
Then select the “+ New Link” option.
You should then see a list of accounts associated with the login info for your Adwords account. Choose the account you would like to link to from the list and select the “Next step” button. Under “Link configuration” select the profile you want to link then press on the “Link accounts” button.
The purpose of using Google Tag Manager is to compile all of your tracking codes and remarketing tags into one place. This will make things easy when we create audiences for remarketing- since some audiences will be created in Google Analytics and others in Adwords.
Go to the Google Tag Manager page and sign in. You’ll automatically be taken to page to create an account. Name your account and select “Next”. Name your container (i.e. Example.com GTM Container), select “Web Pages”. You’ll need to add your websites domain (and any secure https domains and subdomains). Next, select your country and time zone.
Click, “Create Account and Container” and accept the terms of service. You’ll then be taken to a page containing the container you’ll need to add to your website. Copy and paste this code to your website. Then select the “Add Tags Later” option at the bottom of the screen.
The Google Tag Manger container needs to be added to every page of your website (including secure pages and subdomains) directly after the opening <body>
tag.
There are two key GTM tags we’ll need to create. The first is a Google Analytics tag. This will be used to insert your tracking code onto every page of your website.
Create and name a new GTM tag and select “Google Analytics” as the tag type. Enter your analytics property id (found under the tracking info section under the admin menu in your analytics account). This next step is very important- select the checkbox next to “Enable display advertiser features like remarketing…”. Leave the “Track Type” option on “Page View”.
Next select the “+ Add Rule to Fire Tag” option. The default rule for all pages is what we want. Select the checkbox and hit save.
This is what your screen should look like. Click save and we will move on to creating the next two tags. The second tag we’ll create is an Adwords remarketing tag.
Create and name the tag. Set the tag type to AdWords Remarketing. In the grey “Info & Tips” box you’ll find instructions on where to find the Conversion ID and Conversion Label. Just as we did with the analytics tag, add a rule to fire the tag on all pages.
The next tag is for AdWords conversion tracking. If you are not currently tracking conversions or are only trakcing conversions imported from analytics then you can skip this step.
Name the tag and set the tag type to AdWords Conversion Tracking. Again the grey “Info & Tips” box has instructions on where to find the conversion information in your Adwords account. Enter the needed conversion information.
We will need to create a tag firing rule for this tag. Click on “+ Add Rule to Fire Tag”. Select the “Create new rule” option. You’ll need to enter the url that appears in your Google AdWords account under the “Webpages” tag on the Conversions page found in the Tools and Analysis menu. Adjust the Conditions to fit your needs and click save.
Once the tags are created select the “Create Version” button near the top right corner of your screen. Then you’ll need to preview and debug the code by clicking “Preview and Debug” in the “Preview” drop down menu.
Then select the domain (website url) you want to test. You can then navigate around the site and see how and if the GTM tags are firing. I would also visit the “thank-you” or “order-confirmation page you’re tracking for Adwords. If the tracking tag fires you are good to go.
Lastly, exit preview mode and publish your container. Once you get the GTM container installed and working on your website you’ll need to remove any other Google Analytics or AdWords tracking codes from your website.
Now that we’ve setup and installed the necessary code and linked your accounts we are on our way to increasing your sales through remarketing. If this seems too time consuming or complicated, don’t hesitate to contact us here at Get Found First for assistance. Stay tuned for my next post where I will walk you through how to set up and identify your remarketing audiences.
Do you have any tips or tricks for setting up Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager? Is there anything you would like to know that I haven’t covered in this post? Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or two below.