LinkedIn Conversion Tracking: A Complete Guide

Sep 18, 2023

min read

In the era of digital marketing, one critical concept has emerged as the cornerstone of any successful campaign: conversion tracking.

By definition, conversion tracking is a method to measure website visitors' actions after interacting with an advertisement. This concept plays a crucial role in understanding your audience, optimizing your advertising strategy, and boosting your ROI.

However, with the increasing popularity of various platforms, marketers are required to understand the specific conversion tracking tools each platform provides. One such platform is LinkedIn, boasting a diverse professional network of over 875 million users worldwide.

When it comes to LinkedIn, conversion tracking isn't merely an option; it's a vital part of maximizing your campaign's effectiveness.

What Is LinkedIn Conversion Tracking?

LinkedIn Conversion Tracking allows you to measure the actions your audience takes after viewing or clicking on your LinkedIn Ads. This tool operates within LinkedIn's Campaign Manager and uses LinkedIn Insight Tag, a lightweight piece of javascript code installed on your website, to collect valuable conversion data.

When we talk about LinkedIn Ads, we're referring to sponsored content, text ads, or dynamic ads that are designed and managed through LinkedIn's Campaign Manager. This platform is an all-encompassing hub for launching, managing, and optimizing your LinkedIn ad campaigns.

To fully understand LinkedIn Conversion Tracking, it's crucial to familiarize yourself with a few key terms:

• The term “pixel” refers to a piece of code, often referred to as an image pixel, embedded on a website to track user behavior.

• An “event-specific pixel” is a unique type of pixelconfigured to record specific actions or “conversion actions” — these can be downloads, form submissions, purchases, or any valuable user action.

• “Metrics” are the quantitative measurements you'll use to assess your campaign performance.

The importance of conversion data in LinkedIn Ads Campaigns can't be understated. By effectively tracking conversions, you'll gain insights into the performance of your ads, helping you understand what resonates with your audience, optimize your ads for higher engagement, and enhance your overall marketing strategy.

What Is the LinkedIn Insight Tag?

The LinkedIn Insight Tag is an integral part of LinkedIn Conversion Tracking. It's a piece of lightweight JavaScript code that you install on your website to track conversions and gain rich insights about your website visitors. The tag enables LinkedIn to record valuable data such as demographics and behavior of LinkedIn members visiting your site.

Understanding how the LinkedIn Insight Tag works requires a grasp of two specific concepts — site-wide insight tag and event-specific pixel:

• The site-wide insight tag is the primary code installed on every page of your website. This tag tracks broad metrics like page views and provides general insights about your website visitors.

• An event-specific pixel is a more specialized version of the insight tag. It's designed to monitor particular user actions on your website, like form submissions or downloads, facilitating event-specific conversion tracking.

One crucial piece of information you'll need to set up the LinkedIn Insight Tag is the Partner ID. This unique identifier connects your website to your LinkedIn ad account. To find your Partner ID, head to the 'Account Assets' dropdown in LinkedIn Campaign Manager, select 'Insight Tag,' and the Partner ID will be displayed.

How Do You Set Up LinkedIn Conversion Tracking?

Setting up LinkedIn Conversion Tracking is straightforward once you've understood the basics.

1. Start in the Campaign Manager: Login to your LinkedIn Campaign Manager. Navigate to “Account Assets” and select “Insight Tag.” Here, you'll find your unique JavaScript code, known as a snippet, which needs to be added to your website.

2. Install the Insight Tag on your website: Copy the JavaScript code, and paste it into every webpage you want to track. If you're using Google Tag Manager (GTM), add a new tag, select “Custom” as your tag type, and insert the LinkedIn Insight Tag code. Ensure to trigger this tag on all pages.

3. Create Conversions: Once your Insight Tag is live, navigate to “Account Assets” and select “Conversions.” Click “Create a Conversion.” Here, you'll define the type of conversion you want to track, such as page views, downloads, or registrations.

4. Define Conversion Window and Attribution Model: As part of the conversion setup, you'll define your conversion window (the timeframe in which you want to track conversions post-click or post-view) and choose your attribution model (how you allocate credit for conversions).

Remember, these steps are just a high-level overview. It's critical to validate the implementation and ensure the tags are firing correctly to accurately track conversions.

What Are the Different LinkedIn Conversion TrackingMetrics?

To make the most out of LinkedIn Conversion Tracking, you need to grasp the important metrics that it provides.

Here's a quick overview:

• Conversion Rate: This metric represents the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action (a conversion) on your website. It's an essential measure of your campaign's effectiveness.

• Page Load: This refers to the speed at which your webpage loads for a visitor. It's a critical metric because slow page load times can lead to higher bounce rates and negatively impact your conversion rate.

• Conversion Value: This is a value you assign to different conversions based on their impact on your business. For instance, you might assign a higher value to a form submission that generates a lead than a simple page view.

You also need to understand the difference between post-click and view-through conversions:

• Post-click conversions occur when a user clicks on your ad and then completes a conversion action on your website.

• View-through conversions happen when a user sees your ad, does not click, but later visits your website and completes a conversion.

These metrics help you gauge your campaign performance. High conversion rates and conversion values often indicate effective campaigns. Understanding post-click and view-through conversions also allows you to assess the indirect impact of your LinkedIn Ads.

Why Should You Use Conversion Tracking for LinkedIn Ads?

When integrated with LinkedIn Ads Campaigns, conversion tracking becomes a powerful tool for optimizing your advertising strategy.

LinkedIn Advertising allows for demographic targeting, which uses the rich professional data of LinkedIn members to target ads. Conversion tracking can show which demographics drive the most conversions, thus allowing you to refine your targeting strategy.

Landing pages and thank you pages also play a vital role in online conversion. The former serves as the first impression of your business, while the latter confirms a successful conversion (like a form submission or a download). By using conversion tracking, you can see how effective these pages are and make improvements as needed.

Finally, LinkedIn Conversion Tracking is invaluable for retargeting. It allows you to track website visitors who did not convert on their first visit and then serve them tailored LinkedIn Ads to encourage them to return and complete a conversion. This can significantly increase the overall success of your campaigns.

What Are Some Other Features of LinkedIn Conversion Tracking?

Delving deeper into LinkedIn Conversion Tracking, we uncover additional features and considerations that can further enhance your marketing strategies.

Tag Type, New Tag, and Tag Configuration

These advanced features give you more control over your tracking. Tag type allows you to customize what kind of data the Insight Tag collects. Creating a new tag lets you track unique events. Tag configuration involves setting up the tag in the right way to capture the specific conversion data you need.

Event-Specific Conversion Tracking

This allows you to track conversions tied to specific events, like downloading a white paper or signing up for a webinar. It requires a specialized version of the LinkedIn Insight Tag — known as an event-specific pixel — on the page where the event occurs.

Offline Conversions

Not all conversions happen online. LinkedIn Conversion Tracking can integrate offline conversion data (such as leads converted through a call center) into your metrics, providing a holistic view of your campaign's effectiveness.

Third-Party Cookies

LinkedIn Conversion Tracking relies on cookies to track user activity. However, third-party cookie blocking can impact the accuracy of your tracking data. To mitigate this, consider supplementing cookie data with other forms of tracking, such as first-party cookies.

How To Optimize LinkedIn Conversion Tracking

LinkedIn Conversion Tracking is a dynamic tool that thrives on ongoing optimization. Implementing these optimization strategies can be complex and time-consuming, but they’re essential to the overall success of your campaign.

Here are a few tips on how to optimize your LinkedIn conversion tracking:

• By adjusting your conversion window, which refers to the timeframe in which a user action counts as a conversion after viewing or clicking your ad, you can align your tracking efforts with your business model. For instance, a shorter conversion window may be suitable if you have a short sales cycle.

• The attribution modelalso plays a significant role in optimization. LinkedIn provides different models, including first click, last click, and linear attribution, each offering a unique perspective on your customers' conversion paths.

• Review your conversion data regularly and adjust campaign settings accordingly. If certain demographics are performing well or a particular ad is driving significant conversions, optimizing these factors can further increase performance.

• Retargeting is another strategy to consider. Retargeting LinkedIn members who interacted with your ads but didn't convert increases the chances of securing conversions in the future.

The Bottom Line

LinkedIn Conversion Tracking is a powerful tool that empowers marketers to maximize campaign performance and glean actionable insights from their LinkedIn Advertising efforts. It provides valuable data that can drive your marketing decisions, directly contributing to the effectiveness of your campaigns and, in turn, your business growth.

Whether you're a seasoned digital marketer or new to LinkedIn Advertising, consider leveraging this tool and harnessing its full potential. However, if you need assistance, GR0 is an SEO agency and full service digital advertising agency that’s ready to help with your digital marketing campaign and optimize your conversion tracking for success.

Schedule a consultation with us today to learn why we’re one of the fastest-growing digital marketing agencies in the country. Together we can help you “GR0” your marketing campaign to reach its fullest potential!

Sources:

What Is Conversion Tracking? | Business News Daily

LinkedIn Usage and Revenue Statistics (2023) | Business of Apps

Conversion Tracking | LinkedIn Marketing Solutions

Lurking Beneath the Surface: Hidden Impacts of Pixel Tracking | Federal Trade Commission

Campaign Manager | LinkedIn

Insight Tag | LinkedIn Marketing Solutions

Metrics Definition | Investopedia

Use Event-Specific Conversion Tracking | Marketing Solutions

Different Types of Featured Snippets | Semrush

Set up LinkedIn Online Conversion Tracking | Marketing Solutions

What Is Retargeting And Why Is It Important? | Forbes