Tracking leads we generate for advertising customers - and leveraging content better

According to Google, "Google Analytics is a freemium web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic."

That's the issue you are currently having right, you're unable to track the data that the end-client actually receives from your service.

If you get a typical tracking software or plugin, you will have to rely on two things that still turn out to be problems for you. But before I go into the problem, let me mention how typical click or analytic software (including Google Analytics) work.

So the jist of analytic software is that there is a code placed on all of the pages on your site, that when a user goes to your site, data is sent back to the software/tool/plugin. Typical data that can go back is Time on Page, Bounce Rate (when a customer goes to your site but does not take action), Custom Events (on my publishing site, I have a Custom Event that shows me when a user has stayed on my site 30 seconds or longer. This indicates to me that even though they may not take action, they were reading the content) and Conversions on Goals.

So there's two basic principles you have to understand (not insulting your intelligence, but providing anyone else the references they need to understand how analytic software typically works without going into horrendous levels of detail) which are conversion pixels and tracking links.

To briefly sum up conversions they are typically two versions: 1) Conversion Pixels that Go on the "Thank You" page and 2) On-Event Conversion Pixels. So for example, if I run a publishing site and one of my goals is to get users to sign up for a newsletter, I would place a conversion pixel on the page they are brought to after they sign up. Let's say on the same publishing site, I also have a goal in mind for them to contact me for more information. Generally on form submission, you don't have a "thank you" page. What is needed is an On-Event Conversion Pixel/Script. What this does is fire a conversion when a specific event is triggered. For example, when I set up my 30 Second Timer Event, that's a type of conversion. So now, I can see the # of Unique Visitors that hit specific pages as well as see what percentage is staying longer than 30 seconds on my site. Other examples would be a click on a specific page element (image banner, link etc) or a successful form submission.

So now let's talk about tracking links. When I use the term tracking link, think Google Adwords, Bing Advertising etc I am literally referring to a link that tracks data from a unique click. In an applicable example: a user clicks a link in your newsletter, they are cookied with an unique identifier. Now that the unique user is cookied, if they takes action, for example optins to a newsletter that is connected with a conversion, the pixel is fired, and in the data collection software/plugin/tool it's recorded.

So now you hopefully understand the basics of analytic software, let's dive into your unique situation. I mentioned 2 problems you'll end up facing with certain set ups.

Let's say you buy a typical tracking software. So you can set up unique links for each school to be used in your newsletter. This will allow you to accurately tell the end client between 7/20 - 7/22 we sent you 1,213 clicks. Or you can safely say, the average client we work with are getting 15,784 clicks every week/month/whatever. That's a great first step right? Now you can quantify what you are giving the client... Or can you?

Taking a step back, let's say you are a plumber. You have a website. And you hire someone to help you get more traffic to your site so you can get more clients. After a couple of months of paying this guy to work on your site, you think you are no better off than before. You confront your contractor and complain. He answers, I sent you 15,784 clicks last month! What does that mean to you, as a plumber? Probably nothing.

Always remember the end-goal that your client is expecting in exchange for the fees you are charging. They don't care about clicks. They want to see new clients calling for their admission information, right? Great, now we hopefully see the problem.

Using tracking software only solves half the problem, unless you get each school to place the correct conversion pixels on their own site, and to fully test it. In my experience, this is much harder to do, especially if you can just do it yourself. In my business, I don't expect anyone to do anything to move my business forward. I want all the control. So, if you can't get the conversion pixels working or on their site, you're stuck with only half of the data - clicks, when the client wants to see how many people actually contact them.

Now, the second issue that you will be facing is that most schools are good at running their school, but they probably aren't going to be great at getting people to perform a specific action, unless a lot of pre-selling has occurred. More on this later though.

So, you posed the correct question:
In short yes, Analytics can record all the data you need and for free (tah-dah!). So let's say your website is ACME Laboratories. You're a complete rockstar and integrated Analytics and Tag Manager (a system for quick deployment of pixels, but not needed persay) and now you signed up ABC School. You create their school page on www.acme.com/abc-school.

You installed analytics on that page, and now, no matter where you get the traffic (email newsletter, organic google search, facebook etc) Google Analytics is compiling information on who is visiting that page, what country they are from, what demographic information they are, what the referring site is etc.

So now, those 15,784 clicks before, are now all recording on Google Analytics with a lot more information tied to it. Now here comes in creating your own contact form plays in. With very little expertise and free WP plugins, you can create a detailed contact form with the information the school wants from it (more value to them) like Name, Email Address, Phone Number, etc. You can set this form to be sent directly to the school's admission inquiry email address. You can also set a Goal/Conversion up in Analytics that every time someone fills out the form it triggers "ABC School Lead".

Now when they are trying to figure out what value you bring to their school/business, you can say last month we sent you 15,784 Clicks and from those visitors, 2,347 signed up. Not only is this data backed up with Analytics, you can set the Subject line or something in the email to the admissions department that uniquely identifies that lead associated with your hard work. Not only that, but you can see which platforms are generating the most form submits. If you're running Facebook ads, and you are getting 6,000 clicks but 10 conversions, but when you are running Bing Ads you are getting 1,000 clicks and 800 form submissions, you should stop the FB Ad spend and reallocate to Bing. All this provided by Analytics.

Now you're looking sharp!

But wait! You realize that the conversion rate (Conversions Divided by Clicks) is only 14.86%. (Maybe that's good, Maybe it's Bad I don't know, but let's say it's horrible). Since you own the page they are landing on, you have the ability to tweak the page, provide clearer information and maybe even make a special report that the parent will get when they submit an inquiry form so you can raise the conversion rate of the page.

A 1% Increase in the above example equates to almost 160 new inquiries. So controlling the actual page allows you to do much more for your existing clients as well as provide them more value and help increase the lead quality.


So framing your business on the back of data you can say that our school admission pages convert at an average of 22% and we can generate an average of 15,000 clicks every month for the typical school. That's an average of 3,300 new admission queries. This can lead into what you suggested: case studies, white papers, pdfs and better recruitment documentation for prospective clients.