WooCommerce is a popular e-commerce platform that allows businesses to easily set up an online store and sell their products or services. One important aspect of running an e-commerce business is tracking conversions, or the actions that customers take on your website that indicate they are interested in making a purchase. This can include adding items to their cart, initiating the checkout process, or completing a purchase.
Google Tag Manager is a free tool that allows you to quickly and easily add tracking and marketing tags to your website, without the need for coding or technical expertise. One of the benefits of using Google Tag Manager is that you can easily set up conversion tracking for your WooCommerce store, which can help you understand which marketing efforts are driving the most sales and make informed decisions about how to allocate your resources.
In this article, we will walk you through the process of setting up conversion tracking for your WooCommerce store using Google Tag Manager. We will cover the following steps:
- Setting up a Google Tag Manager account
- Installing the Google Tag Manager code on your WooCommerce store
- Creating a conversion tracking tag in Google Tag Manager
- Setting up a trigger to fire the conversion tracking tag
- Testing and debugging your conversion tracking setup
Let’s get started!
Step 1: Setting up a Google Tag Manager account
The first step in setting up conversion tracking for your WooCommerce store using Google Tag Manager is to create a Google Tag Manager account. If you already have a Google account (such as a Gmail account), you can use that to log in to Google Tag Manager. If you don’t have a Google account, you can create one for free at https://accounts.google.com/signup.
Once you have logged in to Google Tag Manager, you will need to create a new account and container for your WooCommerce store. To do this, click the “Create Account” button on the main dashboard.
On the next screen, you will be asked to enter your account name and choose a country. You can name your account anything you like (such as “My WooCommerce Store”), and you should choose the country where your business is located.
After you have entered your account information, click the “Continue” button to proceed to the next screen.
On the next screen, you will be asked to choose a container for your WooCommerce store. A container is a group of tags, triggers, and variables that you want to manage together. You can create multiple containers within a single account, which can be useful if you have multiple websites or want to track different types of events or actions on your website.
For the purposes of setting up conversion tracking for your WooCommerce store, you will want to create a new container specifically for your store. To do this, click the “Create Container” button on the right side of the screen.
On the next screen, you will be asked to enter a container name and choose a container type. You can name your container anything you like (such as “WooCommerce Conversion Tracking”), and you should choose “Web” as the container type.
After you have entered your container information, click the “Create” button to create your container. This will bring you to the main dashboard for your new container, which is where you will set up your conversion tracking tags and triggers.
Step 2: Installing the Google Tag Manager code on your WooCommerce store
Now that you have created a Google Tag Manager account and container for your WooCommerce store, the next step is to install the Google Tag Manager code on your website. This code is what allows Google Tag Manager to communicate with your website and track the events that you want to track.
To install the Google Tag Manager code on your WooCommerce store, you will need to access the source code of your website. If you are using a WordPress site, you can do this by logging in to your WordPress dashboard and going to “Appearance > Editor.” From there, you should be able to access the source code for your website.
Once you have access to the source code of your website, you will need to copy the Google Tag Manager code and paste it into the source code of your website. Specifically, you should paste the code just before the closing </head> tag on every page of your website.
To get the Google Tag Manager code, go back to your Google Tag Manager dashboard and click the “Install Google Tag Manager” button on the main dashboard. On the next screen, you will see a code snippet that you can copy and paste into your website.
Copy the code snippet and go back to the source code of your website. Paste the code snippet just before the closing </head> tag, and then save your changes.
Now that you have installed the Google Tag Manager code on your WooCommerce store, you can start setting up your conversion tracking tags and triggers.
Step 3: Creating a conversion tracking tag in Google Tag Manager
A tag is a piece of code that you can use to track specific events or actions on your website. In Google Tag Manager, you can create different types of tags for different purposes, such as tracking pageviews, clicks, form submissions, and more.
To set up conversion tracking for your WooCommerce store, you will need to create a new tag specifically for tracking conversions. To do this, go to your Google Tag Manager dashboard and click the “Tags” link on the left side of the screen. This will bring you to the “Tags” page, where you can create and manage your tags.
To create a new tag, click the “New” button on the top right of the screen. This will bring up the “Tag Configuration” window, where you can choose the type of tag you want to create and configure its settings.
For the purposes of tracking conversions on your WooCommerce store, you will want to choose the “Google Analytics: Universal Analytics” tag type. This tag type allows you to track events and actions on your website using Google Analytics.
After you have chosen the “Google Analytics: Universal Analytics” tag type, you will need to configure the settings for your tag. Specifically, you will need to do the following:
- Set the “Track Type” to “Event.” This will tell Google Tag Manager to track an event on your website, rather than a pageview.
- Set the “Category” to “Conversion.” This will tell Google Analytics to categorize the event as a conversion.
- Set the “Action” to “Transaction.” This will tell Google Analytics to track a transaction event, which is typically associated with a purchase on an e-commerce website.
- Set the “Label” to a relevant value. This could be the name of the product that was purchased, the type of conversion that occurred (such as “Checkout Start”), or any other value that you want to use to identify the event.
- Set the “Value” to the value of the conversion. This could be the total amount of the purchase, the value of the product that was purchased, or any other value that you want to use to quantify the event.
After you have configured these settings, you can click the “Continue” button to proceed to the next step.
On the next screen, you will need to set up a trigger for your conversion tracking tag. A trigger is a condition that determines when your tag should fire, or execute. For example, you might set up a trigger to fire your conversion tracking tag when a user completes a purchase on your WooCommerce store.
To set up a trigger for your conversion tracking tag, click the “Triggering” tab on the top of the “Tag Configuration” window. Then, click the “Add Trigger” button to create a new trigger.
On the next screen, you will need to choose the type of trigger you want to create. For the purposes of tracking conversions on your WooCommerce store, you will want to choose the “Custom Event” trigger type. This trigger type allows you to specify a custom event that will cause your tag to fire.
After you have chosen the “Custom Event” trigger type, you will need to configure the settings for your trigger. Specifically, you will need to do the following:
- Set the “Event Name” to a relevant value. This should be the name of the event that you want to track, such as “Transaction Complete” or “Checkout Start.”
- Set the “Trigger Fires On” to “All Custom Events.” This will tell Google Tag Manager to fire your tag whenever the specified event occurs.
After you have configured these settings, you can click the “Create Trigger” button to create your trigger. Then, click the “Save” button to save your tag and trigger.
Your conversion tracking tag and trigger are now set up and ready to go!
Step 4: Testing and debugging your conversion tracking setup
Before you start using your conversion tracking setup to track conversions on your WooCommerce store, it’s a good idea to test and debug your setup to make sure everything is working as expected.
To test your conversion tracking setup, go to your WooCommerce store and perform the actions that should trigger your conversion tracking tag (such as completing a purchase or initiating the checkout process). Then, go back to your Google Tag Manager dashboard and click the “Preview” button on the top right of the screen.
This will open the “Tag Manager Debug Console,” which allows you to see what tags are being fired on your website in real-time. You can use the debug console to check that your conversion tracking tag is firing correctly and that the correct data is being sent to Google Analytics.
If you see any issues with your conversion tracking setup, you can use the debug console to troubleshoot and fix them. For example, if your conversion tracking tag is not firing when it should, you may need to check that your trigger is set up correctly or that the custom event is being properly triggered on your website.
Once you have tested and debugged your conversion tracking setup, you can click the “Publish” button on the top right of the screen to deploy your changes to your live website. This will make your conversion tracking setup active and start tracking conversions on your WooCommerce store.
Conclusion
In this article, we have walked you through the process of setting up conversion tracking for your WooCommerce store using Google Tag Manager. We have covered the following steps:
- Setting up a Google Tag Manager account
- Installing the Google Tag Manager code on your WooCommerce store
- Creating a conversion tracking tag in Google Tag Manager
- Setting up a trigger to fire the conversion tracking tag
- Testing and debugging your conversion tracking setup
By following these steps, you can easily set up conversion tracking for your WooCommerce store and start tracking the actions that customers take on your website. This can help you understand which marketing efforts are driving the most sales and make informed decisions about how to allocate your resources.
It’s worth noting that conversion tracking is just one aspect of running a successful e-commerce business. There are many other factors that can affect your sales and conversions, such as the quality and price of your products, the design and usability of your website, and your overall marketing and sales strategy.
However, by setting up conversion tracking and monitoring your results, you can gain valuable insights into what is and isn’t working for your business, and make changes accordingly. This can help you optimize your e-commerce strategy and drive more sales for your WooCommerce store.
I hope this article has been helpful in explaining how to set up conversion tracking for your WooCommerce store using Google Tag Manager. If you have any further questions or need additional assistance, feel free to ask. Good luck with your e-commerce business!
