As a marketer, driving more traffic to your site and qualified leads to your sales department are often the primary goals. One significant channel that is often targeted is Facebook Ads. With over 2.85 billion monthly active users, it’s easy to see why this is a popular choice.
However, simply posting ads on Facebook is only one side of the coin. It’s equally important to understand how these ads are performing to help determine your ROI. This is where a tracking tool such as Google Analytics is invaluable.
How to Track Facebook Ads in Google Analytics
To track Facebook Ads in Google Analytics, you’ll need to set up links to your site with the appropriate UTM tags. These tags in the URLs typically include the campaign name, source, medium, term, and content.
Google Analytics will automatically record this campaign data once a user visits your site by clicking on these links. By extracting these tags from the visit, GA can then report on the general campaign performance.
To determine ROI, marketers can achieve this if you are running an eCommerce business since GA can also track sales data. Unfortunately, if you run a SaaS site or you want precise conversion numbers, this is where Google Analytics falls short.
Limitations of Google Analytics in Understanding Campaign Performance
Google Analytics does not track individual profiles and uses sampled data which can lead to wildly inaccurate results. These are major limiting factors when it comes to understanding campaign performance.
While not trying to bash GA, it’s essential to understand the tool’s limitations. As an eCommerce, SaaS, or B2B business, it’s vital to have the most accurate data possible regarding sales and conversions from advertising channels.
Google Analytics can be great for general traffic but is not recommended for precise campaign tracking or tying channel performance to individual user sales.
One alternative analytic tool you may consider is Woopra. Made with marketers in mind, Woopra can accurately track campaign performance and tie sales and revenue directly to marketing channels such as Facebook Ads.
Since Woopra focuses on individual user profiles, unlike GA, tracking sales data from various sites such as eCommerce, SaaS, or B2B businesses is simple. Having access to this data creates a more accurate and complete view of ad performance, making a tool such as Woopra a much better choice.
Common Questions
- Can Google Analytics Track Individual Users?
- How Accurate Is Google Analytics?
- What Data Does Google Analytics Collect?
- Does Google Analytics Use Cookies?
Use Cases
- How to Use Google Analytics for Marketing
- Google Analytics and Salesforce
- Google Analytics and Marketo
- Hubspot vs Google Analytics
Product Review and Costs