Are you tracking your success with Google Adwords? If you aren’t you are missing a key component to success with Google Adwords. It is great to make sure you change your ads, have the right keywords, and point everything to the right landing page but how do you know if you have done the right things or not? The answer lies in tracking your results.

Now Google gives you some great reports, charts and graphs but I find that if you track a few simple things then you can make sure to succeed without being overwhelmed with information. Trust me I like the Google reports as much as anyone but keeping it simple is sometimes the best method to make sure that you succeed. Let’s cover the items that you want to track and how often you want to do it. You can always do more but what I am going to recommend is a minimum so you can figure out what you need to change.

So what should you track? Well let’s take a look at the key metrics that you really need to focus on for long term success with your Google^TM.

• CTR (Click Through Rate) - this is part of the measure of “how good” your ad is according to Google. It is just the number of clicks/number of times ad has been shown.
• Conversion Rate - This is easy to do with Google’s conversion tracking code. It is free to use you just have to copy and paste the code into HTML pages.
• Impressions per Ad Group - now this might seem strange to track but you want to make sure that you have enough eyes looking at your ads. If your are advertising on more niche words (which is a good thing) you may need more words to advertise on. Make sure that you have enough people looking.
• Cost Per Lead - Google figures this out for you if you are using their conversion code. Just make sure to track this at least on a weekly and monthly basis so you can see how you are improving.

There are always reports you can generate with Google’s reporting tools but the above 4 items are critical to making sure you spend your money in the right direction. After all when you are paying for every click you really want to make sure that you get every dollar of value out of your hard earned money that you are spending. Tracking is the best way to hold you and your money accountable! Good luck and happy ad writing!