If you’ve ever read or consumed anything to do with social media marketing, you’ll have encountered the terms ‘tracking’ and ‘conversion’ without a doubt… but what do they really mean? Today, Zebra 360 Online Marketing are taking a peak at these two key terms, and what they mean for your business, and how you can use them to your full advantage.

What is Conversion and Tracking, Anyway?

Conversion, in social media marketing terms, simply means ‘a visitor taking an action you want them to after being told by your marketing to do so’. That could be picking up the phone to call you, clicking on a specific link, leaving a comment on a piece of media, or checking out products on an online sales platform – you’re free to determine the exact meaning for yourself by your actions in the advertising. Knowing what your particular conversion is, however, is key to successfully marketing your brand! Ask yourself: ‘if my marketing efforts work, what would happen?’… set goals, and ensure your marketing takes you there.

Tracking is pretty intuitive – it means ‘following the amount of conversions you gain, vs non-conversions’, to know exactly what’s working and what isn’t in your marketing plan, and making sure every Rand spent is working for you! It’s pretty easy to know if things are working: your campaign is more successful the more conversions you get. You could manually track through some clever coding tricks, but most people opt to use a platform designed to help you do so easily (such as Google’s Analytics).

What Does Conversion Tell Me?

Tracking and conversions let you know how successful your campaign was. Ask yourself simple questions that can better your next campaign. Did it get a good return on investment? Are your keywords, or creative strategy, working well for you? Where is most of the interest coming from? What devices and platforms do they use? What’s their age group and demographics?

Tracking conversions can also help you figure out what path the user takes through the campaign to get to that conversion, and how to make it easier for them in the future. That’s golden information to have at your fingertips. This valuable information will then help you refine your marketing efforts for even better results going forward.

Tracking and Conversion Tricks

So, now that you’ve mastered the basics of tracking and conversion, and you’ve chosen a great platform to help you get that data. Now what? Here are 5 useful tricks to use to help maximise the worth of that data you’re generating

Figure out data that seems out of place: Did an odd hashtag trend alongside the one you’d planned? Were any mentions of the brand/campaign out of place? Whether this helps you take action to prevent damage to your brand reputation, or gives you the perfect key to unlock even more conversions and spice up your marketing ideas, this data is just as valuable as the data you expect to see.
Watch for the wrong audience: Maybe you’re not seeing conversions because the wrong people are making it to your page? Whether it’s foreign visitors who can’t access your product, or people who aren’t your target market, this helps you refine your efforts.
Real-time data matters: The ability to monitor conversions in real time is important, as it allows you to access data quicker and take action on it too.
Find out what resonates with people: Chances are, you’ve got several approaches within your campaign. Which is speaking to your audience the most? Accurate tracking helps you refine and improve your marketing to match what appeals to your audience most- as well as cut out and move focus away from what isn’t getting attention.
Have influencers notice you: If you attract the attention of influences in your niche, you’ll see a boost to your efforts, so is anything engaging them?

These are just a few of the many ways that tracking and conversion matter to your brand. Need help navigating these sometimes tricky waters? Let Zebra 360 Online Marketing make the most of your brand NOW!