How can I track chat leads? Which chat apps are compatible with Google Ads?
If you use a chat app on your website, and you want to see how many leads come through it after interacting with an ad, then we would recommend using a chat app that allows for lead tracking.
Lead tracking means we have the ability to verify the person chatting is an actual lead. Some chat apps simply mark every single chat message sent by a unique user as a lead, even if the person is trying asking a question that doesn't express intent to consider purchase. For example, if someone chats in to say "can I get a refund?" then we would not want to tell Google Ads that this person was a lead. There are two reasons why this is not ideal:
- We would see an inflated number in the Google Ads performance reports/dashboard
- We would be telling Google's algorithms to optimize it's targeting based on incorrectly marking that chat user as a piece of conversion data
If you are considering using a chat app that doesn’t allow lead tracking, then we would recommend not basing optimization decisions off of chat conversion rate. We can make this happen by setting up the conversion action & tracking, but not including those chat conversions in the "Conversions" column of the ad performance. This is because a chat conversion would be counted the moment the lead clicks to write their message, but this type of conversion isn’t a direct indication of success.
You have the option to swap out the chat app with one that does allow for conversion tracking with Google Ads.
- Some chat apps have a team of customer support reps (like OctaChat or LiveChatInc. With these you don't pay unless it's a verified lead and the reps have gathered their contact information.)
- Some allow you, the business owner/employee to man the chats yourself (like PureChat).
- Some offer chatbots (like ManyChat)