How to Set Up LinkedIn Conversion Tracking

LinkedIn Conversion Tracking gives marketers the ability to measure the number of leads, sign-ups, content downloads, purchases, and other key web actions that resulted from their Sponsored Content and Text Ads campaigns.

Getting LinkedIn Conversion Tracking setup and running across your campaigns is easy. In this post we’ll cover everything you need to know about LinkedIn Conversion Tracking, along with a step-by-step guide to getting started.

1. Configure Your LinkedIn Insight Tag

The LinkedIn Insight Tag is a piece of JavaScript code that you can add to your website to better understand how visitors from Sponsored Content and Text Ads are interacting with your pages. After you configure and install the Insight Tag, LinkedIn will provide insights and in-depth reporting about your audience and campaign analytics.

Add LinkedIn Insight Tag JavaScript to Your Website

1. In LinkedIn, go to your Campaign Manager page and select your Account
2. Select Conversion Tracking 
3. Insert the Domain you want to start tracking specific user actions after they click or view your LinkedIn ad. 
4. Copy the Insight Tag JavaScript 
5. Add the JavaScript code to every page on your domain. Make sure this tag is before the end of the global footer.
6. Log in to LinkedIn Campaign Manager and navigate to the Conversion Tracking page on the upper right side of the page to check the installation status (verified/unverified).
7. After you've implemented the LinkedIn Insight Tag on every page of your domain. Click 'Next'
8. Now you're going to name your first Conversion Action
   • This should correspond to the action on your website that you want to track. For example: “Whitepaper #3 download”, “Event Registration”, “Trial Sign Up”.
9. Select Conversion Type
   • The Conversion Type acts as a label that allows LinkedIn to optimize campaign performance based on the label you choose for your Conversion Action.
   • Add to Cart
   • Download
   • Install
   • Lead
   • Purchase
   • Sign Up
   • Other
10. Optional: Add a value to measure the ROI of your campaign. - For most advertisers, the conversion 'value' is how much they're willing to pay for a lead or a similar type of conversion.
11. Use Starts with or Exact to define which URL or set of pages should define an action
    • Enter the full URL of the destination page where you want to count a visit as a conversion event; for example, the 'Thank You' page someone sees after submitting a form.
    • Exclude 'http' or 'https'. Only include 'www' if 'www' appears in your URL as visitors would see it when they come to your page.
    • Exact: Use this if you have a static website URL. LinkedIn will only register a conversion if the member visits the exact URL you entered. Example: www.adstage.io/thank-you 
    • Starts with: Use this if you have dynamic parameters at the end of your page. LinkedIn will register a conversion if the member visits any site starting with the URL you entered. Example: Track all pages that start with “content download”
12. Click Finish.

2. Apply LinkedIn Insight Tag with Google Tag Manager

Many digital marketers use Google Tag Manager to easily implement multiple pixels across their website and accurately track user behavior. Here’s how you can easily install the LinkedIn Insight Tag in your Google Tag Manager account.

1. In LinkedIn, go to your Campaign Manager page and select your Account
2. Select Conversion Tracking 
3. Insert the Domain you want to start tracking specific user actions after they click or view your LinkedIn ad. 
4. Copy the linkedin_data_partner_id number in quotations “”
5. Next, open your Google Tag Manager
6. Select your website’s container, then click Add a new tag
7. Name your tag something you’ll be able to easily recognize. For example:  LinkedIn Insight Tag
8. Click the Tag Configuration box and select Tag Type
9. In the Choose Tag Type list, select LinkedIn Insight
10. Paste the partner id copied from LinkedIn in the Partner ID field
11. Click the Triggering box and choose All Pages.
12. Click Save
13. Click Publish

3. Create a New Conversion Action

In order to start using LinkedIn Conversion Tracking, you’ll need to create a Conversion Action, this tells LinkedIn what page of the domain and specific desired action you want to track after a user clicks on your Sponsored Content or Text Ad.

A Conversion Action is a crucial step in the funnel a user would complete such as visits, sign ups or downloads that you want to track. When creating a new Conversion Action you’ll select the Type of Conversion, Value, Website, and URL.

This will resemble the steps we covered above, when you created your first Conversion Action with a couple of differences in the first 2 steps.

Remember LinkedIn uses the information provided in the Conversion Action to track desired user actions on specific domains (and corresponding pages) and then optimizes your ad based on the Conversion Type (Purchase, Download, Add to Cart, etc) to capture only the most important data.

1. From your Campaign Manager page, select Conversion Tracking 
2. Select Create New Conversion 
3. Name your Conversion Action - This should correspond to the action on your website that you want to track. For example: “Whitepaper #3 download”, “Event Registration”, “Trial Sign Up”.
4. Select Conversion Type
5. Optional: Add a value to measure the ROI of your campaign.
6. Use the drop down to select the Domain you’d like to this action to be applied to.
7. Use Starts with or Exact to define which URL or set of pages should define an action
8. Click Save. 

Now you can add the Conversion Action to an existing or new campaign.

4. Apply LinkedIn Conversion Tracking to Your Campaigns

After you’ve created a Conversion Action, you need to associate it with the desired Sponsored Content or Text Ad campaign(s), so you can start collecting metrics and optimizing budget according to campaign performance.

It’s extremely important you apply the Conversion Action to your campaign(s). Otherwise, you will not be able to collect key metrics like LinkedIn advertising ROI (return on investment), conversion count, cost-per-conversion, conversion rate, etc.

How to Add Conversion Action to Existing Campaign

Log In to Campaign Manager

Click the Account Campaign you’d like to add Conversion Action(s)to.

Click settings (gear icon), located next to your Campaign name and select Select Conversions 

Check the boxes next to all the Conversion Actions you want to apply to your campaign.

Click Apply

Add Conversion Action to New Campaign

Create new campaign

Click Select Conversions

Check the boxes next to all the Conversion Actions you want to apply to your campaign.

5. How to Optimize Campaigns with LinkedIn Conversion Tracking: Reporting and Metrics

Since you assign different conversion types at the campaign or account level in Campaign Manager, you can easily view all the active Conversion Actions you’ve applied down to the ad creative layer.

Use the Conversiontab on the Account or Campaign level to understand your conversion performance using the following metrics:

The metrics on the Conversion tab update on a recurring 4 to 24 hour basis. LinkedIn uses a 30-day lookback window, meaning any post-click conversion or view-through conversion a user completes within 30 days will be recorded.

Pro Tip: LinkedIn records a single conversion for each conversion action in your campaign. For example, if a user converts multiple times within the 30-day window, LinkedIn will attribute the most recent ad click or view from that user.

The only exceptions to this rule is if you choose the Purchase or Add to Cartconversion type which will allows for counting multiple e-commerce actions within a 30-day window.

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What Can I Do with LinkedIn Conversion Tracking?

LinkedIn advertising offers marketers an unparalleled opportunity to reach a global audience of 500 million professionals. A highly requested feature from expert LinkedIn advertisers, conversion tracking collects valuable information about specific audience segments and campaign performance. Now there’s a simple way to determine which LinkedIn ads are generating quality leads, acquiring new customers, and increasing brand engagement.

Here are just some of the ways marketers can benefit from LinkedIn Conversion Tracking:

1. Understand which creative (Direct Sponsored Content or Text Ads) is performing the best amongst your target audience

2. Understand which audience targeting is generating the best cost per conversion and total conversions

3. Track visitor behavior, after the click through, on your web pages.

4. Understand the percentage of visitors that are taking your desired web action (such as filling out a form) and track it back to the campaign and ad level.

Ready to Give LinkedIn Conversion Tracking a Try?

Use this guide to super charge your Sponsored Content and Text Ads with LinkedIn Conversion Tracking. Be sure to let us know if you have any questions or comments about getting started with LinkedIn’s new conversion tracking!

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