While primary conversion actions are the cornerstone of any digital marketing strategy, secondary conversion actions play a complementary role in understanding and optimizing the customer journey. These actions, often referred to as micro-conversions, indirectly contribute to your business objectives and help move users closer to the ultimate goal. This article will explore what secondary conversion actions are, why they matter, and how to effectively use them in your campaigns.

What Are Secondary Conversion Actions?

Secondary conversion actions are steps in the customer journey that, while not directly tied to revenue generation, indicate progress toward a primary conversion. These actions provide valuable insights into user behaviour and help marketers identify potential bottlenecks or opportunities for optimization.

Examples of Secondary Conversion Actions:

Category	Conversion Actions
E-commerce	– Add-to-carts – Initiated checkouts – Product page views
Lead Generation	– Form fills – Marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) – Sales-qualified leads (SQLs)
Other	– Email newsletter signups – Video views – Social media engagement

Why Are Secondary Conversion Actions Important?

Secondary conversion actions serve several key purposes:

1. Insight into the Customer Journey: They help you understand how users interact with your website or ads before completing a primary conversion.
2. Early Indicators of Success: If users are engaging with secondary actions (e.g., adding items to their cart), it’s a positive sign that they’re moving toward a purchase.
3. Optimization Opportunities: By analyzing secondary actions, you can identify areas for improvement, such as optimizing landing pages or reducing friction in the checkout process.
4. Feeding the Algorithm: Secondary actions provide additional data points that help machine learning algorithms optimize campaigns more effectively.

When to Use Secondary Conversion Actions as Campaign Goals

While primary conversion actions should always be your ultimate focus, there are scenarios where optimizing for secondary actions makes sense:

1. Campaigns Focused on Non-Sales Objectives

• If your campaign goal is to drive actions like email signups or video views, you can set these as secondary conversion actions.
• For example, a campaign aimed at increasing newsletter subscriptions would optimize for signups rather than purchases.

2. Low Conversion Volume

• If you’re not generating enough primary conversions (e.g., purchases) to effectively train the algorithm, you can start by optimizing for secondary actions (e.g., add-to-carts) to gather data.
• Once you have sufficient data, you can switch back to optimizing for primary conversions.

3. Long Conversion Cycles

• For businesses with long sales cycles (e.g., B2B companies or law firms), it may take months for a lead to convert into a customer. In such cases, optimizing for secondary actions (e.g., form fills or MQLs) can help keep the campaign active and learning.

4. Testing and Competitive Edge

• In highly competitive markets, optimizing for secondary actions (e.g., add-to-carts) can give you a competitive edge by improving your ad rank and visibility.
• However, this should be a temporary strategy, as the ultimate goal is to drive primary conversions.

Best Practices for Using Secondary Conversion Actions

1. Track Secondary Actions for Reporting and Analysis:
   • Even if you’re not optimizing for secondary actions, track them to gain insights into user behavior and campaign performance.
   • For example, if a campaign generates a lot of add-to-carts but few purchases, it may indicate a problem with the checkout process.
2. Use Custom Goals:
   • Create custom goals that combine multiple conversion actions (e.g., add-to-carts, initiated checkouts, and purchases) to optimize campaigns more effectively.
   • This approach allows the algorithm to prioritize users who are more likely to complete multiple steps in the funnel.
3. Avoid Over-Optimizing for Secondary Actions:
   • While secondary actions are useful, over-optimizing for them can lead to campaigns that drive low-quality traffic or actions that don’t contribute to your business goals.
   • Always keep your primary conversion actions in mind and use secondary actions as supplementary metrics.
4. Set Clear Criteria for Secondary Actions:
   • For actions like phone calls, set criteria to ensure only qualified leads are counted (e.g., calls lasting at least 90 seconds).
   • Use call tracking software to attribute calls to specific campaigns and ads.

Example: E-Commerce Funnel

Let’s break down an e-commerce funnel to illustrate how secondary conversion actions work:

1. Product Page View: A user visits a product page but doesn’t take further action.
2. Add-to-Cart: The user adds the product to their cart but doesn’t proceed to checkout.
3. Initiated Checkout: The user starts the checkout process but abandons it.
4. Purchase: The user completes the transaction.

In this scenario:

• Primary Conversion Action: Purchase
• Secondary Conversion Actions: Product page views, add-to-carts, and initiated checkouts

By tracking these secondary actions, you can identify where users drop off and optimize accordingly. For example, if many users abandon their carts, you might test strategies like offering discounts or simplifying the checkout process.

Example: Lead Generation Funnel

For a lead generation business, the funnel might look like this:

1. Form Fill: A user submits a contact form.
2. MQL: The lead is marked as a marketing-qualified lead.
3. SQL: The lead is qualified by the sales team.
4. Closed Deal: The lead becomes a paying customer.

In this case:

• Primary Conversion Action: Closed deal
• Secondary Conversion Actions: Form fills, MQLs, and SQLs

By tracking these actions, you can measure the effectiveness of your campaigns at each stage of the funnel and optimize for high-quality leads.

The Anatomy of a Google Ads Conversion Action

When setting up conversion tracking in Google Ads, you’ll encounter several options:

Field	Description
Conversion Name	A descriptive name for the conversion action (e.g., “Purchase” or “Form Fill”).
Primary vs. Secondary	Choose whether the action is a primary or secondary conversion.
Value	Assign a value to the conversion (e.g., dynamic revenue tracking or a static value for leads).
Count	Choose whether to count every conversion or only one per user.
Conversion Window	Set the time frame for attributing conversions (e.g., 30-day click-through window).
Attribution Model	Choose how credit is assigned to touchpoints (e.g., data-driven attribution).

Phone Call Tracking

For lead generation businesses, phone calls are a critical conversion action. There are two types of phone call tracking in Google Ads:

1. Calls from Ads:
   • Track calls from call extensions or Google My Business listings.
   • Set criteria to count only qualified calls (e.g., calls lasting at least 90 seconds).
2. Calls from Website:
   • Use call tracking software (e.g., CallRail) to dynamically swap phone numbers and attribute calls to specific campaigns.
   • This allows you to track and optimize for high-quality calls.

Summery

Secondary conversion actions are a powerful tool for understanding and optimizing the customer journey. While they may not directly contribute to revenue, they provide valuable insights and help move users closer to your primary business objectives. By tracking and analysing these actions, you can identify opportunities for improvement, optimize your campaigns, and ultimately drive better results.

Remember, the key to success is aligning your campaigns with your business goals and using secondary actions as a supplement to your primary conversion strategy. By doing so, you’ll be able to maximize the impact of your marketing efforts and achieve your desired outcomes.

Key Takeaways:

• Secondary conversion actions are micro-conversions that indirectly contribute to your business objectives.
• Examples include add-to-carts, form fills, and phone calls.
• Use secondary actions to gain insights into the customer journey, optimize campaigns, and feed the algorithm with data.
• Avoid over-optimizing for secondary actions; always keep your primary conversion goals in mind.
• Use tools like custom goals and call tracking software to enhance your tracking and optimization efforts.

By understanding and effectively implementing secondary conversion tracking, you can take your digital marketing efforts to the next level and drive meaningful results for your business.