External Conversion Tracking with Unbounce

Tas Kurtu

Last Updated May 30, 2024 23:06

An external conversion is a conversion that takes place outside of your Unbounce landing page.

If you're using landing page to drive conversions to another page, such as online purchases or appointment bookings, you can leverage external conversion tracking to measure and track those conversions in Unbounce.

External conversion tracking functionality in Unbounce (how it works)

When a visitor lands on the conversion confirmation page, the script will look for the Unbounce visitor cookie, and if it finds one, it will make a tracking request back to the Unbounce servers.

Our tracking script will fire the conversion count back to Unbounce, so you can still view reports such as conversion rates and number of conversions directly within Unbounce.

What you'll need

Deactivate all conversion goals on your Unbounce page (explained below are steps for Classic Builder and Smart Builder).
A thank-you page or confirmation page (i.e., the page that follows the conversion action).
- This is where you will install the external conversion tracking script.
- You must also have access to this page's source code.
Matching root domains for your Unbounce page and the page following the conversion action.
- For example, an Unbounce page with a URL of "promo.mycompany.com" and a conversion confirmation page with a URL of "www.mycompany.com" will work with external conversion tracking since the root domains (mycompany.com) are the same.

Deactivating Conversion Goals in the Classic Builder and Smart Builder

For external conversion tracking to work, you must remove all conversion goals from the builder.

Classic Builder

Navigate to your page in the Classic Builder.
Click the Goals tab, then locate the Conversion Goals section.
Untick all conversion goals - this step is key:
Clear all of the listed conversion goals.
- By turning off all Conversion Goals on your Unbounce page, only visits to the external confirmation page will count as conversions.
Save & repeat for all page variants (if you have more page variants).
Republish your page.

Smart Builder

Navigate to your landing page in Smart Builder.
Click the Conversions tab on the left-hand side. A new tab will appear on the left.
Untick all conversion goals:
- You must untick all conversion goals for external conversion tracking to avoid tracking discrepancies.
Save your page in Smart Builder.
Save & repeat for all page variants (if you have more page variants).

Installing the External Conversion Tracking Script

You'll need to install the external conversion tracking script onto the page following the conversion action.

For example, say you want to capture purchases as conversions; install the external conversion tracking script onto the purchase confirmation page or the thank-you page.

Once the page loads, the external conversion tracking cookie will send a conversion count back to Unbounce.

Launch the source code of your website.
Install the following script before the closing <body> tag:

On line 2, replace ‘PAGE-DOMAIN-ON-UNBOUNCE’ with your custom subdomain. For example, if your landing page lives on ‘my.website.com/about-us’, update the script to ‘my.website.com’.

If you have multiple subdomains leading to your thank you page (For example, my.website.com; your.website.com; our.website.com), choose any one subdomain in your account to replace 'PAGE-DOMAIN-ON-UNBOUNCE.' This will allow conversion tracking for all subdomains on your root domain (In the example above, the root domain would be website.com).

You're all set!

Now, if a page visitor follows the page funnel (landing page, conversion action, such as a form sign-up/purchase, then a confirmation page), the conversion will be captured in Unbounce.

Installing the External Conversion Tracking Script on a WordPress Domain

In cases where your Unbounce landing page and the external conversion page are on the same WordPress domain, you will require a different script.

The reason is that some WordPress plugins may block or prevent the above external conversion tracking script from loading and firing the conversion back to Unbounce.

To set up external conversion tracking for your WordPress pages, copy and embed the below script just before the closing </body> tag of your WordPress page:

Installing the External Conversion Tracking Script on a Domain with a Proxy

In cases where you are using a domain with a proxy for your external conversion page, you will require a different script.

The reason is that some proxies may block or prevent the external conversion tracking script from loading and firing the conversion back to Unbounce.

To set up external conversion tracking on a domain with a proxy, please contact us using this request form, and our teams will provide you with the external conversion tracking script required for proxied domains.

Embed the script just before the closing </body> tag of your external page.

External Conversion Tracking FAQs

When using external conversion tracking, do I need to configure any conversion goals in the Unbounce page builder?

Nope! Just adding the script to your conversion page is enough.

We always recommend one dedicated conversion goal per landing page, so if you've set up external conversion outside of Unbounce, it's best not to have any other conversion goals.

Will external conversion tracking slow down my page(s)?

No, the script itself is hosted on Unbounce’s high-speed serving network, and by adding the script just before the closing </body> element of your page, it won't affect the rest of your document loading.

Can I use external conversion tracking alongside Smart Traffic?

Yes, any pages enabled with Smart Traffic support both Unbounce conversion tracking and external conversion tracking. Check out our documentation to learn more about Smart Traffic.

Will the external conversion tracking cookie expire?

Yes, the tracking cookie expires after 72 hours, which means that for the conversion to count, your page visitor must complete the conversion within 72 hours of visiting the originating page.

Are there any limitations to the external tracking script that Unbounce uses?

The external conversion tracking script identifies the conversion page based on the last Unbounce page visited.

If you're leveraging external conversion tracking to drive just one conversion (such as a newsletter sign-up, or purchase), this will work fine.

However, if you've set up a multi-page funnel, conversions might be attributed to the second or third page of your funnel instead of the page you want the conversions to be attributed to.

If you're adamant about setting up a multi-page funnel, we recommend using Unbounce forms instead.

Can I use external conversion tracking to measure form submissions from a third-party or embedded form?

Yes, you can! Ensure that your third-party form links to a separate thank-you or confirmation page where you can install the external conversion script and that your landing page exists on the same root domain as your third-party confirmation page.

Can I make my external conversion tracking GDPR compliant?

Yes, you can! To support GDPR compliance in the External Tracker script we have enabled the ability to trigger when the external conversion event is sent.

To prevent the External Tracker from sending an event on load the trackGoal will need to be removed from the snippet. This can be achieved by removing this line:

_ubaq.push(['trackGoal']);

With this removed, you will need to manually trigger the external conversion event to call this method after consent has been given:

window.ub.externalConversion.trackGoal()

When present on an Unbounce Landing Page with the Cookie Banner enabled, the External Tracker will integrate with it by default. If consent is not present when the External Tracker loads, no tracking event will fire if consent is given while on that page.

The reason for this is we will not have sufficient data to identify which page the conversion should be tracked to.