IF YOU'RE NOT TRACKING CONVERSIONS, YOU'RE FLYING BLIND.
You're spending money on your website, Google Ads, and SEO. But do you actually know what's working? If you're not tracking conversions, you have no idea.
Let me ask you a question.
How many phone calls did your website generate last month?
Not a guess. Not a "feeling." An actual number.
If you can't answer that, you're running your marketing with a blindfold on.
And that's exactly how most plumbers operate. They spend money on a website, maybe some ads, maybe some SEO. But when I ask "what's working?" they shrug and say "I think I'm getting some calls from it."
Think.
"Think" doesn't pay the bills. Numbers pay the bills.
What Is Conversion Tracking?
In plain English, conversion tracking means counting the things that matter.
A "conversion" is anything a visitor does on your website that moves them closer to becoming a customer. For plumbers, the big ones are:
- Phone calls (the gold standard)
- Contact form submissions (someone filling out a "request a quote" form)
- Click-to-call taps (someone tapping your phone number on mobile)
- Direction requests (someone clicking "Get Directions" to your business)
Without tracking these, you have no idea: - How many leads your website is actually generating - Which pages are bringing in the most calls - Which marketing channels (Google, ads, social media) are actually working - Whether the money you're spending is paying off
You're guessing. And guessing is expensive.
Why Most Plumbers Don't Track Conversions
I'll be blunt. It's because nobody tells them to.
The nephew who built the website didn't set it up. The cheap agency that threw together a WordPress site didn't bother. And most plumbers don't even know it's a thing.
It's not their fault. You got into plumbing to fix pipes, not to learn Google Analytics.
But here's the thing. Not knowing your numbers is costing you money in two ways:
- You keep spending money on stuff that doesn't work (because you don't know it doesn't work)
- You stop spending money on stuff that IS working (because you don't know it IS working)
I've talked to plumbers who cancelled their Google Ads because they "didn't think it was working." When we set up tracking and ran ads again, turns out those ads were generating 12 calls a month. They just didn't know because they weren't tracking.
Twelve calls. At $500 average job. That's $6,000/month they walked away from because they were flying blind.
Hurts, doesn't it?
The 3 Things You Need to Track
You don't need a PhD in analytics. You just need to track three things.
### 1. Phone Calls
This is the most important one. For most plumbers, phone calls are the primary way customers reach you.
How to track it:
Use a call tracking service like CallRail or WhatConverts. These services give you a special phone number that forwards to your real number. When someone calls that number, it records: - Where the caller found you (website, Google, ad, etc.) - What page they were on when they called - When they called - How long the call lasted - (Optional) A recording of the call
Cost: $30-$50/month. Worth every penny.
The alternative: Google has free call tracking in Google Ads. If you're running ads, turn it on. And make sure you've set up Google Search Console too. It's free and shows you which searches are bringing people to your site. It's not as detailed as CallRail but it's better than nothing.
### 2. Form Submissions
If you have a contact form on your website (and you should), track every submission.
How to track it:
Set up a "thank you" page that appears after someone submits the form. Then in Google Analytics, set that thank you page as a "goal." Now every form submission gets counted automatically.
This takes about 5 minutes to set up and gives you a clear count of how many people are requesting quotes through your website.
### 3. Click-to-Call Taps
On mobile, many people tap your phone number instead of dialing it manually. These taps can be tracked.
How to track it:
In Google Analytics (or Google Tag Manager), set up an event that fires when someone taps a phone number link. This tells you how many mobile visitors are tapping to call.
This one's slightly more technical, but any decent web developer can set it up in 10 minutes.
What to Do With the Data
Okay, so you're tracking calls, forms, and taps. Now what?
Look at the numbers monthly. At minimum. Here's what to pay attention to:
Total conversions per month. This is your baseline. If you got 15 calls last month and 22 this month, something's working. If you went from 22 to 8, something broke.
Conversion sources. Where are the calls coming from? Google organic? Google Ads? Direct? Social media? This tells you where to spend your money and where to cut.
Top-performing pages. Which pages on your site generate the most calls? (If the answer isn't your service pages, something's off.) If your drain cleaning page is responsible for 40% of your calls, that's your money page. Give it more love. More content. More reviews.
Cost per conversion. If you're running ads, divide your ad spend by the number of conversions. If you're spending $1,000/month and getting 20 calls, your cost per call is $50. Is that worth it? Depends on your average job size. For most plumbers, absolutely yes.
The "I Just Ask Customers How They Found Me" Problem
Some plumbers think they can skip tracking by just asking every caller "how'd you find us?"
Here's why that doesn't work:
People don't remember. "I think I Googled you" could mean they found your website, your Google Business Profile, your Google Ad, or a Google Maps listing. That's four different channels, and they're all called "Google."
People lie. Not on purpose. But they might say "a friend referred me" when they actually found you on Google, saw your reviews, and THEN asked their friend if they'd heard of you. The website did the heavy lifting but the friend gets the credit.
It's inconsistent. Sometimes you ask. Sometimes you forget. Sometimes the call is so hectic you just want to get to the job.
Tracking tools don't forget, don't lie, and don't skip calls. They just record the data. Every time. For a broader look at metrics that matter, check out our post on performance metrics for plumber websites.
Set It Up Once, Benefit Forever
The beautiful thing about conversion tracking is that it's a one-time setup.
You set it up once. It runs in the background forever. Every call, every form, every tap... recorded and organized.
Then, once a month, you spend 10 minutes looking at the numbers. You make smarter decisions. You stop wasting money on stuff that doesn't work. You double down on what does.
That 10 minutes saves you thousands of dollars a year. Guaranteed.
We Set Up Tracking on Every Website We Build
When we build a plumbing website, conversion tracking is included. Not as an upsell. Not as an add-on. It's part of the build.
Because what's the point of a great website if you can't measure whether it's working?
Every site we launch includes: - Google Analytics setup - Call tracking integration - Form submission tracking - Monthly reporting so you always know your numbers
Get your free website audit and we'll show you what you should be tracking, what you're missing, and how much those blind spots might be costing you.
You deserve to know if your website is pulling its weight. Let's find out.
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P.S. The plumbers who track their numbers grow faster. Period. They know what works, they do more of it, and they cut what doesn't. It's not sexy. But it's how you build a plumbing business that runs like a machine. Check our pricing and get a website that comes with the dashboard built in.