Software Business

4 Easy Steps to Track your Software Success: from Trial to Buy

Published on: May 21, 2008

Google Analytics hacks for tracking "download to purchase" conversion rates

Tracking downloads to purchase conversion rate

One of the biggest issues I encounter when talking to software authors and marketers is the understanding and measuring of:

the number of visitors who initiate the download of trial versions;
the number of users who install the trial versions;
the way the trial users interact with the website during the trial period;
the number of users that are using the trial and actually end up buying the software.

Is it enough to rely on the old known "industry standard" of 1% download-to-purchase ratio? Certainly NOT. You need context and specific data you can turn into actions.

I often do usability audits and I learn every day how critical it is to have access to specific metrics. I read precious hints on how to improve the download to purchase conversion both from the usability, software development and web marketing standpoints.

Here are some simple techniques to track trial downloads and purchases generated by them by using free and easy-to-use analytics tools like Google Analytics or Microsoft AdCenter Analytics that I already have tested.

Note:
Our following code samples are based on the newest version of Google Analytics tracking code.

1. How many users start the download process on your website?

Now that you have Google Analytics installed, finding out how many users click on a download link is the easy part. There are two possible scenarios of tracking this action that I met so far, depending on the way your website is structured:

Scenario 1: Users click on a "Download Free Trial" link and the download starts immediately.

How to track the number of initiated downloads?

Just add the following JavaScript "on click" event for the download triggering link:

For using this hack, Google informs us: if your pages include a call to _trackPageview, your Analytics tracking code must be placed in your HTML code above any of these calls. In these cases the tracking code can be placed anywhere between the opening <body> tag and the JavaScript call.

All you have to do now is to go in your Google Analytics Account, where you will be able to see all the data in the Top Content Overview section, as Google Analytics will track /downloads/software as a page view.

Scenario 2: Users click on a download file link and land on a "Thank You for Downloading" page.

How can you track the number of initiated downloads?

You don’t need to insert any more code inside your website, as the number of users viewing this page is equal or almost equal with the numbers of users starting the download.

Note:
Don’t forget to take into consideration that JavaScript may be disabled for some users, so make sure the Download Now direct link is highly visible no matter what.

Also, the user must fully understand in an instant why is he asked to click again on a download link. If the landing page is not well implemented, it can increase the number of users abandoning the download.

If you can’t decide upon one of the above methods, the best way to choose the most efficient option is to A/B test it, to see which one of them offers best results. Google Website Optimizer helps you do A/B and Multivariate experiments with no cost whatsoever.

To go even further, label all your visitors that have downloaded your software. This way, when looking at your Google Analytics data, you will be able to see how many times a user that has downloaded your trial returned to the website and what sections / pages were of interest for him. To do this you can modify the body tag on the Thank You for Downloading page:

You can find more details on how to set labels for visitors in the Google Analytics Support Center.

After choosing one of the above mentioned methods, you will be able to read data about your users that have downloaded your software in the Google Analytics website profile menu, under "Visitors" > "User Defined", as shown in the image.

Labeling users that download trial software

2. How many users finish/cancel the started download?

Now that you know how many curious and interested prospects start the download process, it is possible to identify the ones finishing the download, or the ones canceling it for any reasons, low transfer rate being one of the main reasons for this.

Unfortunately this data can not be captured directly through Google Analytics, as it is not dependent on the browser anymore.

However, there is one way to find out the number of users who finish downloading. With the help of a web developer, you could implement a server side script that would attach a user download request to the amount of traffic generated by that specific request. I talked at SES London 2008 with one of the representatives from SCL Analytics, a paid analytics vendor, who claims to have had implemented this complex hack.

Although this may provide important data for analysis, the next step could sometimes be enough to have accurate measurement for downloads on your website.

3. How many users install your software?

Given the fact that this action is an off browser one, the easiest way to track it is by taking the user to a webpage within your website. The page could contain a "Thank You for Installing" message, a "How to Get Started Page" one or any page which you believe the user might benefit from.

Make sure you have the analytics code set up on that page and for further refinements add the following line for labeling all the users that finished installing your trial software:

pagetracker._setvar("installed-trial").

You can do this just as you did for users that downloaded your trial. Details can be found on Google Analytics Support Center.

Once the labels have been set, as long as the users do not delete the cookies, you will be able to segment all of them and find out how many bought your software, whether they came from the software itself or they went directly to the website, whether they came from a marketing campaign or from a referrer.

By now, you will be able to see the following data in your Google Analytics chart:

the number of users who started a download;
the number of users who finished a download (if implementation has been possible);
the number of users who installed your software’s trial version.

So far, so great!

Even though the abandonment rate is quite small for small download files, for bigger files the rate increases - that is why the number of started downloads can be quite different from the value of finished downloads. After all, you are interested in how many users actually installed your software, because that influences the possible number of buyers.

4. How many of the trial users buy your software?

Ever wondered how your marketing messages from your trials are affecting the conversion rates? You sure got a high number of downloads, but how many of the users do really buy the license?

In order to find that out you need to build special links or a special landing page for all the users that come from buying links within your software. The special link has usability advantages, as the users can be taken directly to the shopping cart, with no intermediate landing pages.

In order to differentiate users that land to the shopping cart or buy now page from your software trial, a few parameters need to be added to the shopping cart link. It is important to make sure that this method does not interfere with your shopping cart functionality.

Google offers a 3 step wizard for building the special links. By the third step, the application will generate a new link, just as it is shown in the yellow highlighted image below.
create links for tracking software users

If you already use special links for users coming directly from the software links or buttons, include the above parameters.

The "pie chart" shows you the number of users that came directly from your software - they are found under the "Others" label.

All you need to do now is to set up conversion goals in your Google Analytics account and see how all the different segments of users presented above convert:

users that downloaded your software
users that installed your software
users that clicked on a buy now link or button within your software

To sum up, at this moment you should know the number of users who started and finished the download, installed the trial and eventually bought your product.

We wish you high conversion rates!

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2 Responses

Asya says:
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:30 am

Great article, thanks very much. I have not know about "labelling" visitors so far.
Nico Westerdale says:
June 29th, 2008 at 1:41 am

Great article guys, I've been using Analytics for years but never realized that you could do all of these hacks with it. I'll be adding this all in!