Recently I setup Bing Product ads for a client and was blown away by the performance. Conversions at 1/6 cost of Google Shopping! If you use Google Shopping in the US, and you’re not currently running Bing product ads, I recommend you test them out. Naturally your performance will vary based upon the niche, but you don’t know until you try.
Setting up product ads using Shopify is another post for another day.
One issue I did run into was setting up Bing revenue tracking.
In order to measure performance for eCommerce I highly recommend using the Conv. value / cost metric. This gives you a ratio for return on ad spend (e.g. $5 return for every $1 spent). For stores selling products with disparate price tags, this trumps CPA data. A $20 CPA may sound great, until you realise that many of your conversions are for $20 items!
To use this metric, you of course need to be tracking conv. value, or as they call it on the Bing platform, revenue.
Setup
Previously on Bing you would track conversions using Campaign Analytics (nested under the Tools link):
However, since they’ve removed this functionality in favour of Universal Event Tracking (UET), that’s where we’ll be heading. You can find the option under the Shared Library link on the left. Then select UET tags:
Then choose to create your UET Tag:
At this point Bing will provide the code you want to add to your Shopify checkout page:
Copy your version of the above code, and then we’ll place it into Shopify. The checkout code page can be found under Settings > Checkout
Then scroll down to:
Then paste your tag:
Next we need to add for revenue tracking. This is in fact the same for everyone (assuming you have a Shopify store!).
In the same box we just pasted the above tag code, below it, use either of the following codes (not both!):
To exclude taxes and shipping:
<!-- Bing - Passing Sales Value -->
<script>
window.uetq = window.uetq || [];
window.uetq.push({ 'revenue_value': {{ subtotal_price | money_without_currency }}, 'currency': '{{ shop.currency }}' });
</script>
To include taxes and shipping:
<!-- Bing - Passing Sales Value -->
<script>
window.uetq = window.uetq || [];
window.uetq.push({ 'revenue_value': {{ total_price | money_without_currency }}, 'currency': '{{ shop.currency }}' });
</script>
Specifically what this snippet of code does is to insert the checkout total, and then pass that to Bing, who link it up with the conversion tracking tag.
Now that’s done, we want to setup a goal. Go to the Conversion Goals Page:
Then choose to create a new conversion goal:
Here you want to select the Destination URL option:
On the next page you want to use the following options:
By using regular expressions, we can tell the goal to fire when someone reaches our checkout page.
Use the regular expression:
.*thank_you
Also, I should re-iterate to choose Count = Unique if you’re using Shopify. I ran into a lot of duplicate Bing conversions for my Shopify store, and decided to switch to unique to minimalise this. If you really want to keep the Count = All setting, then definitely make sure to surround your checkout code with “run once” code.
So, we’ve setup the UET tag, then setup a goal (for our checkout page), and linked the UET tag to that goal.
At this point you will have all the necessary Bing tracking code on your Shopify checkout page. And you can expect conversions and revenue figures to start appearing in your Bing dashboard.
One last step is to make sure you surround the code we’ve just created with Shopify’s “Run Once” command. This is because the order confirmation page doubles in utility as a place where people can check their order status. And thus, if they refresh it, it could trigger our code to run multiple times. Shopify’s snippet looks like:
{% if first_time_accessed %}
<!-- Conversion scripts you want to run only once -->
{% endif %}
<!-- Scripts you want to run on every visit -->
More details on how that works at Shopify’s help page on the subject.
I hope that helps with the setup process. If you have any questions do leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.
PSA: Since writing this – Bing have an updated guide for how to track conversions with Shopify – link.
This article is a Great help!
Thanks Chetan!
thanks, clear and easy to follow!
Thanks for the Feedback Davina, glad it helped! :)
Thanks for sharing!!
You’re welcome Nelio.
Thank you for an easy to follow quick setup!
Welcome Amy, glad it helped!
Thanks for this article!
Thanks Alberto :)
Hi, what is the UETQ Variable ID
I see this in Google Tag Manager and it’s default value is: uetq
What is this used for? I have several stores in the same bing account, do I need to make the UETQ Variable ID unique for each goal/store?
Hey John, over a year later, just letting you know that this was extremely helpful. Appreciated.
Thanks Scott! Appreciate the message.
This is awesome, thanks! Just implemented and crossing fingers :)
I wanted to follow up on some of the comments below. The method you describe is how a conversion tracking pixel would be added. I believe Bing intends UET to be implemented on all pages, like G Analytics. Unfortunately, while Shopify has a dedicated box to enter GA code (which ensures its presence on all pages, including checkout ones), Shopify does not provide the same option for Bing. I originally added the Bing UET code to the theme liquid file, thinking that covered all pages, but apparently it does not apply to the checkout pages, which must be why my Bing conversion goals never triggered. I have now added it to the conversion tracking box, as you advised. I’m thinking this will still leave a gap between any previous checkout pages and the TY page, in case I wanted to analyze funnel dropoff, etc. I suppose I could add the UET code to the cart liquid file, the perhaps just the revenue capturing script to the checkout box? Also wanted to mention that it seems like “contains” thank_you should also theoretically work for conversion tracking goal.
Thanks for making the directions very straight forward. I was wondering if you have ever added the Bing/Shopify tags to Google Tag Manager? If so, would you put both the UET tag and the Revenue code in the same container?
Thanks John! I’ve read alot of conflicting info on the web about Bing conversion tracking for Shopify. Do we have to add the UET tag to *both* the header on all pages, *and* to the Checkout additional contents & scripts? I’ve tried both ways, and set up the conversion goal as you instructed, and none of my conversions are being tracked. Thanks again for any tips!
Hi.
So the short answer to this, is that for tracking conversions you just need the UET tag added to your checkout page.
But if you wanted to do something like remarketing, you could use the same UET tag and add it to all pages (minus the snippet of script used for tracking conversions).
Thanks a lot John! Great help!
Thanks!
Hey John,
Curious if you still have to paste the UET tag in the theme.liquid file as well as the checkout? Also, do you use the same UET tag for the theme.liquid and for the checkout if so? Thanks for the great post man, this is the second one I have used today…did our facebook pixel thanks to your other post earlier :)
Hoping for the answer for your same question, Bill! Did you get it resolved? Do we have to add the Bing UET tag to theme.liquid file as well as checkout? Thanks!
Hi. You don’t need to add the UET tag to the template for conversion tracking. But it could be added for something else, such as remarketing.
You the man! Thanks for the great post and info. The part I was missing was setting up the URL as a regular expression. Had everything else. This should explain why it wasn’t working properly for me. Thanks again!
Thanks! Glad it helped.
Thank you, this made it so easy to implement. Much appreciated!
You’re welcome, glad it helped!
Great info! I think I implemented it right but Bing has changed the UI now so it doesn’t matchup with these instructions 100% but you provided enough information for me to put 2 and 2 together I believe. Thanks for sharing!
Hey man, thanks for the heads up on Bings new interface. I’ve updated the post to try and take this into account. The bit they don’t cover really is the code snippet for revenue tracking in Shopify. Once you’ve got that you should be fine. Let me know if you’ve any queries.
This sounds great!, I was having trouble with modifying theme.liquid & product.liquid.
May contact you in future to leverage your knowledge on the Bing/Shopify
Thanks,
Abi
Hi Abi, apologies – didn’t see your comment until now.
Hopefully you got your Shopify issues sorted – but if not feel free to get in touch.
Hi John, the Managing Analytics with Universal Event Tracking (UET) link above in red is not a complete url, but I think this might be what you intended. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bing-ads-universal-event-tracking-uet-tags-analytics-scripts.aspx
Thanks Jon! Appreciate you correcting the broken URL :)