With a half way decent IT group it's not difficult to append each click or destination URL with keyword parameters that can be picked up and tracked in your system. Google and Yahoo (even MSN) have auto tagging options that you can set up to append your destination URL with keywords; while you can set up your own parameters to track campaign and ad group information. Since the engines use different parameter names in the auto tracking, this can add a level of complexity that IT groups would rather not see. So, you can opt to use your own parameter names and set them equal to the token or key that pulls in the Keyword.
For Yahoo! the token is {ovkey} and for Google it is {keyword}. So your parameter would look like this:
page.html?keyword={keyword}&campaign=[camp name]&adgroup=[adgroup name]&engine=[search engine name]This will populate your URL with some of the more basic tracking information. How you structure your tracking information should be based on how you set up your campaign, adgroups and creative. By mirroring the logic behind your set up, you will be able to more easily make sense of your results, especially if there are any odd things (and there will be).
Depending on your IT set up, this may be handled by any number of methods with JavaScript, php, asp etc. and dropped into your database. Once this information is in your system, you'll want to have it appended to the target event, preferably the sale. IT is your best friend here. Learn what they like, candy, cookies, their beverage of choice… you will want to thank them from the start because it will be an on going effort.
Okay, so you don't have an IT group, or they don't have the resources to code tracking and put up data tables and pull reporting (we’ll get to this). If you can get blocks of code set (pasted) onto your pages, Google has an attractive option. Their analytics tool can track program advertising on any site, search or otherwise.
By properly appending your ad urls with their code, not only can you see the conversions, you get a suite of site analytics related to the advertising campaign.
Straight from the Google Analytics answer page:
Campaign Source (utm_source) Example: utm_source=google | Required. Use utm_source to identify a search engine, newsletter name, or other source. |
Campaign Medium (utm_medium) Example: utm_medium=cpc | Required. Use utm_medium to identify a medium such as email or cost-per- click. |
| Campaign Term (utm_term) Example: utm_term=running+shoes | Used for paid search. Use utm_term to note the keywords for this ad. |
Campaign Content (utm_content) Examples: utm_content=logolink or utm_content=textlink | Used for A/B testing and content-targeted ads. Use utm_content to differentiate ads or links that point to the same URL. |
| Campaign Name (utm_campaign) Example: utm_campaign=spring_sale | Used for keyword analysis. Use utm_campaign to identify a specific product promotion or strategic campaign. |
To auto generate your own URLs, go here. However, you have to have a Google Adwords account to generate your page level codes. Though you do not need to place actual ads to use the analytics, you do have to sign up for the account.
Okay, so why not just use this in the first place? There are multiple reasons, some less valid than others depending your perspective. For those who are just too gun shy about letting Google know what is going on inside their site, this tool can not be useful. There are those who believe that Google will use the information in ways not necessarily in the advertiser’s best interest. While I do not buy into this, given how much Google wants to ultimately collect (information that is), I am hard pressed to be derisive of those who do.
My reason for not getting too deeply depended on Google is that it does have data access limitations. Doing a dump of all tracking for deeper analysis is not easily possible. Crossing ad spend with ad results is difficult, and for those slightly less proficient with spreadsheets and databases, it might be impossible. While I like Google’s site side analytics and standard report views, it is not really a good SEM optimization tool. I found creating our own is better.
Ultimately, once you have collected target actions associated with engine, campaign, keywords, you also have to pull in ad spend by keyword. All the metrics ideas discussed previously, should be measure in aggregate and in minutia. Detailed engine reporting is the only way to do this. It may be necessary to be so mundane as to just manually enter the information each day into spreadsheets. If you’re fortunate to have a decent SEM management solution like Omniture’s, you can have all the reporting set up automatically. From engine level margin performance down to individual keyword performance, you can be kept informed easily.
The only problem with the daily tracking and reporting processes is that they can lull you into a false sense of success. Keep all your metrics in line and your good, right? Wrong. Establishing and maintaining current metrics assumes you are already fully optimized. No one is. The target is always moving. There are always better ways to structure your keywords, deliver ad copy and marry expectations to experience. Nothing is 100 percent optimized. And even if you are the Einstein of SEM, and were aimed directly at the center of the target… it moved before you pulled the trigger. If the best you could do was a 22% margin when you put the plan together, something changed. There is an opportunity to make it 21.5% now. I know this is vague, and cliché and almost trite, but I have seen improvement come from too many angles to believe that we can not make it better. Set your metric, shoot for it, hit it, then make it harder and start all over.
A Final note on tracking: Set up your URLs NOW. Do not wait until your tracking is in place. At the very least, your information is being recorded on your server logs for later analysis. The longer you wait to append your URLs, the less information you will be able to retrieve.
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