How To Track Keywords And Conversions
One of the keys to a successful PPC campaign is tracking the performance of those campaigns–both the performance of the keywords and the number of conversions that result from a campaign-and adjusting your campaign according to those tracking results. This tracking helps you achieve the best possible performance level for the least cost. In short, conversion tracking is the most important part of any PPC campaign.
Conversion tracking can be accomplished in one of several ways:
■ Tracking tools integrated with your PPC program. Some PPC providers (most notably Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google AdWords) provide tracking tools built into their PPC control panels. These tools should allow you to track traffic, conversions, and possibly even value per visit.
■ Third-party tracking tools. These tools tend to be more powerful than those offered by PPC providers. The most important area of increased functionality is the capability to track PPC campaigns across companies. Because most web-site owners have PPC cam- paigns running from more than one PPC provider, the ability to manage and control all those campaigns from a single location can be valuable.
■ In-house tracking tools. Because some companies are unable to find tracking tools that provide the information they need, they create their own tracking tools in-house. If you have the capabilities to create in-house tracking tools, you can have tools that provide only the specific information you need.
■ Tracking using a spreadsheet. Before there were PPC campaigns and the tracking tools that go along with them, web-site owners would track their online advertising using a spreadsheet, developed to include all of the different categories that needed to be tracked. Today, there are still some web-site owners who prefer to track their PPC campaigns (and their other online advertising campaigns) using the “old-fashioned” spreadsheet. It’s one of the least expensive ways to track your PPC campaigns, but it’s also one of the most time-consuming. Should you decide that a tracking spreadsheet is the way to go, you may want to consider include columns for:
– Keywords
– Headlines
– 1000 Ad Copy
– Click Through Ratio (CTR)
– Keyword Cost
– Sales Indicators (to show which keywords resulted in sales)
– Information Requests Harvested
– Information Requests Resulting in Sales
No matter what method you decide to use to track your PPC campaigns, you’ll need a way to dif- ferentiate one keyword ad from another. Some PPC providers require that this be done by inserting a snippet of tracking code on your web site. This code then catalyzes the tracking process so that when someone clicks through your PPC ad, you can track whether the click-through results in a conversion.
Following is an example of what the tracking code for your PPC campaign might look like if you’re running a Google AdWords campaign. This specific code is intended as an example only. If you try to use this code to track your web site, you’ll find that it won’t work because this code was designed only as an example by the Google AdWords team.
<!– Google Code for Purchase Conversion Page –> <script language=”JavaScript” type=”text/javascript”> <!–
var google_conversion_id = 1234567890;
var google_conversion_language = “en_US”;
var google_conversion_format = “1”;
var google_conversion_color
if (1) {
=
“666666”;
var google_conversion_value = 1;
var google_conversion label = “Purchase”;
// –>
</script>
<script language=”JavaScript”
src=”http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion.js”>
</script>
<noscript>
<img height=1 width=1 border=0
src=”http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion/1234567890/
?value=1&label=Purchas
e&script=0″> </noscript>
The code is placed in the HTML of your web site, according to directions provided by the PPC provider.
Another way to track your PPC campaigns is by URL. Using this method, each PPC ad is given a separate URL, which is used only by that keyword. Then, when a visitor clicks through a PPC ad and is taken to your web site, you will know which ad is working best according to the amount of traffic on the specific site.
This method does require that you have a way to track your web-site traffic, but you should be doing that anyway. If you’re not tracking it, how will you know what kind of traffic your web site gets?
Before you get too far into tracking your keywords and conversions, it helps to have a plan for what you want to gain from your PPC campaign. The first things that you’ll need to know are the long- and short-term goals for your PPC campaign. You need to track both long- and short-term goals because without both you could find yourself throwing money into a PPC campaign that doesn’t provide the results you need.
Far too often, web-site owners find that they’ve instituted a PPC campaign that does really well in the beginning but then over time becomes more costly and less effective. If you’re conducting all the elements of SEO for your site properly, it isn’t worrisome to find that the effectiveness of your PPC campaign drops after a while – as long as the overall traffic to your site and the number of conver- sions on your site continue to rise.
This means that your organic SEO efforts are working. When this happens, it’s time to consider other keywords for your PPC campaign. Instead of pouring more money into improving your ranking, which will decrease the return on investment from your PPC campaign, you might change the campaign by using different keywords.
CAUTION
As you’re monitoring your PPC campaigns, pay close attention that your organic SEO efforts don’t suffer because of your PPC efforts. Organic keywords are your true ticket to a high ROI. The more search engines rank you for free, the more effective you can make your invest- ment in PPC. However, if you’re not careful about the keywords that you use in PPC, the ads that you write for PPC, and the frequency with which you change your PPC campaigns, you could end up can- nibalizing your organic rankings. And when PPC replaces your organic rankings, you have to spend more money for lower results.
As you’re tracking your PPC campaign, you should also have a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) that you compare your results to. KPIs are performance indicators that you develop based on the long- and short-term goals you have in place for your PPC campaigns. These indicators are of value for deciding when it’s time to change some element of your PPC campaign.
Reducing Pay-per-Click Costs