Analysis of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Campaigns

ClickTracks is a very powerful tool for measuring the effectiveness of your pay-per-click campaigns. By observing the behavior of visitors who clicked each keyword or campaign, you can make the best possible use of your advertising budget. You can focus on the keywords and phrases that not only bring a lot of visitors, but ones that bring the most interested and qualified visitors - those visitors likely to make a purchase.

Set Up Your Campaigns

In order for ClickTracks to be able to recognize that a visitor came from a certain campaign, a tracking parameter needs to appear in the landing URL for that campaign. For instance, instead of setting a campaign landing page to simply the home page:

www.clicktracks.com

you would add an additional parameter, like so:www.clicktracks.com?source=google Unless your web site is specifically programmed otherwise, the additional parameter will have no effect on the operation of your site. The page that is displayed will be exactly the same. The difference is that '?source=google' can be used by ClickTracks to recognize this visitor as coming from a Google campaign. Parameters are added in parameter/value pairs. In the above case, the parameter is 'source' and the value is 'google.' It actually does not matter what the parameter and/or value are, as long as there is a unique combination of parameter and value in the landing URL for each online campaign. (For more sophisticated tracking beyond ClickTracks' automatic campaign tracking, it might be valuable to be sure to use sensible parameters and values. See 'Visitor Labeling' for more information.)

So, you might have all your campaigns' landing pages set to your home page , but each with a different tracking parameter. In this case, the parameter is always the same ('source') but the value changes ('google1','google2...). This is the most common scheme for tracking URLs:

www.clicktracks.com?source=google1

www.clicktracks.com?source=google2

www.clicktracks.com?source=overture1

Note that using separate values ('google1','google2'...) is only necessary if you want to examine that campaign together as a group. If you're simply buying keywords on Google, and you want to see the activity per keyword, you can set all of the tracking parameters to 'source=google' - ClickTracks does not need to use the tracking parameter to determine which keyword or phrase was used. Typically you would use a different parameter or value for each separate ad (creative) you're running, so you can compare their effectiveness.

Import the Data Into ClickTracks

You can configure ClickTracks to analyze your campaigns by downloading a report from your campaign provider, and importing it into ClickTracks. It's important that the date range of the downloaded report matches the range of dates you want to analyze in ClickTracks.

In Google, log into your account, and select 'Reports.' Click on 'Ad Text Report.' The view should be set to "Summary data." Select the date range, and then select 'Downloadable.' Click 'Create Report,' and the download will begin.

In Overture, go to 'reports,' and select 'Account Activity Detail.' Select the date range, click 'Match Type View,' and then click 'Create Report.' Finally, click 'spreadsheet' and the download will begin.

Once you've downloaded your report, start ClickTracks, and open the Campaign Report. Then click the button marked 'Configure Campaigns.' A dialog box will appear that will allow you to import your campaign report. Click the 'Google' or 'Overture' tab, depending on the type of campaign, and click 'Import' to import the file.

Each campaign will appear on a separate line. If more than one campaign shares the same exact landing URL, they will be grouped into one campaign in ClickTracks.

What Happens After My Campaigns Bring Visitors?

Once you've imported your reports into ClickTracks, there are many ways that you can analyze and interpret the data.

The Campaign Report will show the cost and number of visitors for each campaign. If you're using ClickTracks Professional, and you've configured the Revenue Options, the Campaign Report will also display the revenue resulting from each campaign.

How Do Keywords and Search Engines Compare?

By looking at the search report, you can gauge the effectiveness of individual keywords and search engines. By default, the Search Report shows the number of visitors each keyword and search engine brought to the site. Within the grid, you can see each keyword's performance separately for each search engine. Cells are shaded darker to indicate higher numbers - the contrast draws your eye to areas where there are large differences.

Suppose you see from the contrast of cell shade that one search engine is greatly outperforming others on a given keyword. This would indicate that the keyword is effective (visitors are searching on it, and finding your site), but perhaps not listed well on some other search engines. Modifying your site to improve your ranking for this keyword might be in order. Also, this might be a keyword worth purchasing.

How Interested Are They?

By clicking the buttons at the top, you can see not only how many visitors each keyword brought, but also the total and average cost for each keyword (this option only appears after you've imported campaign reports). In ClickTracks Professional, you can also select total and average revenue.

You can benefit from examining how long the visitors from each search engine and keyword combination spent on the site. You can do this by selecting either 'average time on site' or 'percentage of short visits.' A keyword might bring a lot of visitors to your site, but if they don't find what they were looking for, then they will move on quickly. By seeing which keywords keep visitors on the site the longest, you can estimate how interested in your products or services those visitors are.

Separating Pay-Per-Click from Traditional Search

In order to analyze visitors from pay-per-click campaigns separately from visitors from traditional searches, select the Label Wizard, and click the Traditional Search vs PPC button. Two new visitor labels will be created, one representing traditional search visitors, and the other representing visitors from your PPC campaigns. This feature will work only after you have imported your campaigns.

These visitor labels will be available in all the reports. The Search Report will now show separate information for traditional search vs paid search. By comparing the performance of a given keyword between PPC and traditional search, you may find that some search terms are bringing a lot of visitors in traditional search, but paid listings for those same terms are not. This might indicate that the ad you created for users to click on is not communicating your message effectively.

What Do They Really Want?

On the Navigation Report, the Visitor Labels allow you to easily compare the behavior of traditional search visitors with paid search visitors. By looking for differences in the number of clicks on each link, you see how these different visitors react to each page.

The Site Overview will now have two additional columns, again, one for traditional search, and one for paid search. You can compare, for instance, the most visited page, or the pages with the highest exit rate, and see how they differ between traditional vs paid visitors.

All This and More

Suppose you want to examine the specific behavior of those visitors who came from a certain campaign, and also reached a certain goal page on your site. First, make a visitor label for someone who came from the campaign: Open the Label Wizard, and click "Ad Campaign Tracking." From the drop-down menu, select the campaign you want to track.

Once this label is created, create a second one by opening the Label Wizard and selecting 'advanced labeling.' Select "Visited a Certain Page," and choose your desired goal page from the menu. Click "Next," and then from the "parent label" menu under "advanced options," select the label for visitors from a certain campaign that you made previously.

Now, this new label will show visitors that met both criteria: those who came from a certain campaign, and reached a certain goal page. You can use this label to examine how these particular visitors behave.