How Campaigns and ROI are calculated

Everything depends on the landing page & tracking parameters

The fundamental way ClickTracks and other analysis programs track campaigns is via the page the visitor first requests. This is sometimes named the landing page, sometimes the tracking URL. In all cases the key is to have a unique URL for each distinct campaign. ClickTracks identifies the campaign and associated cost based on this URL. If you use a single URL for all campaigns, for example index.php?source=google then ClickTracks will collapse all the different costs and ROI into a single campaign, which is probably not what you want. Make each campaign unique with parameters like ?source=google&campaign=socks. If your ad management system already has long complex tracking parameters you can have ClickTracks map to a simplified set using just campaign=socks as your tracking parameter. This special type of tracking URL will gather all campaigns containing the given parameter and value into a single view in ClickTracks, working like a wildcard.

Don't use different parameters for search different keywords

Although your campaigns are distinguished only by the URL you don't need to worry about appending individual keywords in order to get distinct data per keyword. ClickTracks takes the originating campaign data and maps that backwards to the referrer, extracting the search keyword automatically. If you construct a unique tracking parameter for every possible keyword combination your number of campaigns will rapidly bloat to an unmanageably large number.

Setup a persistent cookie in Pro

ClickTracks Pro can be easily configured for persistent cookie tracking. This will associate purchases back to the original campaign even if separated by several weeks. See Using Persistent Cookies To Improve Campaign Tracking

Number of clicks shows the number of clickthroughs you received from the campaign. This number may be slightly lower than the number reported by the search engine for the same date range, because ClickTracks can only see those visitors who actually reached your site, whereas the search engine measures all those who clicked on the ad regardless of whether they reached your site or not. See Comparing PPC Numbers To Your Search Engine

(Pro only) Number of visits only appears if you are using persistent cookie tracking. It shows how many visits were due to the campaign, including return visits from users who first came from the campaign.

Cost per click (CPC). For a pay-per-click campaign, this is the amount you pay per click, as specified in the Campaign Manager. For a fixed cost campaign (available in ClickTracks Pro only), it is the total cost divided by the number of clicks.

Total cost is the total amount which this campaign has cost you. For a pay-per-click campaign, this is the price per click multiplied by the number of clicks. For a fixed cost campaign (available in ClickTracks Pro only), it is the total cost specified in the Campaign Manager. As with the number of clicks, this figure may be slightly lower than the amount reported by the search engine for the same date range, because some of the visitors may have clicked on the ad but not reached your site.

(Pro only) Number of purchases shows the number of visitors who had any revenue. If you are using persistent cookie tracking, it also includes any purchases made by a visitor on subsequent visits to the site. You have to configure revenue tracking before you can see the number of purchases.

(Pro only) Total revenue shows the total revenue generated by visitors from the campaign. If you are using persistent cookie tracking, it measures the lifetime value of each visitor, including any purchases made on subsequent visits to the site. You have to configure revenue tracking before you can see the total revenue.

(Pro only) Conversion rate is the number of purchases divided by the total number of visitors. In other words, it shows the proportion of visitors who made a purchase. This measures how successful you are at holding on to visitors once they have reached your site, and getting them all the way to the checkout. You have to configure revenue tracking before you can see the average revenue.

(Pro only) Return on advertising spend (ROAS) is the total revenue divided by the total cost. In other words, it is the amount of revenue generated for each dollar of expenditure. This is perhaps the most important measure of whether an advertising campaign is successful or not, because it balances how much the campaign cost against how much revenue it generated.

If the ROAS for a campaign is below $1.00, that means that those visitors failed to generate in revenue as much as they cost to bring to your site. But for a full cost/benefit analysis, you need to consider not only the revenue which a group of visitors brings in, but also the profit which you make from that revenue. For example, if only 20% of the price of an item is profit, you need an ROAS of $5.00 to break even.

You have to configure revenue tracking before you can see the ROAS.

(Pro only) Cost per order (CPO) is the total cost divided by the number of purchases. In other words, it measures the average cost to generate one sale, but it does not take any account of the value of that sale. You have to configure revenue tracking before you can see the CPO.

(Pro only) Revenue per purchase shows the average dollar amount of each order. It is analogous to the CPO, but for revenue instead of cost. You have to configure revenue tracking before you can see the average revenue.

(Pro only) Revenue per click shows the average revenue per visitor from the campaign. This shows you which campaign is generating the most valuable visitors, but you should also look at the cost of attracting those visitors. You have to configure revenue tracking before you can see the average revenue.

Average time on site shows how long visitors from that search term and search engine spent on your site, on average. This is a measurement of how good you are at holding on to visitors once they have reached your site. Where this number is low, you should consider what those visitors were looking for, and why they failed to find it on your site.

Short visits shows the percentage of visitors who spent less than five seconds on your site. This generally indicates that they reached the landing page but then left immediately. If this number is high, it indicates that something is wrong with your ad or with the landing page. Does the landing page deliver what the ad promised? Is it easy to navigate to the rest of site from there? If these are pay-per-click visitors, you are paying for them, but they are not getting past the first page. Deliver what they are looking for, or else change your ad text or keywords to promise only what you can deliver.