Do you know that you can review your Adwords from your server side and track your own source of paid search traffic? Yes, you can collect your own data and analyze them yourself.
It is possible to track search engine, Adwords account, campaign, ad group, keyword, and Ad copy.
Most Adwords users (Advertisers) use a single destination URL for their PPC campaigns:
More experienced Advertisers know how important it is to have different landing pages for different campaigns or Ad groups for better Quality score, relevancy, CTR, and above all User Experience.
Example:
Here’s an example for the keyword “blue gadget” along with other parameters associated with the keyword:
To separate parameters, you can choose any delimiter you prefer. The common choices are to use the standard “?” and “&” (for the first and subsequent delimiters, respectively). Google itself has started using “#” and “&” to separate parameters. Java often uses “?” and “;”. The variety of encoding schemes these days is dizzying.
It is possible to track search engine, Adwords account, campaign, ad group, keyword, and Ad copy.
Most Adwords users (Advertisers) use a single destination URL for their PPC campaigns:
More experienced Advertisers know how important it is to have different landing pages for different campaigns or Ad groups for better Quality score, relevancy, CTR, and above all User Experience.
Example:
The above landing pages will not only give you better results, but will also help you have better analysis on your campaigns’ performance.
However, it is possible to get deeper and have more detailed insights by having a unique URL for each keyword.
Google allows different dynamic URL parameters to be added to any AdWords destination URL string to pass along information about that particular click. These parameters are replaced with actual data about the click so that your log files, or tracking system, contain additional data about your AdWords clicks enabling one to analyze more data about any campaign and individual click.
Google allows different dynamic URL parameters to be added to any AdWords destination URL string to pass along information about that particular click. These parameters are replaced with actual data about the click so that your log files, or tracking system, contain additional data about your AdWords clicks enabling one to analyze more data about any campaign and individual click.
Here’s an example for the keyword “blue gadget” along with other parameters associated with the keyword:
Breaking Down the Parameters:
1- Search Or Display (Content) Network
This is the parameter to determine if the traffic is from the content or the search network:
{ifContent:Content}{ifSearch:Search}
You can replace the ‘Content’ or the ‘Search’ after the colon in the string to whatever you desire. If you only wanted to use a single letter to parse out the information, you would change the parameters to look like:
{ifContent:C}{ifSearch:S}.
2- Keyword Match Type:
It’s often possible for a variety of keywords within the same account to trigger an ad. The keyword parameter allows one to see which keyword triggered the ad. It’s a very simple parameter:
{keyword}
Add kw= in front of insertion to label what this parameter is showing. Thus, the URL now looks like:
3- Ad Copies (Creative)
It is often useful in split testing or determining Profit by Click to know which ad was clicked for tracking sales or underperforming traffic back to the actual ad. This dynamic parameter adds the ‘ad id’ to the URL:
{creative}
The biggest issue with this is that it only shows the ad number (which usually looks like: 123653). It makes sense that Google isn’t going to pass the entire ad copy through the URL.
To find which ad matches up with the ad id, there are three ways to find the number:
In the AdGroup, view the source and line up the numbers (by far the most cumbersome)
Pull the information via the API (the easiest way when lining up numbers)
Run an ‘ad text’ report inside your AdWords account. When running this report, in the additional columns menu there is a check box for ‘ad id’. Click this box and it will display the ad id with the rest of your report.
Add ‘ad=’ before this parameter in the URL string for identification purposes. This now makes the URL look like:
4- Which website triggered the click?
This parameter is only for site targeted campaigns. If the parameter has no data, then Google does not display the parameter. Therefore, it doesn’t hurt to add this to all URLs. However, just remember, many times it will be blank.
This will NOT show which website triggered the click in content targeting campaigns. For that level of tracking, you’ll have to choose an analytics package that reads past the ‘pagead2.googlesyndication.com’ in the referring URL.
The parameter insertion is pretty simple, just add:
{placement} to the URL.
This makes the URL now look like:
Using Google Analytics:
If you use Google Analytics and auto tagging () be sure to avoid adding a parameter whose key conflicts with one of the auto-tagging keys (don’t add one named GCLID, though I have no idea why you would want to).
Each tracking system has its own set of parameters that it reads. Therefore, you might need to change ‘kw=’ or ‘medium’ etc in the URL string to something your tracking system will parse into appropriate categories.
It is important to also note that some analytic packages require the parameters to be in a specific order, while others just look for the identifying information and don’t care which order is utilized (i.e. one could add site target first, then keyword, then creative, then search vs content, etc).
If you are using Google Analytics, this is how the tracking string would look like with the proper parameters attached:
The only parameters that need to be adjusted in the above URL is the website (i.e. replace example.com with your website) and AdGroup (replace with your Actual AdGroup name).
Dynamic Insertion in Google AdWords Destination URLS
Google tracks the following tags in AdWords destination URLs:
{Keyword} = PPC Keyword that triggered this ad
{MatchType} = Keyword Match type
{Creative} = Ad ID
{Placement} = Placement name / URL
{IfSearch:Search} & {IfContent:Content} = If this is search traffic, then the value after IfSearch is written, and likewise for content (never both). You can substitute your own values after the colon.
So here is a URL that behaves as expected at the ad level, dynamically filling in keyword level information at the time of the click:
http://www.haveresults.com/gadgets?SearchEngine=Google&Account=WidgetsPPC&Campaign=Gadgets&AdGroup=BlueOnes&Keyword={Keyword}&MatchType={MatchType}&Distribution={IfSearch:Search}{IfContent:Content}&AdID={Creative}&Placement={Placement}
Some Practical Tips
To separate parameters, you can choose any delimiter you prefer. The common choices are to use the standard “?” and “&” (for the first and subsequent delimiters, respectively). Google itself has started using “#” and “&” to separate parameters. Java often uses “?” and “;”. The variety of encoding schemes these days is dizzying.
http://www.widgets.com/gadgets#SearchEngine=Google;Account=WidgetsPPC
You can also cram all that information into a single parameter, mixing your delimiters:
http://www.widgets.com/gadgets?CID=Google++WidgetsPPC++BlueOnes++Blue_Gadget++
This might be useful if your particular setup only allows tracking of one parameter, as with Omniture’s CID code.
It’s a good idea to limit your use of special characters in the names of your accounts, campaigns, etc. if you are using “&” as your delimiter. If you include an “&” in your campaign name, that might foul up your ability to parse the rest of the URL. URLs often arrive slightly modified from their original form. Somewhere along the way, either Google or your server typically replace spaces with “%20″ or “+”. You will need to “undo” this replacement in order to make sense out of your keywords.
Be sure not to name your parameters anything that will conflict with parameters you pass around your site.
A Matter Of Style
As a matter of style, I prefer not to use long parameter names in my URLs. I typically use a set of easily discernible but short three letter acronyms. They just have to be long enough that they will be unique and not conflict with any other parameters you are passing around your site. Here is a set I like—the letter “P” in each case represents “paid”:
PSE = Search Engine
PAC = Account
PCA = Campaign
PAG = ad group
PKW = Keyword
PMT = Keyword match Type
PDS = Distribution (Search / Content)
PPL = Placement
PAD = Ad ID
The Final Product
Here’s an example of what a custom URL with your tracking codes will look like:
http://www.widgets.com/gadgets?PSE=Google&PAC=WidgetsPPC&PCA=Gadgets&PAG=BlueOnes&PKW={Keyword}&PMT={MatchType}&PDS={IfSearch:S}{IfContent:C}&PPC={Placement}&PAD={Creative}
If you’re using a Google AdWords editor bulk sheet, here’s a handy Excel formula you can use in the destination URL column—just insert this formula into the destination URL column (column G) and replace the site URL and account name:
http://www.YourSite.com?SearchEngine=Google&Account=YourAccountName&Campaign="&A2&"&AdGroup="&B2&"&Keyword={Keyword}&MatchType={MatchType}&Distribution={IfSearch:Search}{IfContent:Content}&AdID={Creative}&Placement={Placement}
Conclusion
If you are collecting keyword level data with AdWords, you can use ad level destination URLs to track this data. Using ad level destination URLs keeps your keyword-adding work easy, reduces the chances of error with destination URLs and enables you to A/B test your landing pages. To do so, use dynamic insertion in your ad level destination URLs with a combination of documented and undocumented features to produce a destination URL that Google can fill in with keyword level information when it serves the ad.
Available ValueTrack parameters
Here's a complete list of ValueTrack parameters, plus the type of information each parameter can provide in a keyword-targeted or placement-targeted campaign.
| Parameter | With a keyword-targeted campaign, you'll see... | With a placement-targeted campaign, you'll see... |
| {matchtype} | the matching option of the keyword that triggered your ad: exact, phrase, or broad (which will appear as "e," "p," and "b," respectively) | N/A |
| {network} | whether the click came from Google search, a search partner, or the Display Network (which will appear as "g," "s," and "d," respectively) | if the click came from the Display Network (which will appear as "d") |
| {device} | whether the click came from mobile, tablet, or desktop or laptop computer (which will appear as "m", "t", and "c," respectively) | whether the click came from mobile, tablet, or desktop or laptop computer (which will appear as "m", "t", and "c," respectively) |
| {devicemodel} | If your ad was clicked by someone using a mobile phone or tablet, you'll see the manufacturer brand and model name for that device (e.g., "Apple+iPhone"). This feature is currently not available for ads shown on Google Search. | If your ad was clicked by a mobile phone or tablet user, you'll see the manufacturer brand and model name for that device (e.g., "Apple+iPhone") |
| {ifmobile:[value]} | if your ad is clicked by a customer from a mobile or tablet device, you'll see whatever text you insert (what comes after the colon) | if your ad is clicked by a customer from a mobile or tablet device, you'll see whatever text you insert (what comes after the colon) |
| {ifsearch:[value]} | if your ad is clicked from a site in the Google Search Network, you'll see whatever text you insert (what comes after the colon) | N/A |
| {ifcontent:[value]} | if your ad is clicked from a site in the Google Display Network, you'll see whatever text you insert (what comes after the colon) | if your ad is clicked from a site in the Google Display Network, you'll see whatever text you insert (what comes after the colon) |
| {creative} | the unique ID for the creative | the unique ID for the creative |
| {keyword} | for the search sites, the specific keyword that triggered your ad; for content sites, the best-matching keyword | N/A |
| {placement} | for content sites only, the domain name of the website where the ad was clicked | the domain name of the website where an ad was clicked |
| {target} | N/A | a placement category (travel or sports, for example) |
| {param1} | if you're using theAdParamService with the AdWords API, this will insert creative parameter #1 | if you're using theAdParamService with the AdWords API v2009, this will insert creative parameter #1 |
| {param2} | if you're using theAdParamService with the AdWords API v2009, this will insert creative parameter #2 | if you're using theAdParamService with the AdWords API v2009, this will insert creative parameter #2 |
| {random} | a random Google-generated number (an unsigned 64-bit integer with a maximum value of 18446744073709551615) | a random Google-generated number (an unsigned 64-bit integer with a maximum value of 18446744073709551615) |
| {aceid} | the control ID or the experiment ID from yourAdWords Campaign Experiments | the control ID or the experiment ID from yourAdWords Campaign Experiments |
| {adposition} | the position on the page that your ad appeared in, with a value such as "1t2", which is equivalent to page 1, top, pos 2 | N/A |
Non-standard ad formats | ||
| Parameters | ||
| {adwords_producttargetid} | With a product-targeted campaign, you'll see the unique ID for the product target. | |
| {adtype} | With a product-targeted campaign, you'll see either "pe"or "pla" if the click is coming from a Product Extensions ad, or a Product Listing Ad, respectively. | |
| {copy:[name]} | Available for Ad Sitelinksand Product Extensions.The URL will dynamically include the actual parameter name and value you indicate in the keyword level URL that corresponds to the keyword that triggered the ad. | N/A |
