Simple Free Tracking Urls for Google Adwords

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 12:11:41 -0500

Ok I get the dork award. Nobody told me what I am going to reveal here, not one adwords guru, none of the countless ebooks I have purchased, nothing.

So I am going to give it to you here for free.

I already had another script made that will generate tracking urls that will work with almost any webstats type software such as hitslink, webtrends, clicktracks or whatever, but I have found a much simpler way to make them, and this also lets you track which AD gets you conversions. It is so simple, I can't believe that nobody told me this.

Here is the deal- a lot of people tell you about the google {Keyword} tag, which automatically inserts the keywords people search on in the title, or in fact anywhere you want in the text of your ad. What I didn't know, is that you can put it in the actual url of your adwords ad, and whatever people search on, will dynamically insert this into the query string of your ad.

Now, the other script at advertinfo.com generates tracking urls that generate the keywords you are ADVERTISING on. These keywords can be different than what the person actually types in.

Like if you are advertising on "free software" and the person types in "free software for me", and results in a conversion, it is "free software" that got you that in your adwords account because you were advertising on the phrase, You won't find "free software for me" anywhere in your adwords account in this example.

So these are two different things sometimes, what keyword you are advertising on, and what the person actually types in that results in a conversion.

Lets get on with this keyword tag tracking url though. Its unbelievably simple, and I can't believe I've been doing adwords all these years without knowing this. The {keyword}tag you just put at the end of the url like this:
http://mysite.com?source=adwords&campaign=44&adgroup=54&ad=3&keyword={keyword}

You can make all these things shorter to keep things simpler if you want, and put the whole code in one paramater like this:
http://mysite.com?source=awc1ag2ad3&kw={keyword}

In this example you just use one paramater source,which puts aw for adwords, c for campaign 1, ag for adgroup 2 ad3 for, uhhh ad number 3, and still puts the keywords in

Again, this gives you what the people are typing in, not what you are advertising on, which is a subtle difference. If you don't like that, then use the other way of making adwords tracking urls here

Rock on,

and get some sleep for a change

When do I stop testing my ads?

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 14:07:36 -0500

So when do you stop testing two ads and declare a winner, in order to optimize your click through rates?

Here's a nifty free little tool that you can plug your numbers into, and it will tell you how much confidence you have in declaring a winner. Adwords has a default rotation, but sometimes decides way too soon which ad is the winner.

Adwords basically uses 1000 impressions, but I am not comfortable with that at all. I have had lots of ads I though were not so hot at 1000 impressions go way up in the click through rate, and some potential winners go way down. Most of the variance is plus or minus 3% CTR in my experience, but that can be HUGE depending on what market or industry you are working with. Here it is.....

When using this tool, keep in mind that you can't be LESS than 50% certain. If you know nothing at all about which ad is better, you are 50% certain, so if you use the tool and it says you are 60% certain, that is not really a great level of certainty!! My advice is look at the 85% range as an absolute minimum.

Ok, enough already, here is the tool:
http://www.splittester.com

Check it out when you are looking to "pull the plug" on one of your ads and determine a winner.

-To your adwords success,

Adwords Marketing News - free stuff

Simple Free Tracking Urls for Google Adwords

When do I stop testing my ads?