Tracking Cost of each individual click

[tys0n28]

My tracking system is getting there for figuring out how my ads are doing with Google - but I'd like to take it to the next level.

Is there a way to set up an ad so that the cost of the click is part of the url? Right now I have it set up so that the url looks like this: www.mysite.com/index.jsp?sponsor=google&ad=campaign1

What I would like is something like this:
www.mysite.com/index.jsp?sponsor=google&ad=campaign&cost=.05

Its relatively easy to set up with other PPC search engines because the cost of the click is constant. However with google, as you all know, the cost of the click can vary depending on how others have bid.

Right now, I have to go to google adwords everytime I want to run stats to see how much I've spent. I'd like to streamline the whole process.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Tyson

[Mardi_Gras]

>the cost of the click can vary depending on how others have bid.

I don't see any way to do this for the reason you describe. Maybe someone else knows better?

[Shak]

webdiversity and vibgyor, where are you when we need answers.

if anyone knows, its gotta be them 2 :)

Shak

[cline]

That's a tough one.

On the other hand, you could easily do this to include your bid amount so that you could compare user behavior as a function of bid. Since you can only control your own bids, from a scientific and managerial standpoint this should be good enough for whatever analysis you would have wanted to do having the data about CPC.

[nerowolfe]

Hmm, I think this is a feature request for AWA. :-)

It could be a dynamically expanded string in your destination url, like [widgets.com...]

Then we could also have things like
@ADWORDS_CAMPAIGN_NAME@, @ADWORDS_ADGROUP_NAME@, @ADWORDS_KEYWORD@, @ADWORDS_AD_POSITION@, @ADWORDS_TOTAL_NUMBER_OF_ADS@, @ADWORDS_SEARCH_TERM@, @ADWORDS_SEARCH_PARTNER@, etc etc etc!

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Hmm, I think this is a feature request for AWA. :-)

=:/ Hey, this one is beyond my technical knowledge, but I'll certainly pass it on.

Unless someone here nails it by the end of the day. Which will probably happen!

AWA

[tys0n28]

nerowolfe - that's exactly what I would love to have. I know Google has some variables that you can use already - I'm not sure what any of them are - I know you can get search term somehow.

[tys0n28]

cline, that is true. But my main analysis would be comparing the profitability of Google verses Overture and other competitors. So it wouldn't be comparing apples to apples then.

[JonBoy]

Overture have something in this direction with their tracking URLs that tell you what the keyword was and whether it was caught by exact match or broad match.

But the more of these kind of options the better I reckon.

[eWhisper]

If you make it part of your URL on other PPCs - don't you have to edit the URL everytime you edit the bid? It seems that making many bid changes would be impossible as most places require you to resubit a url change that goes under review.

There are some 3rd party solutions that can monitor accounts (often bidding software) that you can imbed tracking urls into so that it auto determines the average CPC per keyword per search engine and will also track your conversion rate.

[anallawalla]

I disagree with Nerowolfe if he is suggesting that the click from the ad will include the bid value in clear text. That would make it easy for competitors to find out what a specific advertiser is paying.

If there is an Adwords API, the above could work if the value were encrypted using PKI and the key known only to the advertiser. While technically possible, the demand for it might be low.

Ash

[nerowolfe]

anallawalla, hmm, I think you have a point there.

I hadn't wanted to have the bid amount available as a field, but even the cost per click might be too much information to give away to competitors..

The encrypted URL idea sounds workable but complex and I agree that demand for it might be low. Maybe Adwords could let advertisers download some sort of 'clicklog files' -- one line per click, with all the fields we could possibly want. Then those of us using our own reporting solutions wouldn't have to keep downloading custom reports (which are at the wrong level of granularity anyway).

[tys0n28]

I wouldn't care if my competitors had access to that information. But I could see why some other people would. You can more or less figure out what everyone has bid already anyhow, just by changing your bid and running some searches.

If the feature was available, I would probably try to hide it somehow (ie don't call it cost, add superficial text and numbers on either end of the actual cost and parse it on the other end).