Adwords in Referrer Logs

How can you tell?

[rise2it]

Looking through my referrer logs, I can't seen to be able to tell the difference between search queries coming from adwords compared with those from the free listings.

How do you tell them apart?

[pmkpmk]

Put a tracking parameter to the URL you give in adwords.

So if your regular landing page is

www.company.com/widget.html

, then modifiy this in the AdWords interface to

www.company.com/widget.html?referrer=adwords

(example - any other appendix is possible).

You can even fine tune this on a per-ad-basis:

www.company.com/widget.html?referrer=adwords1
www.company.com/widget.html?referrer=adwords2
www.company.com/widget.html?referrer=adwords3

If you later decide to go to another PPC, you can use the same technology:

www.company.com/widget.html?referrer=overture1
www.company.com/widget.html?referrer=overture2

Of course you do not need to call it "referrer". Another possibility is:

www.company.com/widget.html?ad=aw6

The basic structure is always the same though:

www.company.com/widget.html?variable=value

Just make sure you keep track of which values you use for which campaign. I would advise you though to saty with the same variable name for all the campaigns - it makes it easier to grep the logs for that string.

[rise2it]

Simple enough - your help is much appreciated!