In other words, it’s not enough just to see the conversions numbers in the AdWords control panel…they want to see *which ad* the user clicked for each registered account and they want that variable entered into their own database (e.g. referrer=ad3454) so that they can track the lifetime value of the customer from that one single ad. (AdWords tells you that a conversion was made, but it can’t be attached to an actual real-life account number).
The data would also help us compare google’s ‘conversion’ numbers to our own. (we’re only using AdWords at this point)
Here’s what I’m thinking:
1. Add a unique URL to each ad (e.g. www.site.com/?referrer=ad3454)
2. Set a cookie to remember where the user came from when they land on the page
3. If they return within 30 days, find out where they came from originally and add a field in the database at checkout time that says, referrer=ad3454
4. This way, we capture what ad they clicked on 30 days ago, google records the conversion as well, and we can compare the two. The bonus being, we can run reports a year from now that tells us how much revenue that single click has produced.
Am I oversimplifying this? Am I missing something? Is there a more reliable, easier way? (e.g. deleted cookies etc)
I would appreciate any insight you may have on creating “custom” conversion tracking.
-Mike
It sounds as though it would work well enough to provide your customer with some data on lifetime ROI - even if you cannot prove it to be 100%.
