Cross Channel Tracking

Track Other PPCs/Ads w/ Google Conversion Tracking

[eWhisper]

Just noticed this for the first time today (I don't use G conversion tracking often, so it might not be that new)

[adwords.google.com...]

Seems you can now track:
Overture
FindWhat
Looksmart
Lycos
Other PPC
Yahoo Banner
MSN Banner
Other Banner
Email
Other online ads

With the Google conversion tracker.

It appears that Google is making a push to use their tracking systems for a variety of things. It looks like it's just conversions that you can track, and not the page views like you can if the click originated from within your AdWords account.

This could be in response to the Overture marketing console (which lets you track AdWords and other online efforts).

Is this another instance of Google instituting new features without email or newsletters stating what they're doing?

[edited by: eWhisper at 4:47 pm (utc) on Jan. 22, 2005]

[eWhisper]

First spotted by veroxii here:
[webmasterworld.com...]

As the first thread was about the conversion tracking mess, going to let this thread stand just about this tracking system, bugs, errors, commentary, and implementation success stories.

FYI - The adwords PDF file results in an error message.

[vanderbolt]

Do we really want GG to know how we do on other PPCs?

[Tropical Island]

I have always tracked AdWords and it has been a tremendous help.

I have read the comments about the PPC engines using the info to raise prices and that is why I have not initiated tracking with Over. Their history does not instill confidence.

With Google I have a little more faith and am not quite as paranoid as I am with Over. If I can track Over through my AdWords interface I would do it.

[Alpacaherder]

I wonder if the tracking URLs will still pass PageRank or will be treated any differently for link popularity purposes if they're added to a hard-coded text link. Anybody want to venture a guess? They look like this:

[example.com?gad=CLiA0JsBEggQ4FFdDW0fhRjO77f_AyDcp_cI...]

[edited by: eWhisper at 3:34 am (utc) on Jan. 23, 2005]
[edit reason] Please use example.com for sample links. [/edit]

[shorebreak]

Why advertisers would give one iota of conversion data to the SE's is beyond me. I may be wrong, but I can't think of any other advertising medium where advertisers voluntarily give conversion/revenue data to the source of traffic:

1) Store owners don't tell the landlord how much business they're doing.

2) People buying TV spots don't tell the TV network the results of their campaign.

3) Radio advertisers keep the station in the dark as to ROI.

Newspaper, magazines, billboards, etc - 99.9% of advertisers don't dare give revenue/margin data to the advertising network/medium.

I imagine one reason some do this is to avoid the costs of a 3rd-party tracking system, and another reason might be ease of use. But strategic thinking doesn't seem to be one of them. Shopping.com and BizRate both just significantly raised their category CPCs, thanks in large part to client conversion data.

If I were an advertiser (I'm not) I would keep G & O in the dark as long as possible.

[inasisi]

Conversion statistics might help Google and in turn the advertisers too, in the following ways

1. Find Click Fraud - If an site Adsense site produces a lot of clicks but no conversions, then Google would be able to easily find that out if it has conversion stats/

2. Reducing the price of the clicks from content site - if certain content sites produce less conversions, reduce the cost of those clicks.

But these benfeit are not specifically related to Cross Channel Tracking but more to Conversion tracking.

[MovingOnUp]

Many years ago, I was the treasurer for a computer user's group. One month, we printed the treasurer's report in the monthly newsletter. The next month, the printer raised their fees.