real search query - Google, Yahoo, MSN

[smallcompany]

Per what I know about Google AdWords, it is impossible to get real search query as AdWords’ referrer link does not carry it nor it forwards it in any way.

Would this be the case with adCenter and Yahoo? I know Yahoo was forwarding phrases as part of URL but nor sure if those would be our keywords or search queries.

Thanks

[AussieWebmaster]

You can get the actual keyword if you add tracking in the destination url - use keyword={keyword} and it populates just like it does dynamic insertion into the text ads

[smallcompany]

That is how you get your KEYWORD, not SEARCH QUERY.

We need to know what people type into search field.

[Rehan]

Per what I know about Google AdWords, it is impossible to get real search query as AdWords’ referrer link does not carry it nor it forwards it in any way.

Maybe I'm not understanding what you're asking about, but the referer URL for traffic from Adwords does include the actual search query. (Well, it does at least 90% of the time. Some clicks are missing the referer info, but that's a relatively small portion of them.)

The same applies to Yahoo and MSN. None of the three is really hiding anything.

[alastair65]

I'm developer new to the whole web advertising thing - and new to this site so sorry for a bit of topic post.

I need to find something like Google AdSense - but with an API. My requirement is to request Pay Per Click ads based on content I provide - not what the adserver has spidered from the site. Makes sense?

Any pointers to someone providing this service?

Thanks

-a

[wtkad]

With tracking URLs enabled, Yahoo sends the user's search query as OVRAW in the URL. The keyphrase it matched is sent as OVKEY.

[alastair65]

My quick search on OVRAW seems to be about Yahoo search - which isn't what I want.

Maybe I've got the marketing terminology wrong here but I want is to generate revenue (for me!) by displaying ads deliverd by a Yahoo! / Google / etc type company.

I need to be able to request ads realtime relevant to content I send when requesting the ad.

Hope this is clearer.

Thanks

-a

[wtkad]

Sorry, my reply was to the original question about getting search queries.

I haven't looked into displaying PPC (I only advertise), but I'm sure others here have a better idea of the possibilties. You might have more luck posting a new topic with a title about what you're looking for. Welcome to the forum!

[ewanfisher]

Per what I know about Google AdWords, it is impossible to get real search query as AdWords’ referrer link does not carry it nor it forwards it in any way.

The original search query _is_ available in the referer. This will only not appear, if the users browser does not pass on the referer (a very small proportion of web browsers).

For Google look for "q=" and for Yahoo! look for "p=".

[smallcompany]

Thank you.

I've came across many lines of code in PHP (for example) for getting the referrer URL and striping it down to a search query. Yet, I was not able to get that working within existing PHP script where I would append the search query to the end of outgoing URL as a variable.

Anyway, now I understand that referrer URL has the search query, even if the click is coming from PPC source like Google AdWords. That whole referrer URL should be in raw web logs, right?