MSN Keyword / Match Type Tracking
Submitted by smile66603 on Mon, 03/10/2008 - 20:47.
I was wondering how other affiliates have overcome the tracking problem I'm having with MSN.
When I'm bidding on keywords on Google and MSN, I usually bid on a keyword using all 3 match types. All of my keywords have unique URLs and On Google, each match type has its on URL, so I can add something to the URL like
&search_engine=GoogleBRD
&search_engine=GooglePHR
&search_engine=GoogleEXT
That way, when I'm doing a keyword ROI, I not only know which keyword made the sale, but I also know which match type too. This has saved me a lot of money, because on many occasions, one match type will be making me money while one match type is losing me money. Knowing which match type made the sale lets me know which one to bid up or down.
This is not the case with MSN. With MSN, each keyword can have a unique URL, but not each match type of that keyword. So, when I do a keyword ROI for MSN, I only know which keyword made the sale, but not which match type. This makes it almost impossible to optomize my MSN campaigns.
For example if keyword id 1234 produced 10 leads and I made $150, but when I look at MSN I notice that keyword cost me $200, and the click cost were spread over all 3 match types, then I don't have enough info.
For all I know, all 10 leads that made me $150 came from the exact match type and only cost me $25. Which is a nice profit. Now I just need to bid down the broad and phrase match versions since they lost me money, but since MSN doesn't give me enough info to make that decision, I can do proper ROI reports.
Thanks for any help you can offer.
James
MSN Keyword / Match Type Tracking
tbh I'm not using anything beyond basic KW destination URL tracking with MSN.. i'm so pathetically low volume with it that I never bothered..
MSN Keyword / Match Type Tracking
James,
I've been having a similar problem. I've been using the AdCenter spreadsheet to import campaigns, and copying my keyword lists twice to make three lists, then assigning each of the three match types to each of them. Then I give each keyword a unique destination url.
However, AdCenter is only taking the last url I upload for each keyword. I know this because these are the ones showing up in my reports without exception. This should be telling me that all of my sales are coming from exact match types, but how can I be sure? I've been using the information to make decisions about keywords regardless of match type.
I'd love to be able to find out which match type it was that made the sale. I'll keep digging around and see if there is an answer somewhere.
Mike
MSN Keyword / Match Type Tracking
You can use the MSN match type parameter in your destination URL to determine whether it was broad/phrase/exact.
See this post from eWhisper for more info on how it works:
http://www.ewhisper.net/blog/microsoft-adcenter-supports-dynamic-parameters-for-links/
Let me know if this helps or if you want more details on implementing. I'm pretty familiar with their URL structure.
Best,
Jeremy
MSN Keyword / Match Type Tracking
Hey Jeremy,
Thanks for posting the link, I just wish I had asked this question before I uploaded 100,000+ keywords to MSN.
Would I need to download the spreadsheets for all of my MSN ad groups and manually add this value to the end of all the URLs, or does MSN offer a way to automate it?
I'm assuming the {AdId} tells you which ad was clicked on so you can tell which ad is converting best?
Just to make sure I understand it, so if I already have a keyword destination URL that looks like
domainname.com?keyword_id=1234&search_engine=MSN
Now it would look like
domainname.com?keyword_id=1234&search_engine=MSN&match={MatchType}
Then the MSN system automatically puts in the value for the match type?
Thanks,
James
MSN Keyword / Match Type Tracking