Tracking more than just KW...

Hi Demosthenes,

Here's a quick tutorial for tracking more than just the keyword.

Step 1:

First, decide what variables you want to track:

1 - keyword
2 - campaign
3 - ad group
4 - traffic source

Step 2:

Then assign each of these variables a name that you can then append to your tracking URLs.

For example:

keyword = kw
campaign = cmp
ad group = adgrp
traffic source = src

Step 3:

Then create unique tracking URLs for each of your keywords

http://www.yoursite.com/?kw={keyword}&cmp={campaign}&adgrp={adgroup}&src={trafficsource}

Replace the stuff in the curly braces with your actual keyword, campaign, ad group, and traffic source.

See this spreadsheet:
http://www.quityourdayjob.com/members/keyword-tracking-sheet.xls

You can easily modify the keyword tracking sheet to include these additional columns.

Step 4:

Then on your landing page include some PHP code that looks like this:

<?php
// variables from your tracking url
$keyword = $_GET['kw'];
$campaign = $_GET['cmp'];
$adgroup = $_GET['adgrp'];
$trafficsource = $_GET['src'];

// create affiliate variable
// concatenate all the querystring values from the tracking url
$tracking_code = "{$keyword}-{$campaign}-{$adgroup}-{$trafficsource}";
/* each $variable is surrounded by curly braces and separated by a hyphen (dash). No additional spaces */
?>

Step 5:

Once you've done this, you just need to add the $tracking_code variable to your affiliate link.

CJ Example:

Original URL:
http://www.dpbolvw.net/click-1234567-10364687?sid=1234567

New URL:
http://www.dpbolvw.net/click-1234567-10364687?sid=<?php echo $tracking_variables;?>

This example, assumes you have an elementary understanding of HTML and PHP. I'll try to create a more in-depth tutorial next week that assumes no knowledge ;)

Best,

Jeremy

P.S. Refer to the appendix for additional information about using tracking your campaigns with PHP.

Jeremy -

Almost ready to launch my first campaign but first . . . trying the understand the keyword tracking to ensure ROI.

In the example above you note:

Code:
http://www.dpbolvw.net/click-1234567-10364687?sid=

Shouldn't the "$tracking_variables" be "$tracking_code" as per what you have on the landing page script?

Also, where does this "tracking_code" results appear for my review and analysis? Do the results come from your Optimize My Site program (which I have from PPCC)?

Thanks for your feedback.

Chris

Hi Michael -

Thanks for the feedback!

Having never done an affilaite sale I guess I'm curious as to what the output would be from an affilaite report showing a tracking ID. If I conbine a query string for the four variables Jeremy suggests, would I need to parse the affiliate report results?

Again, thanks for your input . . .
Chris

Hi Michael -

Thanks for the follow up . . . so now I'm open to suggestions as to the best way to parse the data from the sales reports and logs with the query string info.

Anyone with suggestions?

Chris