Espotting, how do you work out what a term made?

Supercod · 08-10-03

I am trying to work out how much a term made per day, can this be done. I am spending a bit of money testing something out but I can't keep spending money on it if I have no idea if it's actually making money or not, so tips on how you find this out would be great

chrisuk · 08-10-03

I don't think there is an easy way other than to approximate, sure their reports tell you how many clicks hit certain keywords each day but not which position, you can only see that as the last 25 clicks and that only covers about 5-10 mins activity on our site so I would like to see that extended at some point to perhaps last 100 or so.

Then you have to factor in your commission at whatever % that is. So I don't know if you can do this accurately. I guess they have the admin version of what we see, so they may be able to do this themselves.

Anyone else?

lukey · 09-10-03

On some of mine in the past, the best way has been to run (for example) the adword through a url looking something like this:

www.spamsite.com/tracking/100-1234

Where 100 is the max amount bidded on a keyword and 1234 is a unique identifier for that keyword. Forward teh link through a page which redirects out to the right page on yoru site. Then by tracking the clicks out with espotting you can make a guestimate as to how much each click earns (there's rarely been any greater difference than about 10% on ours - which is often made up by the fact that the google adword actual price is lower than in the url above) - and pull it into a database.

Then match the two together and you've got a detailed tracking system.

Make sense?

Supercod · 09-10-03

Hi Lukey, thanks for that but was actually talking about checking as an Espotting Affiliate and not as an Advertiser. I already have programs in place to check that side of things, but thanks anyways

lukey · 09-10-03

I've never been an espotting advertiser (not in the affiliate game anyway) so it wouldn't work for me.....what I was trying to describe above was a way to check what you are spending on adwords versus your earnings on espotting. It's obviously too late - shall I crawl back to my bed - am I being completely stupid??!!

Supercod · 09-10-03

LOL thanks for your input. The question and I should have been more clear was how do Espotting Affiliates (people who make money from clicks on Espotting adverts) work out the money they are spending on there own promotions into the revenue your earn from Espotting as an affiliate. The answer is you can't, it's just all guesswork.

Now me as an Espotting Advertiser promoting my own sites, that's real easy, I just stick in tracking codes like you have outlined and hey presto I have away of working out what I have made back from each advert spend.

chrisuk · 10-10-03

Yeah in terms of accurate pounds and pence its guess work given the tools that are available.

Its easy enough to work out that if you are spending say £150 per day and making £1000 on Espotting or any other PPC then you are getting good roi.

Harder to work out though are the best converting keywords versus those that are wasting money, personally if I get a profit margin anything like the example above then I am happy to guestimate though

lukey · 10-10-03

I'm going to try and call you - there is a way to do it, and the guesswork is still removed!

Supercod · 10-10-03

Lukey, please call me as I don't think we are talking about the same thing here but if we are then I would love to know the solution.

Before you call, are you an Espotting Affiliate.. i.e. do Espotting pay you a percentage for every click you make them? If the answer is no then we are not talking about the same thing

lukey · 10-10-03

I've been an espotting affiliate for not far off 3 years (with a big break in the middle) - we met at pubconference. Used to be shops**thenet - ring a bell?

Give me a bit to wake up etc (late night!) and I'll get in touch. I've some stuff running at the moment that I should be able to show you.

Supercod · 10-10-03

LOL yes bell is ringing, I am hopeless at names but great at remembering sites

Ok thanks, by the way I just been told by the bloke that does my programming that he can record the clicks and the current prices at Espotting, then work out affiliate commission based on that. Still not as good as Espotting having a utility for us to look at but he solves my problem