Tracking Adwords Sales

[Larney]

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I possted this in the getting started forum but maybe it is better suited here.

Hi

I am pretty new to Adwords and its workings. I have a campaign that clicks through to my site and then users hopefully go onto the merchants (mostly Amazon sales). Is it possible and if so how would I track what sales were via PPC and what were organically from Google, Bing etc? At the moment I don't have a clue how my Amazon sales are generated.

Thanks in advance.
Max

[D-Mac]

One way of tracking the keyword used in PPC or organic search sales is as follows. It does require a bit of programming knowledge:

1. When a user lands on your site, store the referal string in a database table.
2. Store the table's row ID in a session or cookie.
3. When the user exits your site via an affiliate link, send the user via an exit script first.
4. The exit script appends the session ID to the affiliate URL.
5. Login into to your affiliate network to view the session ID that is listed against every commission.
6. Look up each session ID that was listed in the affiliate networks' reports to see which keywords generated the sale.

This method works on nearly all affiliate networks. Unfortunately it won't work with Amazon. However, Amazon are on the Zanox network, and it works on there

[Larney]

David thanks for the reply. I think that might be beyond my programming knowledge which is somewhat limited. Other than a rush of SEO generated traffic a couple of weeks ago from Bing which has now ended, most comes via the PPC so I guess it is safe to assume it is generating most of the sales.

Max

[blockstack22]

Google analytics will track adwords sales for you. In fact so will adwords.

[heartinternet]

Using Google Analytics it is very (very) easy to do what you are looking for.

Using the same account you use for AdWords set up an analytics account and simply follow the installation instructions (this is just a copy and paste job across your site's pages).

Once that's done you'll be able to see what you described above in a few hours (the reporting i not real time)

If you can copy and paste, you can install Google Analytics

[SpongeBob]

1. When the user exits your site via an affiliate link, send the user via an exit script first.
2. The exit script appends the session ID to the affiliate URL.
3. Login into to your affiliate network to view the session ID that is listed against every commission.

Won't work for Amazon, though, where he gets most of his sales. Amazon don't allow you to send tracking info. You can set up a (limited) number of tracking IDs, though, so while you can't link every AdWords click-through to every Amazon sale, you could (through the wizardry of programming) group your users (e.g. users from AdWords, users from elsewhere) and send them to Amazon using different tracking IDs. I.e. have 2 Amazon tracking IDs and use one just for AdWords visitors so you can see what they buy.

Amazon is a pain in this way - other networks make matching up sales much easier.

[D-Mac]

SpongeBob, you can use the Amazon program on Zanox instead

[SpongeBob]

SpongeBob, you can use the Amazon program on Zanox instead

Ah, does that level of tracking work via the Zanox links? Could be good if it does, then!

[hpops]

I'd heartily recommend the DCStorm for affiliates product.

[mrbishi]

This method works on nearly all affiliate networks. Unfortunately it won't work with Amazon. However, Amazon are on the Zanox network, and it works on there

I just looked into signing up to Amazon on the Zanox program but in the program details it mentions:

"This Program doesn`t work with subid-tracking (with S or SIDE or GPP/zpar0 etc.). We can`t get back the subid-values for this programs to the sales, because we work only with the tracking of amazon and not with our own tracking."

But it does seem that if you ship less than 1600 items a month you will earn more through the zanox program than the actual amazon affiliates program as you have to sell less items to hit the higher tiers.