Conversion Tracking PPC - Help Appreciated

[Leadfinanceman]

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Hi all

I could really do with some help on the subject of PPC tracking - mainly with regards to PHP?

I have posted a couple of times and almost got close to cracking it but the clickref reports in AWIN are empty! :-(

I am going to outline below the tracking I have in my PPC redirect, the PHP in my landing page and my current affiliate link on site - I am really, really hopeful someone can help!

My PPC redirect is:
www.mysite.com/specifiedlandingpage/?kw=goog1 (I am using specific numbers to reference to keywords and their match types in an excel sheet I have saved somewhere)

My PHP on landing page is:
<?php
session_start();
$_SESSION['track'] = $_GET['kw'];
?>

Finally, the clickref function I am using in the affiliate link is:
www.awin.com/etcetc&clickref=<?php echo $_SESSION['kw'];?>

Can anyone advise where I have gone wrong? It may be something very simple but really need some help here!

Thanks in advance....

[Andrew Starr]

instead of
www.awin.com/etcetc&clickref=<?php echo $_SESSION['kw'];?>

shouldn't it be?
www.awin.com/etcetc&clickref=<?php echo $_SESSION['track'];?>

[Leadfinanceman]

Still returning results as empty?

Does all the code look correct now?

Is it just a fundamental problem with the PHP on my wordpress page?

[D-Mac]

If you're just testing it yourself in a single browser you may need to destroy the current session as it may not contain any data.

PHP Tutorial - Session

<?php
session_start(); 
session_destroy();
?>

[Andrew Starr]

is the affiliate link on a different page to your landing page? www.mysite.com/specifiedlandingpage/?kw=goog1


if it is, then I think you also need to include this line:
session_start();
before any html on the page where the affiliate link is situated

[Leadfinanceman]

Hi guys - thanks for taking the time to help me...

Unfortunately, my clickref report is still blank - there is just a problem with the pulling through of the referring keyword.

The click is being recorded so the actual affiliate link I believe is fine but I believe the actual PHP code I have is wrong. It is in my header template on my wordpress site - would this affect the functionality of it?

Would you be able to ouline the code you use in your landing page and affiliate link?

I would be eternally grateful!

[D-Mac]

when you hover on your affiliate link, can you see the clickref in the status bar?

[Leadfinanceman]

Sure can...is that a bad thing?

I know I can cloak it etc but for the time being, would just like the damn thing working!

[D-Mac]

it should be working then...

Best to send a support request to affiliate window.

[Andrew Starr]

The click is being recorded so the actual affiliate link I believe is fine but I believe the actual PHP code I have is wrong. It is in my header template on my wordpress site - would this affect the functionality of it?

I don't use wordpress so I don't know where the header template sits in the order of things, but if the session_start(); function is not the very first thing before any other code then the whole session will simply not work, so I suspect this may be the problem.

see this page PHP Sessions

[Andrew Starr]

As you can't get the session thing to work, have you thought about storing the keyword in a cookie instead?

so on your landing page you would use someting like:

$kw = @$_GET['kw'];
setcookie ("keyword", "$kw", time()+3600, "/"); 

(the time()+3600 above is the number of seconds the cookie is valid, change it to whatever suits you)

then you extract the keyword from the cookie and insert into your affiliate link:

www.awin.com/etcetc&clickref=<?php echo $_COOKIE['kw'];?>

[Leadfinanceman]

Thanks Tx4i - so should I copy and paste that PHP code in its entirety?

Do I need to put the below around it?

<?php

?>

Appreciate your help on this mate.

[Andrew Starr]

Do I need to put the below around it?

<?php

?>

yes.

i forgot to say that the 'setcookie' function has to go before any html

example:

<?php
$kw = @$_GET['kw']; 
setcookie ("keyword", "$kw", time()+3600, "/");
?>
<html>
<head>
your page content etc etc...

[Leadfinanceman]

Firstly, thanks for taking the time to assist me with this...

However, reports are still empty and I think I know why.

I have been reading up on another forum and as I am using a Wordpress site, I have been adding into a template (the header template) and as such it has been applied across all pages.

Apparantly this is bad...?

Is this why it is not working?

Is there a way round it because if I can not track PPC on Wordpress sites - I am pretty much screwed!