Direct-to-merchant PPC, capturing referrer info?

[Steve___]

Hi,

I'm currently doing some direct-to-merchant PPC work, and it's going well so far. However because I drive the traffic straight to the merchant I can't see the referrer information - i.e. I can't see the search terms the users entered, which would be useful to help build out my keyword lists. Furthermore the merchants (if they look) could see this info, and so I'm concerned some of them could 'steal' my keyword list, which I've invested plenty of time putting together

Can anyone suggest an easy way I can redirect the traffic through an intermediate site that would both record the users' search terms and not pass that info onto the merchant

Thanks, Steve

[tbp]

The merchants can't actually see the referrering keywords etc, but the networks can. When someone clicks a direct to merchant link, it first goes to the affiliate network, they then redirect on to the merchant. As a result the merchant only sees the refferer as the affiliate network itself.

It's easy enough to do this on your own site. Not only can you build a better landing page than the merchants page, which caters for more of your keyword (which lowers CPC), you can also record all the data you need before you redirect to the affiliate network.

Its a bit more work than direct to merchants, but the benefits outweigh the amount of work you need to do. Your landing page can really do a hard sell, and give a lot more info about the products than the merchants site, which then leads to more conversions.

[D-Mac]

Originally Posted by tbp The merchants can't actually see the referrering keywords

This is incorrect, at least on one of the major networks.

[tbp]

This is incorrect, at least on one of the major networks.

Ok, well thats fair enough, I wouldn't of thought they could of done, unless the network deliberately passed it over. There was a thread on this the other week, and a number of networks said they didn't, and the others didn't post (so I guess it says that they do)

[Barry]

D-Mac - care to elaborate?

I have had confirmation thats its not available from a few networks, so I would be interested in any info you have that do.

IMO it would be wrong to reveal this information to the merchant if the affiliate account was trusted and was set up as a PPC account with the network.

edit
cheers tbp, I will look that thread up now
/edit

[D-Mac]

I used to rung an aff prog on a network and I could definitely see all the keywords that were sent from adwords via the network. You can also see which keywords convert if your software is configured properly.

[dougs]

So which network wanst to deny its them...unless someone will spill the beans.

I reckon its Commision Junction?

CJ care to comment

Mayve AF would comment

any takers or are you all guilty...come guys time for you to show that you are clean

Doug

[Steve___]

yeah, it's that kind of uncertainty I want to avoid. I suppose I could just use snipurl or tinyurl? Are there any problems with that approach I'm unware of? other than it not recording the users search terms so only half solving the problem

[km8]

Originally Posted by Steve___ yeah, it's that kind of uncertainty I want to avoid. I suppose I could just use snipurl or tinyurl? Are there any problems with that approach I'm unware of? other than it not recording the users search terms so only half solving the problem

You need any more problems than that?
That's like taking the baby, the bath and the water and chucking out everything except the baby's gold fillings.

I've written a tracking script that
- hides the referrer url from the network and merchant
- logs all PPC traffic including
--search engine
--campaign
--adgroup
--search term
--matched term
--visitor IP
--visitor country
--time and date
--conversion value

plus you can drill down to look at traffic for any particular Search engine/Campaign/Adgroup/Keyword/Search term, etc and know exactly what it earns per click - today/yesterday/last 7 days/last 30 days/all time.

You can also change the destination url without having to edit your PPC ad, thereby avoiding the risk of a further review upsetting an established campaign.

I haven't considered offering it for sale, and I'm not sure I would sell it anyhow, but it sounds like there should be a market for this kind of script.

Am I missing an obvious opportunity or should I just capitalise on the very real edge it gives me over those gambling PPC money in the dark?

[D-Mac]

km8, it sounds like you've written a great script. I'll be your 1st customer if you decide to sell it