Question

Tracking Google Adword - referrals, # of visits of that unique user, and registration

Asked by: wdeley

I'm running a marketing campaign and want to track the effectiveness of the campaign from the time a user clicks on a AdWord through a unique visitor's registration (and eventual purchases).  Google recommends setting up a ?referrer=GoogleAdwordMay2003 type type of system.

Please advise if the following makes sense/advise better way/address questions:

1.  set up link in adwords to the above http://www......com/referrer=GoogleAdwordMay2003

2.  On receiving page, grab referrer and place that into a cookie along with the date of the first visit, the number of visits (page downloads) and the unique cookie ID?

3.  If the user returns to the page, the cookie updates the visit by #1

4.  If the user registers, the database will also grab the information in the cookie (referrer, date of the first visit, and the number of visits)

Other questions
- how do I add a unique cookie ID so it can not be duplicated?

- how can I capture the cookie data before the user registers (audit Google's data and track conversion)?

- is there any other suggestions you might have?

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Asked On
2003-05-20 at 11:45:48ID20621157
Tags

adword

,

cookie

,

google

Topic

Internet Marketing

Participating Experts
2
Points
250
Comments
6

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Answers

 

by: netuser1976Posted on 2003-05-20 at 16:21:25ID: 8554360

If you want to add a unique Cookie ID, you could generate a GUID and make this as the Cookie ID. I dont clearly understand your basic question..

 

by: wdeleyPosted on 2003-05-20 at 17:50:34ID: 8554671

what is a GUID?

Unique ID as in non-duplicated.  visitors are given a unique tracking number (no duplications)

 

by: 3MAN8Posted on 2003-05-23 at 08:04:14ID: 8572499

Hi wdeley.
Each of your questions is fairly simple to answer individually, however, you're talking about creating a fully-fledged user-analytics application here. There are many ways to go about this, all of which require a server-side technology such as PHP, ASP or Coldfusion.

Are you using any of these? Or better still, do you currently have some sort of traffic analyser installed on the site?

3MAN8

 

by: wdeleyPosted on 2003-05-27 at 11:02:32ID: 8592261

3Man8,

I am using ASP with SQL server so I can track this.  I don't want I fully-fledged application.  Just something for tracking marketing effectiveness - who referred the person, when did they visit, how many visits and whether they registered.

William

 

by: 3MAN8Posted on 2003-05-28 at 03:12:00ID: 8596730

I've recently written an application that does what you require, but I can assure you that describing it is not within the scope of this forum.

However, with a little tweaking here and there, the StatCounteX community project should be able to do what you need.

Check the following URL:
http://www.2enetworx.com/dev/projects/statcountex.asp

It's not ideal in that it won't track individual users as such (it uses IP addresses), but using your Cookie idea to create a User Id would easilly fix that. The code uses ASP and a choice of databases, including SQL.

Hope this helps,
3MAN8

 

by: wdeleyPosted on 2003-05-29 at 07:23:31ID: 8606124

3MAN8, I checked it out.  It looks like a good app.  But it is key to track individual users.  Since you use ASP, suggest that as an option in your next upgrade.  For now, I'll need to customize a method.  thanks for your help.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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