Click Consult - Internet Marketing

Pay Per Click (PPC) Management

PPC Analytics in the Dark

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

Filed under: Pay Per Click (PPC) Management by Mike @ 1:33 pm

Anyone with a PPC campaign should have a Google Analytics account setup and linked as a mandatory requirement, in fact scrap that, anyone with a website should have a Google Analytics account. The combination of these two Google tools provides the user with a wealth of information to hand on almost every aspect of the traffic coming to the site, ranging from how they got there, what they did while they were there to where they left the site. This data is invaluable when optimising all aspects of a pay per click campaign.

Whilst there are many things shown up in Analytics, it has long been known by a few but not known by many that the results it shows up for PPC campaign data only show the keyword the search triggered and not the actual search term used. So for example if someone searched “fast blue car”, Analytics may show up that there was a click for the keyword “fast car” which is in the campaign on broad match. Whilst this information is fine from an ad group performance point of view it doesn’t offer any insight into what additional keyword terms would perform better or if there are additional negative keywords that need to be added.

It seems there are a number of solutions to this and certain people have known about it since 2006! I won’t attempt to take the credit for the solutions, instead I will link the method that I think is the easiest at the bottom of this blog. This method basically uses the filters function within Analytics, to which 2 filters are added. Once setup this provides on the keyword report for Google PPC traffic not just a list of campaign keywords that are triggered but also the search term that was used in brackets afterwards.

Why don’t Google provide this information as standard if it’s this easily available I hear you all ask. Well judging by some of the results I have seen and based on the fact that Google makes the largest proportion of it’s money from PPC campaigns through keywords on broad match, if everyone had this facility on their account they would have a much better view of what people are searching. So there is less guess work involved and more keyword phrases on exact match.

One of the more interesting points this gives visibility to is Google’s most recent policy on broad match which is as follows “With broad match, the Google AdWords system automatically runs your ads on relevant variations of your keywords, even if these terms aren't in your keyword lists. Keyword variations can include synonyms, singular/plural forms, relevant variants of your keywords, and phrases containing your keywords.” It is very interesting to see just how liberal Google is with this policy and I get the feeling that there would be plenty of people not too happy with exactly what Google deems as relevant to their campaign.

Related posts:

  1. Using Broad Keyword Match In PPC Advertising
    Broad keyword match is a term that you will often see when conducting searches, and if you partake in PPC advertising then you will undoubtedly have witnessed it in these circumstances too but what exactly is it and can it benefit your PPC advertising? When we conduct a search on...
  2. The Importance of Negative Keywords on PPC
    Running a PPC campaign may seem like a fairly easy process to a lot of Online Marketing savvy people. You simply add some keywords and adverts, set a budget and start running those keywords. Then the money will start to roll in won't it? Well probably not. You'll probably get...
  3. Should we trust broad match?
    I always loved matching option as it was a way of exploring a linguistic depth of human thinking. It always made you think why people call things different names while the object only got one? Do people put more experience/expectation into the name than its purpose? Choosing keywords for your...
  4. Bored with Broad Match
    Working as a dedicated Pay Per Click manager on a number of varied accounts, from time to time you will come across issues that you haven't dealt with before and will have to find different solutions to resolve them. Pay per click after all is still an industry in its...
  5. 6 Top Tips to Avoid a PPC Credit Crunch
    As the pay-per-click (PPC) market grows and becomes more competitive it also becomes more expensive to obtain high position. It has been quoted by some that inflation is making the PPC marketing channel too expensive and that PPC inflation is killing online profits. Positions are calculated on Google by the...

Learn more about Pay Per Click.

Link to us

If you want to link to this blog, copy and paste the following HTML code to your website.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 at 1:33 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed.

Responses to “PPC Analytics in the Dark”

  1. Adam Says:

    Great post Mike, but unless i’m being stupid I cant find the link – “I won’t attempt to take the credit for the solutions, instead I will link the method that I think is the easiest at the bottom of this blog”

  2. Jonathan Says:

    It is very expansive program of search engines and it increases the business of companies and updates the sites in the search engine index.

  3. Brianna Says:

    It is not helpful for business for longer period of time. For this purpose other services of SEO and software tools like Meta tags are required.

  4. Nicholas Says:

    All major search engines are running the PPC programs of different – different name. For e.g. Google ad words, MSN ad center etc.

  5. Logan Says:

    In PPC, keywords should be good and relevant on the basis of theme of the site and content of sites and title.

  6. Christian Says:

    There are many contents which depend on your PPC campaign like return on investment, and click per cost and your campaign bid should be good and unique.

Leave a Reply

Search Blogs

Highest Rated Blogs

Tag Cloud

Recent Posts

Blog Categories

Affiliate Marketing
About Affiliate MarketingAffiliate Marketing Glossary
Affiliate Marketing ManagementAffiliate Marketing Networks
Affiliate Marketing ProgramsAffiliate Marketing Reporting
Affiliate Marketing Set UpAffiliate Marketing Strategy

Audio Podcasts

Click Consult Press Releases

Email Marketing
About Email MarketingEmail Marketing Creation
Email Marketing GlossaryEmail Marketing Management
Email Marketing Reporting

General Industry Blogs
Internet Marketing

Online Press Release (PR)
About Online Press Releases (PR)Online Press Release (PR) Glossary
Online Press Release (PR) ManagementOnline Press Release (PR) Reporting
Online Press Release (PR) Writing

Pay Per Click (PPC)
About Pay Per Click (PPC)Content / Search Advertising
Google AdwordsMicrosoft adCenter
Pay Per Click (PPC) GlossaryPay Per Click (PPC) Management
Pay Per Click (PPC) PoliciesQuality Score
Yahoo! Search Marketing

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
About Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)Off Page Search Engine Optimisation
On Page Search Engine OptimisationSearch Engine Optimisation Glossary
Search Engine Optimisation SubmissionsSEO Tips

Video Podcasts

Web Design
About Web DesignContent Management Systems
Web Design GlossaryWeb Design Tips
Web Hosting

Blog Archives

March 2010February 2010
January 2010December 2009
November 2009October 2009
September 2009August 2009
July 2009June 2009
May 2009April 2009
March 2009February 2009
January 2009December 2008
November 2008October 2008
September 2008August 2008
July 2008June 2008
May 2008April 2008
March 2008February 2008
January 2008December 2007
November 2007
Click Consult Resource Centre for PPC, SEO and Internet Marketing
Click Consult TV - Internet Marketing Blog
W3C XHTML Valid W3C CSS Valid W3C WAI  Internet Marketing RSS Feed for Click Consult