New Conversion Tracking Tools Offered by Both Overture and Google

By Merle
Posted Saturday, July 17, 2004

Ever wonder if your keyword campaigns are paying off? Hot on the heels of Overture, Google Ad Words (:https://adwords.google.com/select/) has announced its own free conversion tracking tool. Advertisers can now track whether users arriving via keywords are actually converting.

To add conversion tracking to your site, you'll need to place a few lines of Javascript to your webpages. Be aware for "Privacy Concerns" -- this code adds a small "Google Site Stats" logo wherever it is added. Any user who is worried about what information is being tracked can click on the graphic for more information.

When a user clicks on one of your keyword ads and is brought to your site, a cookie is set for 30 days. So even if they don't buy right away and leave, if they come back and do buy, they can be tracked -- as long as they return within that 30-day time frame.

So what kinds of things can be tracked?

1) Actual sales

2) If a user subscribes to your Ezine

3) If he visits certain pages 4) Contact info (i.e., sales leads)

The above information can also be sent back to Google and included in your monthly campaign reports. The reports can show you conversion rates and the cost per conversion. This data will tell you at a glance if your keyword campaigns are working or not.

Since Adwords ads are also shown on Adsense partner pages, it will help you decide if these visitors are converting as well as the visitors from Google's own search engine pages. If you'd like to opt out of having your ads displayed on AdSense, you can do that if you're not seeing a return on your investment.

Overture released what they refer to as "Conversion Counter" (http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/ac/ba/cc.jhtml). This is a new way to track if your search engine keyword listings are converting. At the moment, the service is free. Overture is calling it a limited time free offer, but as rival Google's conversion tracker is complimentary, it's possible Overture will be forced to keep their tool free, too.

Overture's Conversion Counter can track essentially the same things as Google's (sales, signups, sales leads, etc.). To use it, you must copy a piece of HTML code onto your sales or "sign up" pages.

You can view your conversion results by day, week or month. Simply log onto Overture's "DirectTraffic Center" to view your stats.

If you haven't been tracking your keyword ad campaigns, you now have no excuse. With these tools, you'll know if you're throwing money away or putting it to good promotional use.

About the Author
Merle is an internet marketer, promotion consultant and ezine publisher. Visit her sites at (http://www.mcpromotions.com/),(http://www.merlesworld.com/) and (http://www.ezineadauction.com/).