Tracking the performance of your online marketing campaigns enables you to effectively analyze your results, adjust bids and revise keywords, titles and descriptions to make your account more successful. Tracking is essential to help you spend effectively so that you are getting the most out of your advertising investment.
Without tracking you may not be able to see where all your visitors are coming from. For example, Yahoo! Search Marketing leads may look like MSN leads, since MSN is part of the Yahoo! Search Marketing network. Furthermore, you may not know if searchers clicking to your site are converting into customers.
In This Section:
• Conversion Counter
• Yahoo! Easy Track™
• Advanced conversion concepts
• Marketing Console and advanced analytical tools
• Search Optimizer
Which tracking methods are right for you? If you:
Want to track Yahoo! Search Marketing conversionsThen use:
Conversion Counter
Conversion Counter
If you don’t have any tracking solutions yet, this section is right for you.
Tracking conversions on your web site is of vital importance to understanding the success of your advertising. Using Yahoo! Search Marketing’s free, easy-to-use Conversion Counter tool will help you optimize your marketing budget and increase your sales. You need Conversion Counter in order to track the sales that Yahoo! Search Marketing is helping to drive.
Using Conversion Counter will allow you to:• Track the number of conversions on your site driven by Yahoo! Search Marketing’s partner network.
• View conversion data at the keyword, category and account level.
• View conversion data for Content Match as well as Standard and Advanced match types.
• View conversion results alongside the Manage Bids and Manage Listings pages in addition to reports in your account.
What is a conversion? A conversion is a completed transaction event on your web site. What constitutes a conversion varies from business to business. The most common conversions are: • Purchase
• Site registration
• Newsletter sign-up
• Request for price quote
• Other lead-generating activity
When you activate Conversion Counter, you will also see conversion rate, which shows you the percentage of clicks that turn into conversions, and cost-per-conversion, which indicates how much it costs to receive one conversion.
Conversion rate = Total conversions / Total clicksConversion Counter is designed to show you how many conversions result from clicks that are driven by your Yahoo! Search Marketing campaign. It tracks conversion data at the account, category and keyword levels, and enables you to test and evaluate the performance of your keywords in both Sponsored Search, including Advanced match types, and Content Match.
As you learn which keywords and categories drive the most conversions, you can make informed decisions about your account, including how to allocate your budget and how to improve under-performing listings. Decisions like these can help you optimize the overall performance of your account and ultimately drive more sales.
How Conversion Counter Works
You place the provided tag—a small piece of HTML code—onto the confirmation page on your web site (usually the sales or sign-up confirmation page). The tag is invisible to your customers and generally will not impact the performance or look of your site in any way. When a customer reaches your confirmation page, the tag registers the conversion event, and the information is presented on your Account Summary and other pages in your account.
RequirementsTo use Conversion Counter, you need to have a Yahoo! Search Marketing account and be able to make changes to your web site. Conversion Counter requires that you place a tag on the transaction completion page. We encourage you to work with your webmaster or call our customer service line at 866-YAHOO-SM (866-924-6676) for assistance.
Conversion Counter requires:
• A Yahoo! Search Marketing account
• A tag on your web site’s confirmation page
• A basic understanding of HTML
Installing Your Tag
Installing your Conversion Counter tag is a simple, two-step process:
1. Choose your web site’s confirmation page
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/rc/srch/ccii.php
Viewing Conversion Counter Data
You can find conversion data in several areas within your account:
• Account Summary page
• Manage Categories page
• Manage Bids page
• Manage Listings page
• Reports
• Account Summary
• Account Daily Summary
• Account Activity Detail
• Search Term Summary
• Search Term Activity Detail
• URL Activity Detail
• Category Summary
• Category Detail
As part of their advertiser makeover, XGaming signed up for Yahoo! Search Marketing’s Conversion Counter tool. Integrating Conversion Counter into its account made it easy for XGaming to measure performance and adjust its bidding strategy as necessary. Yahoo! Search Marketing was able to track conversions to XGaming’s site, while keeping overall cost of acquisition in line with XGaming’s goals and increasing its return on advertising investment.
Tracking URLsIf you want to identify the source of Yahoo! Search Marketing clicks by regularly checking your web server logs, this section is right for you.
Using tracking URLs is one of the most common techniques that associates where visitors came from with what they do on the site. Simply put, a tracking URL is a bit of extra text at the end of the normal URL that indicates where the visitor came from.
For example:
Regular URL:
Yahoo! Easy Track:
http://www.XYZelectronics.com/television
http://www.XYZelectronics.com/television?OVRAW=cheap%20sony %20television&OVKEY=sony%20television&OVMTC=advanced
Tracking URLs can be typed in manually or you can use Yahoo! Easy Track™, which provides URLs dynamically generated by the Yahoo! Search Marketing system. Note that setting up tracking URLs alone will not enable you to track behavior and actions. You must also configure your tracking system to monitor and report on these URLs.
Yahoo! Easy TrackYahoo! East Track is one of the best solutions for tracking your results because its URLs are free, easy to activate and designed to provide more detailed information to advertisers who analyze their web server logs or third party tracking solutions. To use them, you need to log into your account and turn “Yahoo! Easy Track” to “On” in the Account Set-Up section. Please read the “Page Help” portion within Account Set-Up to ensure that Yahoo! Easy Track is compatible with your systems, as the program may not be in all circumstances.
Yahoo! Easy Track provides:
• Source tracking
• Raw search query tracking
• Keyword tracking
• Match Type tracking
• Content Match tracking
Yahoo! Easy Track URLs are enabled by using a simple On/Off switch in your account. All you have to do is select “On” and tracking URLs are automatically added to your URL every time your listing is clicked.
Source Tracking:The mere presence of a tracking URL signifies that the visitor came as a result of your Yahoo! Search Marketing campaign.
The first element of the tracking URL denotes the raw search query, i.e., exactly what the user typed into the search box. The %20 characters signify a space between the words around the %20; for example, “cheap sony television” will look as follows:
“cheap%20sony%20television.”
The second element of the tracking URL denotes the bidded keyword associated with the raw search query.
The third element of the tracking URL denotes the match type of the listing that was clicked on by the searcher. This enables you to understand how many visitors are coming from Standard and Advanced match types as well as Content Match for any given keyword.
Advanced Conversion Concepts
In This Section:
• Conversion types
• Invest across the buying cycle
• Evaluate at the campaign level
• Evaluate at the product level
• Use conversion data to improve your campaign
Direct*:
A conversion that occurs immediately following the click and within the same browser section.
visitor searches > clicks on link > visits site > finds product > makes purchase
A conversion that is attributed to a click but does not occur immediately following the click. Conversions can be recorded up to 30 days after the click. visitor searches > clicks on link > visits site > finds product > doesn’t purchase > visits site again > makes purchase
Keyword clicks that lead up to but do not immediately precede a conversion. Note that the initial click does not get credit for conversion but helped in making the transaction.
visitor searches > clicks on link > visits site > finds product > doesn’t purchase > does new search > clicks on link > visits same site > makes purchase
visitor searches > clicks on link > visits site > finds product > calls or visits physical store to purchase
Buyers that continue to buy after being referred through an initial click.
*Measured by Conversion Counter
Customers have various intentions and needs when searching, depending on where they are in the buying cycle. This buying cycle can be divided into three phases: research, shop and purchase. Segmenting your keywords across this cycle, and writing corresponding creative messages, will help you capture all conversion types.
Phase Research Shop PurchaseAudience description Gather information about product
category, production options or key retailers Track and compare purchasing criteria Ready to buy
Your
opportunity Frame the buying decision; establish credibility
Compete on more specific criteria;
capitalize on customer preferences
Acquire customers who know what they want
Example # of keywords Up to 50 (general) 100 - 500 (medium) 500 - 5,000 (specific)
Example keywords Computer Game, Video Game
Playstation, Xbox
Halo Xbox Halo Cheats
Likely
conversion types
Deferred; indirect; offline; repeat
customers
Direct; deferred; indirect; offline; repeat customers Direct; offline
There are two ways to effectively invest across the buying cycle and maximize your sales. One method is to evaluate your performance at the campaign level. You can see here that overall, the campaign is generating a positive ROI.
Evaluate at the Campaign LevelThe other method is to evaluate your performance at each product line or category level. Note that in this example, the product line for CDs is not performing as well as the other product lines.
Evaluate at the Product Level
Books 1,250 $0.40
CDs 970 $0.50
DVDs 890 $0.60
$500 88 $613 123% $485 49 $243 50% $534 267 $1,335 250%
Note that this may not be recommended for all advertisers.
Note that you should not solely focus on ROI in all situations. It is usually desirable to maximize total profits, which may come from campaigns or products with a lower overall ROI.
You can further increase your results by analyzing your keywords’ performance and using the conversion data to help you decide how to act. If you have a lot of keywords,we recommend that you prioritize them by traffic volume and modify the high-traffic keywords first.
For categories/keywords performing well:• Explore new keywords: Use the Keyword Selector Tool and other techniques for discovering related keywords (see Chapter 2 for ideas).
• Raise bid and position: Bidding into the top positions will increase your exposure to potential customers and boost click-through rate.
• Activate Content Match: Increase exposure across the Web by activating Content Match, which puts your listing on related content pages on sites like Yahoo! and MSN.
• Opt your keywords into the Advanced match type: Provide search users with relevant listings, even when the bidded keyword does not match word-for-word with the search query.
Consider testing alternate landing pages to see which is more effective.
• Improve web site design: Make sure your site is well organized and easy to navigate.
• Decrease bid: If you’ve over-bid in the hopes of increasing traffic and it didn’t pay off,
When analyzing your Conversion Counter data to improve your campaigns, we recommend that you use data spanning a prolonged time period. Focusing on a single day’s conversion data may not yield accurate and statistically valid results, and you may take actions that are counter-productive to your campaigns. We recommend that, depending on your traffic and conversion volume, you measure conversion results over a minimum two-week period–or if possible, a 30-day period.
Marketing Console and Advanced Analytical Tools If you are ready for advanced tracking solutions, this section is right for you.
Our Marketing Console and other third-party tracking solutions enable tracking and monitoring beyond conversions by source and keyword. They include tracking by:• Navigation usage
• Shopping cart abandonment
• Time on site and on each page
• Visitor paths
Marketing Console
The most comprehensive Yahoo! Search Marketing product for tracking results is Marketing Console, which lets you see exactly how your sponsored search, email, banner, paid inclusion and/or affiliate programs are performing, all in one location.
Marketing Console provides you with information about:
Track which campaigns, channels and creative solutions are generating the most cost-effective leads and conversions on your site.
Measure the performance of your creative against standard metrics, including conversion rate, total revenue and cost per acquisition (CPA).
Determine the length of your initial and repeat conversion cycle or funnel.
Monitor how many new and repeat leads or shoppers are on your site.
How Marketing Console Works
Marketing Console uses a small JavaScript tag and cookies to track your customers’ movements from your marketing campaign and into your site. This information is collected, processed and placed on an integrated, easy-to-follow set of reports that allows you to track and ultimately improve the performance of all of your online channels, including sponsored search, emails, banners, paid inclusion and affiliate programs. You can then view these reports within Marketing Console.
Marketing Console uses three tags to simplify the set-up process for advertisers. The three tags are the Universal Tag, the Shopper Tag and the Conversion Tag. The Universal tag is meant to be placed on every page on your site. The Shopper Tag is used to trigger when a visitor should be considered a Shopper on your site (e.g. a visitor to your site has placed a product in your shopping cart). The Conversion Tag is placed on your transaction completion page and allows you to define the value or revenue amount per transaction.
How to Sign Up and ActivateOnce you complete the sign-up process, you will be emailed detailed installation instructions and examples on how to implement the product (we recommend that you have your web master or web site developer manage the installation of the tags on your site). Once these steps are accomplished you will have access to Marketing Console, which will enhance your ability to manage and optimize your online marketing campaigns.
Marketing Console vs. Third-Party Tracking SoftwareYou may not be using tracking URLs. Tracking URLs are important on advertising networks, such as Yahoo! Search Marketing. Yahoo! Our network delivers 95% of its traffic from partners like Yahoo! and MSN. If you do not have tracking URLs, your web logs will show traffic coming from Yahoo!, MSN, or other sites, rather than originating from Yahoo! Search Marketing.
Your software may not count visits correctly. Some programs count one IP address for every half-hour interval as a unique user. One problem with this technique arises with proxy servers (computers acting as agents for multiple users). For example, MSN routes all subscribers through only a few IP addresses, so any one MSN IP address can map back to tens of thousands of separate users. Third-party tracking software sometimes fails to take this into account, which can result in incorrect numbers for you.
Many advertisers find they get the most effective information by calculating their results on a monthly basis. Tracking results less frequently will prevent you from making the most informed and effective decisions about how to best use your advertising budget.
Search OptimizerSearch Optimizer is Yahoo! Search Marketing’s enhanced campaign optimization tool, which automates the bid management process based on your business objectives. Search Optimizer will help you save time and achieve better results from Yahoo! Search Marketing sponsored search programs. Why are you paying for keywords and campaigns that do not perform? Why are you not further investing in those that are returning favorable results? Let Search Optimizer achieve results that are measurable and extensible to all your online marketing activities.
Search Optimizer Benefits Saves Time:Automated bid management reduces the amount of time spent managing and optimizing a sponsored search campaign.
Allows you to optimize the campaign based on your unique business model; updates keyword bids as frequently as every five minutes, helping to ensure that every keyword remains competitive.
Campaigns produce leads only when your call center or customer support organization is able to respond to them, which increases the effectiveness of the campaign. Responds quickly to keywords that offer the greatest opportunity and warrant increased investment.
Measures and optimizes the success of Content Match traffic independent of Sponsored Search traffic. Search Optimizer helps achieve your CPA or ROI goal in both Sponsored Search and Content Match by making independent bid recommendations for each product.
Search Optimizer shows relative performance of keywords in near real-time for a quick visual overview of your campaign performance.
Define the time of day and days of the week that your call center is available to respond to leads, and Search Optimizer automatically optimizes to drive traffic at those times.
How to Sign Up and ActivateTo sign up for Yahoo! Search Marketing’s Search Optimizer, please call (866) 869-9256.
Exercise
Calculate frequently used marketing metrics based on the following information. Keyword: Radio
Bid price:
Cost of item:
Sale price:
Impressions:
Click-through rate:
Items sold (conversions): $0.20 $40
$100
25,000 10%
50
Action Steps
If you want to identify the source of Yahoo! Search Marketing clicks, turn on Yahoo! Easy Track.
If you want to track Yahoo! Search Marketing conversions, activate Conversion Counter.
If you want to automate your sponsored search bidding strategies based on performance-driven recommendations, use Search Optimizer.
Review your results and modify your bids, keyword listings or titles and descriptions based on what you learn.