Search Engine Conversion Tracking

One of the most exciting developments from search engines in 2003 was free conversion tracking for their advertisers. PFP program owners led the way, with FindWhat.com hitting the market first (Figure 14.5). Overture and Google followed, as have others I'm sure. No more excuses for advertisers to not track their paid listings by total sales and profitability. How long will it be free? Who knows . Let's keep our fingers crossed that the answer is "always."

Figure 14.5. Sample conversion tracking report provided by FindWhat.com to their advertisers.

Once you've signed up for an account, you'll copy and paste the piece of HTML code the search engine generates onto a page of your web site (usually the sales or other transaction confirmation page). A Webmaster can do this within minutes. Not to worry if you are running more than one ROI tracking program that works in this fashion. It's not a problem to place several pieces of code on the same web page.

Important

At the end of 2003, Overture launched Marketing Console, an online performance-tracking product for marketers. ROI data can be tracked across multiple Internet channels.

There is a drawback. Each search engine offers conversion tracking exclusively to their advertisers. It's significantly more efficient to run one ROI tracking solution if you're executing campaigns on multiple search engines. This probably isn't a concern for first-time marketers, or for those concentrating on a limited number of search engines. In the long run, however, a third-party ROI tracking solution is best.