Pulling Levers Blog
Archive for August, 2007
Google Analytics vs. Conversion Counter
Posted by James McGinn on August 20, 2007 within Google Analytics. | No Comments
When Google released Google Analytics, some wondered about the fate of the conversion counter. While far more limited in its reporting capabilities, the conversion counter offers a way for Adwords advertisers to see campaign performace – through the interface or reporting module. Specifically, the counter provides for far superior rolling daily analysis and same-day reporting that Google Analytics doesn’t provide.
As savvy webmasters and marketers installed Google Analytics and maintained the conversion counter, they discovered that the numbers (conversions and sales value) the conversion counter reported looked different (often very different) than Google Analytics numbers. There are a few reasons for this (none of which are really explained by Google’s help entry on the topic):
Adwords Tip: Run “look back” reports when using conversion counter
Posted by Danyl Herron on August 13, 2007 within Google Adwords. | No Comments
If you are using the Adwords conversion counter and pulling end-of-the- month reports, make sure you run reports 30 days after the last day of the month. Otherwise, you may be missing sales and revenue.
Adwords conversion counter is a 30-day cookie and attributes a sale to the date of the click, not the date of the sale. For example, if someone clicks on an ad on May 31, but then comes back directly or through a bookmark on June 11 and purchases, Adwords attributes this conversion (and sales value) to May 31, and not June 11. So, if you run a monthly report for May on June 10, the example conversion (and sales value) is not included. Furthermore, even though the conversion happened in June, when you run your June report, the transaction won’t be there either. However, if you ran a MAY report on June 12, the conversion data would be there, since that report was run after the conversion occurred.
Google Analytics changes time on site calculation
Posted by Joe Brodecki on August 6, 2007 within Google Analytics. | No Comments
UPDATE 9/12/2007 – Google has reversed its counting methodology for time on site.
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We attended the GA Conversion Universiy last week and it was discussed why Google Analytics time on site numbers have jumped.
Google’s explanation is that Google Analytics is no longer counting visitors who bounce in their TOS calculation. They weren’t sure when the change took effect (they thought end of July). The Google folks agreed it should have been announced.
Placement Performance Report for Google Content
Posted by Jennifer Davis on August 2, 2007 within Google Adwords. | No Comments
Google is now providing a placement performance report that shows what domains/pages are driving traffic through your Adwords content network campaigns. This is very helpful in determining where garbage traffic is coming from. Sites that are driving a lot of traffic, but are not converting well, can be excluded from your campaign and your ads will no longer show on those sites. This report can be run at the site or page level, so you can be very specific about the pages you want excluded from showing your ad.
This report can be accessed through Adwords Report Center.
Welcome to the first post of Pulling Levers – a search marketing and analytics resource. The official blog of Lever Interactive, we hope to provide not only industry news and POV, but also expert search marketing advice and insight.