Google Analytics Conversions - Natural or Paid?

[ruggy]

Hi,

I have my Adwords and Analytics accounts synched so that I can compare natural and ppc keyword traffic side by side.

What i don't know is if Google makes a distinction between natural and paid conversions in the Goals Overview.

For instance, if i have 10 conversions in Adwords and 20 showing in Analytics Goals Overview can i safely say that's 20 overall i.e. 10 from Adwords and 10 from natural search?

I don't believe i can get this data from Keyword Conversions report since that doesn;t report conversions generated by direct or referred traffic...

Or does the Analytics Goals Overview only show natural conversions? If so then this is confusing since Analytics reports paid conversions

[Andy]

Hi,

I think you will need to append a query string parameter to your destination URL in adwords such as ?src=gaw

Then on the landing page use PHP/Javascript to modify the sales funnel link to send the visitor to a different goal page.

Example using PHP:

Code:

<a href="
<?php
if (isset($_GET['src'])) {
  echo 'goalA.php'; //Adwords goal
}  else {
  echo 'goalB.php'; //Natural search goal
}
?>
">Buy Now</a>

Or if the goal URL is with or without a query string, your reports can show the difference as "Exact match" or "head match" e.g. goal URL = goal.php or goal.php?src=gaw

[ruggy]

Hi Andy,

Thanks could give that a try, would be useful. But does that mean that when the Analytics Goals Overview reports 20 and Adwords reports 10 that there have been 10 natural conversions and 10 Adwords conversions or 30 overall i.e. Analytics Goals Overview is it only reporting natural conversions?

That's my core question as i only want to know total paid and total natural at present...

[Andy]

The Analytics total will be the total hits on the Goal pages.

But, what I suggested is probably over-complicated.

You can set up auto-tagging in Adwords and link it with Analytics. Here your destination URLs will be automatically tagged so they can be differentiated from Natural search traffic.

Check out:
http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=26789

[ruggy]

Thanks Andy, will give that a whirl.

So Analytics Goals Overview lists total goals from Adwords and Analytics. I guess that means other metrics such as Unique Visitors are the total uniques from Adwords and natural search.

I'd assumed the above was true but this is the first time its been confirmed... Cheers

[Andy]

Let me know how you get on.

I am very interested in conversion tracking and optimization of websites. Google now have all the bases covered for testing and optimization I think, however, it is forcing you to use Adwords since they use Javascript so much and this is not indexed in the search engines so cannot gain natural search visitors. So that is why they give away these web services for free I think. Also, they keep all the data, can you imagine the value of the data that they have at their disposal?

This is one reason people pay for tracking and optimization tools, so they can keep their data private and create dynamically optimized sites that look natural without using Javascript inserts.

[Manu]

Also, they keep all the data, can you imagine the value of the data that they have at their disposal?

Yes, but they don't charge NASA and US State Department.

About conversion tracking tools, A friend of mine is using Omniture and she stands by it like anything. Another good tool for tracking PPC conversion is clicktracks.com

[Andy]

I wrote my own code to track keywords, clicks, downloads and perform multivariate optimization of web content. It would be good to release this code to the public in the future. But I am reluctant to do it until I have used it myself for many months to iron out any bugs.

[ruggy]

Good points guys...  It stands to reason that Google use the data. Why whould anyone ignore something so valuable?

The concern is who they share their data, particulary conversion data, with i.e. competitors

So do you think Google Analytics uniques include Adwords uniques?

[Andy]

So do you think Google Analytics uniques include Adwords uniques?

I am sure it does if the analytics code is on your Adwords landing pages. Unique visitors are tracked by IP address.

The concern is who they share their data, particularly conversion data, with i.e. competitors

. I think big G likes to keep data in-house. If they want the services of a competitor, they buy the competitor. 

I also think big G is very careful in how they handle our data since they have a lot to lose if they have any security issues. For example, gmail and google docs data must be kept private and secure.