A trick to track Yahoo! Search Marketing in Google Analytics

If you're doing pay per click advertising, you better be doing some analytics. If not, stop reading this immediately, go to http://google.com/analytics and start.

Okay, you're back.

One of the biggest pains when it comes to setting up PPC is setting up your tagging for other search engines. Google provides a handy tool called the Google URL Builder which allows you to set up the right destination pages for Google Analytics to track your non-Google campaigns in your search engine reports in Google Analytics.

However, it can get really tedious adding destination pages for each keyword. But wait, there's an easier way, people!

By using Yahoo's variables, you can simply add them in at the ad level and Google and Yahoo will do the rest of the work for you. Basically, all you need to do is add {OVKEY} for your term and {OVADID} for your campaign content and all will be right with the world.

Who knew paid search marketing could be so easy?

Paid Search Marketing...the high level value

First and foremost, I just want to state that I am a professional. This does not mean that I carry a weapon, it just means that I do online marketing for a living.

*cue dramatic theme music*

The real value in paid search marketing is its accountability, and its ability to target people at deeper stages of the purchase funnel. New to this? Let me explain:

When you setup a Google Adwords account, you should also setup a Google Analytics account. By doing so, you can track how much you're spending per click, and what kind of results you're getting from those clicks. Say you have a website that sells toy trucks. With Google Analytics, you can track which keywords are leading to sales, what your exact return on ad spend is for each keyword and ad group. You simply can't do that with traditional marketing. This also allows you to fluidly adjust your campaigns. After a week you might find that "red toy trucks" has converted 20% of its clicks into sales, while "blue toy trucks" has converted only 3%. You can either make adjustments (send them to a different page, change the ad text, change the price on the blue trucks), or stop spending money there altogether. The fluidity of paid search marketing is something that really can't be replicated by traditional marketing channels either.

The other point here is that pay per click can truly target people further down the buying cycle. By targeting terms like "buy a toy truck" or "get toy trucks" you can reach customers who want your products now. It's like a heat seeking missile for marketing. Not using paid search yet? Find a paid search management firm, or get educated and start one up on your own. The time is now!