Nada Collar

People often ask how to track conversions of keywords. And occasionally someone mentions that you shouldn’t forget that you can use dynamic entry of keywords into your URL in Adwords. CPA Affiliates recently posted a good example of how to track your keywords using the dynamic keyword variable in Adwords.

As mentioned in the comments of the CPA-Affiliates post, the problem with using keywords in your URL’s is that you might be showing the merchant how you are giving them traffic.

I like to use Excel to create URL’s with my own tracking information. This can work with your own landing pages and a script such as shown at CPA-Affiliates, or with tracking from some networks (such as the Shopper ID at Commission Junction).

1. Arrange your URL to have the tracking information at the end. www.domain.com/abc.php?fu=bar&sid=tracking_info
2. Paste the base URL into Excel A1. Remove the tracking variable. ie www.domain.com/abc.php?fu=bar&sid=
3. Pick a base tracking number, this number is going to increment for each keyword, and will start with some letters to help differentiate different campaigns. For example aa100. Put this number in B3
4. Get all your keywords and dump them into excel starting from C3, going down to Cxxx. Make sure your grouping still works after pasting, If the quotes disappear, after you paste, go to the bottom of your keywords (while selected), and there should be a little pull down button for paste options. Select “Text Import Wizard”, and on step 2 un-tick Space as a delimiter, and change text qualifier to {none}.
5. Auto fill your tracking numbers starting with your base (aa100). Select it, grab the lower right corner of the cell and drag down column B until you get to the end of the keywords you added in column C.
6. In D3 add **. Using Auto fill again, drag it down to match with the bottom of your keywords. Copy this whole column into F3. These columns will match the Adwords syntax “keyword**bid_price**URL”
7. This step shouldn’t be needed but for some reason Adwords won’t let me use the default bid by leaving this column empty (even though they say it works). Put your default bid price in E3 and drag it down to the bottom of the keywords. Make sure they are all the same value and not incrementing Of course you can change any keyword to any bid you like.
8. In G3 type =concatenate($A$1,B3). You should end up with your URL shown: www.domain.com/abc.php?fu=bar&sid=aa100.
9. Auto fill column G. Select G3, click in the lower right corner of the cell and drag down to the bottom.
10. Select your whole table and paste into the Adwords Keyword Editor. You can paste up to 750 keywords.

Good Luck.

There are more details on selecting different URLs for different keyowrds on the Adwords help page.

Update: Here is a template where you can setup a few things and hey presto its all done. URL Builder. It’s slightly different to my guide:

•  enter base URL
• enter default bid
• enter first (Base) SID
• enter keywords (see earlier comments with tips for pasting)
• drag (autofill) the columns to match keyword list

What is Google planning with regard to paid links? Matt Cutts has a post requesting people to report paid links using the webmaster spam report tool. The post has opened up a can of worms. Matt is stating that they would like the information to try out some new algorithm’s they are working on, but the writing is on the wall (on a side note: we need a modern version of this statement. “The writing is on the server”?)

• Either Google wants to remove paid links from their PageRank algorithm.
• or They want to rule the paid links arena with their new embedded link ads
• or all of the above.

Passing PageRank
Matt has basically said that you should not pass PageRank with any paid links. And while people have been calling Google hypocritical (since they essentially are the biggest paid link provider out there) I guess they are missing the point of passing page rank. Many large pay for a link networks out there are javaScript and hence don’t pass pagerank. They are all about the traffic. Text-link-ads and others are more about PageRank (and also traffic).

The response?
So far Text-Link-Ads have not made a comment about Matt’s post. Many people have commented on Matt’s post about the issues they see with it, but most are quick knee jerk reactions.

• Google is being Hypocritical. (yeah well, not directly but…. yeah)
• SEO’s will put out of jobs. (huh, I think not)
• April fools joke? (no)
• Penalize competitors by reporting them (since everyone does it)
• We are being asked to rat out others to help Google make money.

The less knee jerk reactions (but still negative)

• many site ONLY make money from paid links. And the links are relevant and hand edited. What are they to do?
• Google have said this is ok in the past.

And the positives:

• I’ve been waiting for this. Thanks
• Now the mom and pops can have a level playing field with big-budget stores.

Interesting Notes
The only real valid comment we can make right now is about the lack of information as to what is a paid link, how we should be using them, and what Google is planning to do with this information.

One commentor (Michele ) introduced the concept of rel=”paid” (to be honest I think it wasn’t something Michele would like, but it seems like a good suggestion to me).

Another commentor (Everett ) pointed out that hand crafted ads should be ok, but automated ones shouldn’t be. I like this, but from a algorithm point of view… ouch.

Conclusion
The idea is nice. It means that in theory relevant content is able to rank higher. But if you ask me the whole PageRank concept is broken now anyway. It has got to the point where things are popular because they are popular. Who will link to the brilliantly written page that nobody visits because its number 3000 on the SERPS? In my opinion blogs have taken off so well because of this problem. If you can build a readership by having unique opinions then you can grow, but in established markets where opinions count for less (and thus a blog won’t get a readership) it is starting to require significant time (and thus money) to get into the SERPs.

Given that, maybe Google are shooting themselves in the foot. Maybe PageRank ONLY works because of paid links. Someone who wants to get into the game can seed themselves by spending some money and then see how they go on the SERPs once they get seeded. Without the paid links they might never have bothered in the first place.

Interesting thought to ponder, but its way to big of a problem to ever really know the answer.

Update: I’ve been waiting for response from some bigger names on this one. Quadzilla has pointed out that everyone has joined his black-hat ranks. Maybe they are all sitting back to see how the ball lands.

Since I wrote my thoughts on Google’s Pay-Per-Action I’ve been trying to think of some PPA ideas outside the box and have come up with a few. But the most interesting thought I’ve had is using PPA/CPA in place of CPC. What if I can determine if a reader came to my site via a PPA link? (I must be able to otherwise how would PPA work). I could make that my action. Sounds stupid since its just CPC. But what could I do with that added control?

• I can know at any second EXACTLY how much money I have spent.
• I could try and filter what I believe to be click fraud. It might affect my ranking, but I can weigh the pro’s and con’s and find a balance. At least my money is going to those who deserve it.
• I could pay for traffic that actually wants my site (ie by waiting for 3 internal page views, or something similar) . That way I can control the relevance of traffic I am paying for.
• I could dynamically adjust how often I notify Google to keep my ranking exactly where I want it. That way I only pay what I absolutely have to pay. Why get top ranking if 4th or 5th is better (and where I want to be).
• I could only notify Google if my visitor clicks on an Ad (makes aggregation a sure thing doesn’t it)

Some of these sound great and… well those last few just open up a can of worms now don’t they? I don’t want to even think about what I could do if I wanted to push the ethical bounds even further.

update: I already mentioned this in my first post, but it seems to be a common misunderstanding around the blogosphere, so let me address “basic” action fraud as Michael Arrington did. Google ranks ads by how much money it makes them, so CPC and PPA can exist together and Google can still decide which one makes them more money. So, if I don’t tell Google about the actions with the hope that I can get free advertising, then it’s the same thing as having a 0% click through ration (CTR). That will never get you any traffic. I am trying to point out that you can now control that click through ratio.

Right now I can see five solutions for these last problems:

• PPA never makes it to search. Probably not something Google would prefer.
• A publisher has direct control over what ads run. Seems like they already do, but its not a great solution from Google’s perspective as its not the most efficient. (and its just not the Google “algorithmic” way of doing things)
• Two tiers of affiliates, those that must use a Google supplied action page, and those that are big enough to trust that can supply their own actions. Ouch.
• Strong filtering of PPA landing pages to try and remove any unwanted activity.
• Hope that the positives outweigh the negatives and live with it.

None of them are great, and I think the last two are what we are going to get. It seems to me that Google might have a product that is much less scalable than Adwords. Of course Adwords has click fraud but yet it has been a phenomenal success, so maybe we will just have to live with PPA schemes.

Looks like an opportunity to me.

Google have just announced a Pay-Per-Action product which is currently in beta testing. It has generated lots of interest and possibly for the first time some people are doubting Google. Michael Arrington of TechCrunch thinks Google will kill the current big players, but many of his readers disagree.

I am taking the middle line. I don’t think current big players will be killed, the market will just grow (although current smaller players will be killed). It seems to me that Google is taking on the big hole that currently exists in CPA. The advertiser-Network relationship is a big hurdle right now and limits affiliate networks to big players.I think most people that are in the affiliate market are thinking about the current market and stating that Google will not affect CJ, Linkshare etc. Which is probably true. The big advertisers might be more than happy where they are.

But the market is about to undertake a dramatic change. New ideas/markets that no one thought of (or did but couldn’t get past the affiliate hurdle) are about to open up because now, in 2 hours of work they can start a campaign. I suspect that existing CPA networks have avoided the small market because of the action fraud issue. They want big players who they can trust and develop a relationship. But Google have essentially removed this fraud because of the auction process. And THAT is the secret ingredient that will change the landscape of CPA (or extend the landscape).

This isn’t really related, but I found it interesting.

Google have just announced in their google blog that they are now selling domains. They just provide a front end and outsource the actual registration to GoDaddy or eNom.
It costs $10 per domain, but the great thing is that:

1. You can trust Google
2. They will throw in email with 2Gb and 200 Aliases
3. They also throw in privacy options.

So when you look at all that it looks pretty good. Maybe not the cheapest option, but probably the less hassle than most.

Check it out at their Google Apps for your Domain.

Referral revenue is beginning to become more common place as sites struggle with the rest of the world for users. When content is generated by users and revenue is generated from content, it makes sense for everyone.

Google arguably don’t need users (unlike say… ME!) However they have competition and they want to stay ahead and keep that share price moving up.

Google offers about 5 different referrer programs:

• Google Adsense - placing Google ads on your site
• Google Adwords - buying Google ads
• Firefox plus Google toolbar
• Google Pack
• Picasa - picture organisation software

The google programme policies allow you to place up to 4 of these links on any page, but only one per product. Always make sure you read and understand the policies. It would be devastating to start making money and accidentally break a rule and lose it all.

Log into your google adsense account, go to Adsense setup tab. Select the referrals product and step through the wizard. Its nice and easy. Drop the java script onto your page and tada, you have your button of choice, just like those 4 over there on my right hand sidebar.

Or create a link and use it like any other link. Just remember:

• Only one referral per product, up to four on a page.
• Don’t click on your own links (referrals or ads).

Don’t have an adsense account?

Read the next two sections and then click on my button over there to the right to go get one.

Its fairly straight forward. Things to watch out for?

• Read the programme policies
• In general your site needs content, they don’t want spam.
• Make sure they can tell you really own your domain. Use an email from that domain, or make sure your whois says your name. Or send them a fax with the details as a last resort.

How to be sure to get an adsense account?

Worried that your site doesn’t have enough original content?

1. Setup a blogger page.
2. Setup a gmail account and use it for a month or so.
3. Use both to sign up.

How to do add referral buttons in Blogger?

Its simple really. Find the area in your template that you want the buttons to appear and drop the javascript. You probably want it in your sidebar. So find the begin #sidebar section, follow the code and compare it with your page, drop it between the sections where you want it. For example you might have a “Powered by blogger” button, it should easy to find that and drop the code right above that button.

In blogger its even easier. Select the page element you want (or create a new one), select the javascript option, then drop it in. Drag the page element to where you want it.

While I’m on the subject of blogger and adsense. If you are using the new blogger beta note that Google will send you an email asking for your approval for blogger.com to access your google account.

How much do they pay?

Depends on the referral and the actions of the person who you referred. Short answer, anywhere from $1 to $100. Long answer.