AdWords Ad and Keyword Tracking Problem
Maybe someone has a solution to this, but for now I am calling this a “would love” feature in AdWords.
Situation: My company wants to test placing the phone number in the ad text and how that converts better than other ads. There is some debate about this and I want to try it.
So we assign a phone number to the campaign and a landing page with that phone number. Full tracking since people might click and then convert online and we want to know that.
Also know that we track all keywords with keyword specific URLs in AdWords. AdWords give precedence to keyword specific URLs (and I LOVE that) meaning they override the ad copy URL.
Problem: With these new ads, the new landing page is only specified in the ad URL, which is being overridden by the keyword URL. I can’t start a new campign with new keyword URLs because it’s duplication. The ads won’t be rotated correctly.
What I need: A way to attach trackers in the keyword to append to the ad URL. That was hard to say. Let me explain.
Ad 1 URL: www.example.com
Ad 2 URL: www.example.com/lp
I want to set a tracker on all keywords in that campaign so that when someone searches “blue widgets” and gets Ad 2, they get www.example.com/lp/?source=bluewidgets. If they got Ad 1, it’d be www.example.com/?source=bluewidgets.
Basically what I’m looking for is a choice of changing the keyword desination URL if need be, but also have the option of appending a tracker on the end of the ad URL.
Anyone agree? Got ideas for me? I’m posting on webmasterworld too, see what happens there.






kate.. set up a different tracker.
mcc.hitslink.com
Comment by paisley
July 24th, 2008 @ 11:03 am
There is a simple fix for this - you do not have to have a destination URL at the keyword level. Leave the destination URL blank at the keyword level, only specify it for an ad.
I do this for a living, feel free to get in touch if you need additional help.
Comment by Laura Roeder
August 8th, 2008 @ 6:15 pm
Thanks Laura, but our tracking system right now depends on the keyword level trackers. It’s an essential part of my companies data set. Can’t get rid of those.
Comment by Kate
August 11th, 2008 @ 8:14 am