Possibly, the second most frustrating experience (solution to most annoying) with Google AdWords & Analytics for me, is that referrals from the Content Network only show up as Google[cpc] and nothing more. What’s the big secret? Why isn’t this data more revealing? Well I can’t tell you why, but I can tell you how!

Yes, that’s how you too can get a taste of this mysterious data that Google seems to be stashing away from Joe Public. Again, I must thank the chaps at GA-Experts for their hard work in proving they truly are market leaders in the field of anything related to Google Analytics.

Let’s See a Quick Example

The GA-Expert’s referral data filter displays not only the Pay per Click source, but the website that shows your sponsored ad.

google, www.tripadvisor.com[cpc]
ysm, www2.nuseek.com[ppc]
msuk, search.msn.co.uk[ppc]

And the Filter

Simply follow the steps that have been kindly supplied by GA-Experts:

1) Create a new profile that is a copy of your existing one.
IMPORTANT: This filter should be ringfenced in its own profile, as you only want this filter applied to PPC referrals.

2) Add a filter to show only PPC referrals in this profile. This screenshot shows how.

3) Add the filter that shows the Search & Content Network referrer, as per this screenshot.

4) Wait for the data. All referral reports will now show the exact PPC referrer.

What does this mean?

An obvious use of this data is to exclude certain sites from your Pay per Click campaigns that are not performing and not providing a satisfactory ROI. This can be done for the Google Content Network Network, but I do not think this is currently available with Google Search Network and with Yahoo.

Another great benefit is if you have or plan to setup an affiliate program. We all know PPC can be a great keyword research tool for SEO, but did you know it can be a really useful for scouting potential affiliates as well? Website owners who have AdSense on their site are obviously commercially aware and Google has categorised such sites as being relevant to your site too.

By setting up Goals in Google Analytics and applying the above filter it is easy to see which websites from the Google Content Network are performing well. You can then review and anticipate if such sites will provide better ROI and greater Net Return as part as part of your affiliate campaign or remain as part of your Google Content Network. This has certainly helped wanders for one of my clients!

Google Analytics rocks, but the single most annoying thing about it is its inability to provide the exact search phrase that a visitor enters in a search engine through PPC. Instead Google AdWords & Analytics only reports the keyword/phrase that you bid on.

If you are an AdWords marketer and are with me this far, I am sure you share the sadness I feel . If not, don’t worry, read on and I will share the sadness, but also the shining bright light to AdWords keyword happiness!

Ok, an example perhaps?

Sure – by default, a broad match for a keyword or keyphrase is used in AdWords.

So, Let’s say I bid on the term ‘Google Analytics’ with a broad match in AdWords and a visitor enters ‘The Cheaters Guide for Integrating Google AdWords & Analytics’ into a search engine.

Providing I had bid enough and the Quality Score for the keyphrase was also high enough, the ad would show – but up until now, the only data that AdWords or Analytics would provide about the search keyphrase are the keywords that I bid on and not the exact words that the searcher entered.

This is ok for an exact match, but what can you learn about the search behaviour for a broad or phrase match? Very little! I originally thought Google had selectively chosen to exclude this data for commercial reasons in an attempt increase its ever expanding money pockets.

Fear Not…

The guys from GA-Analytics have been busy formulating a filter to solve this exact problem. In fact, I have found it very useful for Yahoo & MSN PPC campaigns too.

It turns out that Google is not being quite the scrooge I first thought. But they certainly don’t make it easy! Luckily the GA-Analytics boys do:

1) Create two filters as per the images here:

Override Bid Term 1 & Override Bid Term 2

2) Create a new profile for your existing site. This keeps the detailed keyword data in a separate profile. You can apply this filter to your main profile(s) if you prefer, but a separate profile allows for continuity and top level reporting in your main profile with keyword detail available as required.

3) Apply the two filters to the new profile, in the order Override Bid Term 1 *then* Override Bid Term 2

What does this mean?

This awesome extra bit of detail can help in the refinement of your Google AdWords campaigns. It can really boost your long tail keywords strategies. The long term concept focuses on a smaller volume of searchers for more specific niche terms.

Long tail keywords are often less competitive and have the potential to have a really high conversion rate for your products and services. Oftentimes, the more keywords a searcher users, the closer they are in the ‘buying search process’ – wohoo, real them in baby!

It can also be used to identify keywords that are not relevant and do not convert for your product or services. You can build up a list of negative keywords for all or some of your campaigns.

I really love this filter. Remember though, filters can be used to include or exclude data. For this reason I would make sure you make a duplicate analytics profile when applying a new filter, until you get your bearings and are sure you haven’t filtered out any useful data!