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August 27, 2004

Google & Overture Conversion Tracking for Affiliates

Posted by Adam Viener

I have been running keyword advertising for affiliate programs for over a year now. When both Google and Overture launched their free conversion tracking tools that show you what keywords are converting into leads or sales, as an affiliate marketer I could only drool.

In order to use the conversion tracking tools, you have to be able to place a small chunk of code on the sales conversion page of the site. This code enables Google and Overture to track that particular sale back to the keyword that generated the lead.

This is fairly simple for some of my consulting clients who have their own site and can easily update the code on their conversion page. It becomes a lot harder for companies that have lots of affiliates and would have to make this code dynamic so it shows the specific affiliate’s tracking codes when the customer purchases.

I have recently begun working with a merchant who is using Kowabunga’s MyAP Program and they have been able to quickly add dynamic conversion counters to their conversion pages. I haven’t yet identified if it is the merchant or the MyAP software that made this possible.

I wish I had this for all of my merchants. Having this conversion data lets me see exactly how much I should be bidding for each keyword in my account. It really takes a lot of guess work out of the game. Love it!

CJ, Linkshare, and the others, take note!