Comments on: Friday Quiz: Know Your PPC Reports? Win $50.

By: Craig Danuloff

Craig Danuloff — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:07:56 +0000

Thanks Everyone. I’ve named Tim the winner and his $50 iTunes Gift Certificate has been sent. Please see the subsequent post for more details. – Craig

By: Are PPC Reports Inaccurate? Let’s Count the Ways (Friday Quiz Winner)

Are PPC Reports Inaccurate? Let’s Count the Ways (Friday Quiz Winner) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 14:58:39 +0000

[...] of these were mentioned in the comments of our Friday Quiz post question about problems with paid search reporting. And each definitely contributes to PPC report [...]

By: Praveen kodur

Praveen kodur — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 03:26:31 +0000

Because of following reasons

1) Click and Sale can happen at different times. I can Click now and later come to site directly and purchase

2) PPC cookies last for 3o days, website can maintian cookies for 30 minutes. I may be treated as same visitor by PPC program but a different user by E-commerce site. Therefore click from same IP may not be counted in 30 days.

3) PPC program does an cookie based tracking, Ecommerce site may do a IP based tracking system. Users with no Javascript installed may not be tracked accurately…

4) Users using a common machine like a Home PC – Mom, Dad, teenager making purchases repeatedly from a single site, PPC may not track them.

Therefore Use PPC for reporting clicks, use internal system to report to conversions..

By: Dylan Lewis

Dylan Lewis — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 20:04:47 +0000

incorrect results.

I meant incorrect measurement.

By: Dylan Lewis

Dylan Lewis — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 20:03:21 +0000

…because (1) your web analytics application and the search reports are set to record data through a specific timezone. Meaning that they record data through 2007 in that timezone but not in the rest of the world as the clock ticks down and visitors click through.
(2) If you assume that the month ends when the clock in the tracking timezone ends, then then there are – purchases that will be made from brand/product impressions that were made in December (from above). Also, there are sales that are made from other channels (from above).
(3) At the end of the year strange behavior occurs for many people that need to make a purchase that they have been considering for some time – a small company may purchase a computer for tax reasons. So the paid search may have assisted the sale but the year end tax consequences may have actually drove the sale and similar ppc results are not able to be reproduced in January or other months – the confounding variable of year end drives incorrect results.

By: Greg Moore

Greg Moore — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 17:12:09 +0000

…because some people clicked on your ad and then came into your store to make the purchase. Or called your 800 number and talked to a sales rep to purchase. Or asked their parents to buy it for them. Or told a decision maker who later approved it and made the purchase.

By: Joe Teixeira

Joe Teixeira — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 13:50:12 +0000

…because they are not supposed to. Search Engine Marketing Reports and Web Analytics are not accounting software packages, no matter how hard we try to turn them into that. Web Analytics is for analyzing trends and understanding behavior; Search Engine Marketing is for online advertisement. If you want to know how much revenue your company generated, I suggest Quick Books or an accountant

By: Tim S

Tim S — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 07:56:09 +0000

Latency aka Click to Purchase.

if your product / service has a long purchase cycle ( 2 weeks), if someone clicks on your ad Dec 22nd. but doesn’t buy until Jan 3rd then the Dec 2007 report would show the click but no sale … and Jan 2008 report would show a sale but 0 clicks ( assuming you only had 1 click on the keyword or just for logic sake)