I told my Atlas rep that I was thinking of putting the Google Conversion Tracking code & the Yahoo Conversion Tracking code on our website. This way, we could eliminate Atlas.

Atlas told me that if I went that route, I would have duplication of data. Here’s why: If someone initially came to us thru Yahoo, and left the site, then they came back to us thru Google…and converted…Yahoo would “remember” the visitor, and count it as a conversion. Also, the example works the same way if they came to us from Google initially, and left. Then, returned to us using Yahoo and converted. Google would count it as a conversion. Thus, my data would show 2 conversions. One for Yahoo, and One for Google. Not, the 1 conversion that it truly is.

Or, is the conversion tracked back to specific referrer code within the parameters of the query string?
Thereby, negating what the Atlas rep said.

Does anyone have any experience with this issue?

Why don't you run all three for a week and see what happens?

Then let us know. :)

Or, if you wanted a new metrics tool that is really good, go with Clicktracks.

I checked with my Google rep. She said the Atlas rep was right. Atlas "de-dupes" the data. I posted the full answer on my blog: Shimon Sandler (http://www.shimonsandler.com/?p=47)'s blog.

Google rep promotes Atlas? Interesting relationship.

More sophisticated tracking solutions will be able to distinguish the source of the conversion. You would have to decide which if you want to count conversions towards the first or last 'touch' with the customer though.

For e.g. if they first came to you from Google, but only converted on the second/third visit to your site through another source of traffic, you would see that as a latent conversion.

I don't see how it would count towards Google's conversions if it came through Yahoo!, unless they are cooking the users in which case the one cookie should override the other, so you should not get two counts.

I use simple yes no logic to run the appropriate conversion page code.

For example all our campaigns have urls with variables in them that are passed to our sites. One variable identifies the ad network. We use this to trigger the logic to run the corresponding conversion codes. Google, Yahoo, Ask..

Planning out how you are going to track visits/behaviors/conversions or use bid management tools before you develop a site is an absolute must. Building this logic into your website can deliver highly accurate reports and give you the opportunity to makes changes on the fly and try out/discontinue any service in the future.

Discovery

Atlas told me that if I went that route, I would have duplication of data. Here’s why: If someone initially came to us thru Yahoo, and left the site, then they came back to us thru Google…and converted…Yahoo would “remember” the visitor, and count it as a conversion.

Does anyone have any experience with this issue?

Google and Yahoo have their own seperate code and reporting so I can't see this happening. Each can track the other, but only if you insert the proper code.

As a side note, I use DirectTracks, KeywordMax, BidDirector, and ClickAuditor. All are programs owned by the same company.

I have tried BidRank and SearchIgnite.

Yahoo has benefits in that it updates bidding information every 5-10 minutes, versus everyone else updating once every hour.

Googles benefits are their Analytics if you (or better yet, when you) have this feature.

I am using all three products by the way because of the above features.

The other software, DirectTracks, KeywordMax, BidDirector, and ClickAuditor, completely tracks everything else as well as G and Y, but give you better click fraud monitoring and the ability to set up very robust parameters to regulate your traffic.

Hope this helps

Can you explain exactly how ClickAuditor works?

Google and Yahoo's conversion tracking tags don't play nice together. I'm running Atlas, Google, and Yahoo conversion tags on my site (it's a long, LONG story) and I'm getting big discrepancies between what Yahoo is reporting, and what Atlas is reporting. What the Google rep had to say about the subject was correct, at least in my experience, but it works both ways (rarely, but I've also seen Google take credit for Yahoo conversions).

In the past, I've used KeywordMax, along with its ClickAuditor, and I've never been able to get anything meaningful out of it. If you are running campaigns of significant size (which from the sound of it, given that you're using Atlas, you are) KeywordMax' solution wouldn't suit your needs.

Can you explain exactly how ClickAuditor works?

There are a ton of modifyers (parameters) and email notification settings, as well as conversion trends and so on witht the same.

You set the rules, and whenever one is broken you get an email. I set this up on a pda and know if anything happens I should know about, aacross 100's of campaigns and affiliates within direct track, a verticle tool within the same family.

You also have the ability to block ip's.

This is part of the reason I post click fraud abusing IP's on ppc-managers.bolgspot...because I'm collecting them for credit anyhow.

You can also track non-us traffic (my campaigns are all non-us), which I use for ppc engine credits.

Lastly, with a simple url string addition I can track traffic from which affiliate, which search engine, and what keywords by using a direct tracks affiliate code with a string created using the concantenate feature in excel.

It costs a bit more than normal but its the best I've come across.

Good Luck

Gary Beal

Google and Yahoo's conversion tracking tags don't play nice together. I'm running Atlas, Google, and Yahoo conversion tags on my site (it's a long, LONG story) and I'm getting big discrepancies between what Yahoo is reporting, and what Atlas is reporting. What the Google rep had to say about the subject was correct, at least in my experience, but it works both ways (rarely, but I've also seen Google take credit for Yahoo conversions).


How were you using it?

The only reason I would use Yahoo, Google AND a third party is for Bid montoring. I like Google analytics, Yahoo allows 5-10 minute refresh rates on bidding (vs 24 hr max increments-at least on their own campaigns), a direct tracks has all of our other tools which include backend accounting, affiliate signup and monitoring, bidtracks, keywordmax, and the other tools.

Regarding
In the past, I've used KeywordMax, along with its ClickAuditor, and I've never been able to get anything meaningful out of it. If you are running campaigns of significant size (which from the sound of it, given that you're using Atlas, you are) KeywordMax' solution wouldn't suit your needs.

I run 100's of campaigns across dozens of ppc's, plus monitor 700+ affiliate traffic, and I do this using Google, Yahoo and all the direct tracks tools.

One thing I will point out on a side note regarding Google Analytics, there is a serious loophole that allows a competitor to strip your code and place it in their header to skew your reporting.

I saw that there is already a fix available, but I can't recall where I saw it.