As most of you Google Analytics (GA) users know, you can setup your Google Analytics account to automatically receive Cost Data from your Adwords account. This data can only be correlated to your Traffic & Commerce data as long as the “gclid” parameter makes it to the Actual Website (which Google Adwords AUTOMATICALLY appends to the end of your destination URLs upon click from your paid search ad).
Well we’ve found that WebTrends’ redirector script used for their Dynamic Search product doesn’t pass along that “gclid” parameter back to the actual website. Therefore, Traffic and Commerce information within GA is not correlating to all that Juicy Cost Data that advertisers pay a lot of $$$ for in Adwords.
Here’s a sample URL from a Dynamic Search Destination URL setup in Adwords
http://rd.clickshift.com/rd?
tid=123412341&cid=2134&pri=04&eid=1234123&
url=http%3A//www.AWebSite.com/index.html%3F
WT.ev%3Dclicks%26WT.medium%3Dcpc%26
WT.term%3Dkeyword%26WT.mc_id%3Dsgaw703%26
WT.campaign%3D19%26WT.content%3Dtext%26
WT.source%3Dgoogle
After someone searches Google and clicks on this Ad, the following SHOULD BE the Automatically Adjusted Google URL with the “gclid” parameter:
http://rd.clickshift.com/rd?
tid=123412341&cid=2134&pri=04&eid=1234123&
url=http%3A//www.AWebSite.com/index.html%3F
WT.ev%3Dclicks%26WT.medium%3Dcpc%26
WT.term%3Dkeyword%26WT.mc_id%3D1234123%26
WT.campaign%3D19%26WT.content%3Dtext%26
WT.source%3Dgoogle&
gclid=CJr1_snj7o8CFSBeagodNVwbKg
HOWEVER, this is what comes out of the WebTrends Dynamic Search Redirector Script when reaching the actual website:
http://www.AWebSite.com/index.html?
WT.medium=cpc&WT.term=keyword&
WT.mc_id=1234123&WT.campaign=19&
WT.mc_ev=click&WT.content=text&
WT.source=google
Notice, there is no "gclid" parameter being passed back to the website after being redirected by the Dynamic Search script.
Althought I haven't been able to verify this, you will not be able to pull Adwords Keyword Position reports correlated to Traffic or Commerce Data like the following sample report shows:
This is a TREMENDOUSLY VALUABLE report to any Adwords Advertiser and to not have access to this type of information could be costing advertisers a TON of money by targeting wrong keyword positions!
We’ve called WebTrends support and found that they know of the problem with their Redirect Script and that they have it on their to-do list. As for priority, it might NOT be the most important issue on their list at this time.
WHAT WE NEED: Everyone who is using Dynamic Search should call their WebTrends Support & Customer Service Rep to inquire about this problem so we can get it to the TOP of WebTrends’ to-do list.
OTHERWISE, what you're left with is just the PLAIN OLD Adwords Data as a stand alone report NOT correlated to Traffic & Commerce data within GA.
Please Show Your Support &
Pick-Up The Phone!