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I own a business and I advertise in Google adwords, Bing ads, Facebook and few other places. All these are paid ads. My question is this; Is it possible for me to build a system which can connect to all these services via API or any other way and pull data so I can have a central system which gives me a snapshot of all data I need such as traffic, conversions etc. I know this can be done via Google Analytics but I'm using URL method in my site to tag leads with its lead source and this is done by having custom URLS for every campaign. So after many testings I found out this method is not working with GA.

I don't want to login to individual accounts on a daily basis to check data (Traffic, conversions etc) so if anyone know if this can be done via a custom system (I can hire someone to do it) or any public softwares available which can do this? I know softwares like Moz can do similar things but they are not mainly targeted at paid search or paid ads.

Thanks a lot :)

Ninja078
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  • Two things: 1/ Why do you use unique URLs rather than what most other people do, which is to use tags on the advertising URL to differentiate source, advert content, etc? And... what is the problem that prevents GA from being useful? Why do you think you can't use GA? Correctly configured, it'll give you tracked conversion, no matter how many landing pages you have, and attribute those to a source. Even if you haven't got tracking tags, there are filter tricks that can imply a source to a URL, for example. – JezC Aug 12 '14 at 11:48
  • Thanks for your reply; for an e.g for all my google ppc ads I'm sending people to this custom url: www.mysite.com/?ref=googleppc so a user comes to my site and makes a purchase the conversion page amends this value -> www.mysite.com/thanks/?ref=googleppc now the value gets stored into the database as the "source" of the lead. My problem is after implementing this GA is not tracking conversions correctly. – Ninja078 Aug 12 '14 at 12:27
  • Use a filter to rewrite the tracking. That is, you'll tell GA, when it sees "?ref=googleppc" that the campaign source is Google, the medium is PPC. However, in the case of Google AdWords as a source, if you enable automatic tagging, Google adds the "gclid" tracking parameter, which imports a lot more useful stuff (like the search query) into GA. And the "ref" stuff is just clutter ;) As for Binghoo, Facebook - same trick. Rewrite filters can ascribe the source, medium, correctly. – JezC Aug 12 '14 at 12:43
  • Thanks JezC for your excellent answer. I will now speak to my devs. – Ninja078 Aug 12 '14 at 14:49
  • Does rewriting URL works with Adwords? – Ninja078 Aug 12 '14 at 15:02
  • Yes, but it isn't as effective as enabling/using/linking to get the gclid - that carries far better info to and fro. Like the actual search query used. You can't get that from "ref=googleppc". Just enable gclid, link accounts, and enjoy the benefits! See my more complete answer, below for links to linking, better tag building (works on any web and most mobile advertising systems). – JezC Aug 13 '14 at 07:21

3 Answers3

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Use Google Analytics Custom Filters to rewrite the referral tags. If you have "www.example.com/?ref=bing", then you need to rewrite that, so that Google understand the campaign source is bing, the medium is paid. You've lost valuable information (like the keyword) and I'd want to improve the tagging to add useful stuff like that.

For Google AdWords, you shouldn't be losing any tracking information... But you might not have enabled (or more to the point, you have actively disabled) automatic tracking tags. AdWords, by default, tacks on a tracking parameter that Google Analytics picks up. You do have to link the accounts to get the data transfer. When you do, you get information about the campaign, search query, etc and you can feed that back into AdWords - so you get Analytics performance measurements in the AdWords account. Very useful, IMO.

I'd start by reconsidering whether "?ref=bing" is adequate. I'd move towards using Google's tracking tag system. In that, you add Campaign, Source, Medium, Keyword and Creative identifiers. IME, you rarely have enough data to manage AdWords, Bing, Facebook, just by knowing the source - unless you have just one advert on one exact matched keyword, of course. :)

For facebook, I'd want to include which custom audience you were addressing, and which creative you were promoting. In Binghoo, I'd want the keyword, and AdGroup/Campaign identifier, and possibly the creative ID - so I can compare advert effectiveness.

So, first step, for now, use Google Analytics Custom Filters to turn your tags into something meaningful to GA. Next step, improve your tags, so you don't have the problem of rewriting.

You'll probably want this helpful Google tool - the Google Analytics URL Builder. This constructs the various utm_* fields that GA uses.

JezC
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This is basically what a DSP (Demand Side Platform) does - you have a single tool where you set up your ads, set up your tracking pixels etc, and then those ads are used across multiple systems - e.g. you make your ads once and the same ad gets shown everywhere (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook, and loads of other publishers). The DSP handles all the API integration with the different systems so you dont need to worry about it.

The statistics are combined too so you get a total number of impressions, conversions etc with the ability to break it down by network etc too, so you only need to log in to the DSP to see the results for all of your activity on all networks in one place.

There are multiple DSP services available, and they can be complex to use but it is a "one stop shop" for managing lots of activity form one place.

There is some more impartial background info on wikipedia that has some links off articles discussing the different DPSs and their pros & cons etc. Some might be better suited than others to someone graduating from simple PPC advertising into more sophisticated world of DSPs & real-time bidding.

Hope that helps!

matt1
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  • Thanks for your reply Matt1 but im not looking for a platform to do the biddings and creating ads. I'm looking for a platform which can connect to various ad platforms via API and act as a reporting center. – Ninja078 Aug 12 '14 at 15:03
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To answer your specific question, yes, this is possible using those platform's APIs and a good bit of custom development.

I've worked on similar projects that provided for cross-account and client-merged reporting from Google Analytics API (carrying the Ad Words data), Bing Ads Reporting API, Marchex and IfByPhone (both are call tracking solutions).

These solutions pull data into a database (ex. MySQL) and then reporting is provided by a custom front end of your choice, visualized with simple tables, or perhaps charted using a library like d3.js

What I describe above can become a complex undertaking to custom develop - you end up having to wrangle a lot of data and manage a lot of 3rd-party API dependencies. But, the output can be very powerful.

Some software that offers similar functionality includes Acquisio and NinjaCat

busse
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