How do I interpret AdWord stats?

Duncan Pollock · #1 (**permalink**) 11-13-2003, 09:11 PM

I know that the FAQs describe the terms, but I'm hanged if I can make real sense of them. So let me reproduce here three lines from a recently generated Report on my various keywords:

Impressions: 101 Clicks: 1 CTR: 0.99% Conversions: 1
Conversation rate: 100.00% Page Views Value: 2

Impressions: 60 Clicks: 3 CTR: 5.00% Conversions: 2
Conversation rate: 66.67% Page Views Value: 2

Impressions: 48 Clicks: 5 CTR: 10.42% Conversions: 3
Conversation rate: 60.00% Page Views Value: 4

The trouble I'm having comes down to the following:
a) Why isn't the number of clicks the same as the number of conversations? Surely if someone clicks on my AdWord box, they go to my website and this is a conversion -- or isn't it?
b) The same sort of puzzlement exists when I see the differences between Conversions and Page Views. Or does a higher Page View figure mean someone has looked at more than my home page and, if so, how does Google know when their "magic" Google stat box is -- as they specify -- on my home page only?

If someone can unbefuddle me I'll be greatly obliged!

Duncan

Nargule · #2 (**permalink**) 11-15-2003, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duncan Pollock

a) Why isn't the number of clicks the same as the number of conversations? Surely if someone clicks on my AdWord box, they go to my website and this is a conversion -- or isn't it?

I wish! A conversion is a "result" such as a sale or a web form submition. Someone going to my site is one thing - someone buying something is another. To put it another way, if I have 100 clicks and 2 conversions, 100 people clicked on my ad, and 2 people bought something.

I don't have the conversion code installed, but I'm sure someone can answer the second part for you.

Duncan Pollock · #3 (**permalink**) 11-15-2003, 02:49 PM

Well, not quite, although I can and do agree with your idea that a sale rather than a click is the desirable end result.
However, there's nothing, as such, for sale on my site. It incorporates e-mail-me clicks, but the objective is merely to have people contact me with the idea of finding a house for them to buy -- and if/when they do make a purchase it's long past the time they'll have clicked on the e-mail-me link, let alone on the AdWord link to my site itself.
So, then, is Google interpreting each click on my e-mail-me link(s) as a conversion, somewhat on an assumption that (I should be so lucky!) everyone will end up buying? And, if so, how can/do they know there's been an e-mail-me click? Or, to put it another way, does the (sometimes) lower Conversion figure (vs the Click number) mean that Google has been able to tell that some of the visitors have NOT clicked on an e-mail-me link?
Nope, I do appreciate your response, but I'm still very befuddled!

Duncan

kjohnson5576 · #4 (**permalink**) 12-03-2003, 07:05 PM

Duncan, In order to get a conversion rate on your stats, you had to paste the conversion code supplied by Google into your web page? A conversion doesn't have to be a sale, although that's what most of us want, but it can be any desired result you want. For instance, if your goal is to have people email you for information, I would have a separate contact page. Insert the conversion code on the contact page. In this way, when someone enters your site on the main page from Adwords, you will see a stat for clickthrough. If they then move onto your email page (the desired goal) and trigger the conversion code, this will show up as a conversion.

Here is a little info on each item:

Impressions: How many times your ad was shown during a search. Use this number to fine tune your keywords, and to figure out importance of keywords. For instance, the keywords with the most traffic should be the ones highlighted on your site.

Clicks: The number of times someone thought your ad was interesting and clicked onto your site for more information. This number can be an important number to see what wording in an ad works best. If similar keywords have different wording, i.e. Campaign 1, 2 etc., use the words in the ads to boost clicks.

Clickthroughrate: simple math number of clicks divided by number of impressions. A higher percentage tells you that your ad is very relevent for the particular keyword.

Conversions: Number of people who clicked through and made it to the desired goal. Google places a cookie on people who enter through their adwords. When the cookie meets the conversion script on the desired goal page, this is a conversion.

Conversion rate: simple math. The number of people who entered through a click and made it to the desired goal.

I have a Thank You page on my site. It is not linked inward from any page on my site. The only way you can get to the Thank You page is to buy something (the goal). The shopping cart software then automatically redirects you to the Thank You page. Once landed on that page, It sets off the Google conversion or in my case I have shopping.com conversion tracking also. It will set off whichever conversion tracking the cookie tells it to. It also sets off a script that causes a customer satisfaction survey (eopinions.com) to popup so I can get feedback from my custsomers.

Anyway, this is how it works. Maybe I confused you even more? A good way to see this conversion in action, is go to my site, http://www.discount-leather.net, buy something, then look at the source on the Thank You page. Just kidding.

Kent

Duncan Pollock · #5 (**permalink**) 12-03-2003, 09:11 PM

Kent: Thank you for your helpful explanations, which I think enable me to decide as follows.
1. The difference in Click and Conversion counts is caused by my having not cut and pasted Google's entire source code but only the part that relates to Page Views:

<script language="JavaScript">

</script>
<script language="JavaScript"
src="https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion.js"> </script>
<noscript><a href="https://services.google.com/sitestats/en_US.html" target=_blank>

</a> </noscript>
This, I suspect, results in a Click when someone reaches my homepage because they've clicked on my AdWord URL, whereas a Conversion is something not quite the same (although I don't know what!).
2. The lack of a full code probably/possibly also accounts for Page Views often being higher than their corresponding Conversions figures. Even so, I remain mystified about how Google knows people have moved beyond my homepage, which some -- but not all! -- of them obviously do.

Yes?

Duncan