AVL Marketing

Tracking Traffic from a Redirected Domain, Is Your Marketing Working?

Posted on 26. Mar, 2010 by Tracy Sigler in Advertising, Small Business Tools

There are a zillion ways to do this. Here are two that are easy to implement and will be good enough for most of us.

Let’s say you just bought a billboard, or an ad in local newspaper or magazine, and you want to know if this type of advertising will drive traffic to your site where people can learn more about your company, services or products. You could use something like “mycompany.com/newspaper” and track the traffic to that URL. But most people won’t bother typing in the extra stuff, unless there is some special content there or other incentive. Plus it’s hard to remember. Domain forwarding to the rescue!

Probably a better option is to use a special, dedicated domain name for that particular ad. Something like “MyCompanyNC.com” or “GetMyCompany.com.” You get the picture. Just add a simple modifier or possibly use an altogether different but descriptive term (e.g. “SpringfieldPlumbers.com” instead of “JohnsonPlumbing.com”).

Now what? Well, you use domain forwarding or redirecting, call it whatever, and point that thing to a special page, or tracking URL, on your real site. I’m going to outline two different ways to do this that are fairly easy for non-techie types to implement. In fact, you can even combine the two if you want, but that might get tricky.

Option 1

Tracking a Domain Redirect with a Landing Page with Google Analytics

1. Register the new domain that will be in your ad.
2. If you don’t already have it, install Google Analytics on your main site.
3. Create a landing page on your real site: “mycompany.com/landingpage.html” (Name it whatever you want, but make sure the Google Analytics tracking code is added to this page.)
4. Go back to registrar you used to register the new domain. Edit the “host record” settings to redirect it to the landing page you just created on the real site.
5. Use the new domain in your print, billboard, etc. ad.
6. Check Google Analytics for results: Content > Landing Pages

Option 2 (This assumes your site is running WordPress. High five if it is.)

Tracking a Domain Redirect with WordPress and the Redirection Plugin

1. Register the new domain that will be in your ad.
2. Install the Redirection plugin for WordPress.
3. Create a fake tracking URL for your real site and add the redirect using the plugin: “mycompany.com/billboard” (Name it whatever you want, but make sure you the exact same URL in the next step.)
4. Go back to registrar you used to register the new domain. Edit the “host record” settings to redirect it to  a fake tracking URL for your real site: “mycompany.com/billboard”
5. Use the new domain in your print, billboard, etc. ad.
6. Check WordPress admin panel for results: Log in > Tools > Redirection

How easy is that? Questions? We’re here to help.

Collateral Damage in Google’s War Against Affiliate Marketers on AdWords

Posted on 29. Jan, 2010 by Tracy Sigler in Advertising

Yeah, that’s a long headline. But it’s the truth, Ruth. Don’t let the Google Goliath kick sand in your face! Watch the video to hear the whole story. The entire email exchange between Google Adwords staff and me is below.

This is happening to a lot of people. Read Google’s own forums to see how many people are having their pay-per-click Adwords accounts shut down even though they have done nothing wrong. I’m glad they turned this account back on, but I’m disappointed they didn’t address their original, and incorrect, claim that my account was “related to another account, which has repeatedly violated our Landing page policy and site guidelines.”

Instead of admitting that they had made a mistake they said the site had “low landing page score” because it was “down” when they reviewed it. There is no evidence of that. Adwords always indicated a Landing Page Quality Score of 7 or higher.

I waited almost two weeks before asking Google’s customer service to check into it. They replied within a day. Their responsiveness was appreciated, but their response was not. I was going to bold highlights and insert some jokes, but I think I’ll let the emails speak for themselves.

See the entire email thread after the jump. (more…)