Adding a conversion code to your thank you page or confirmation page gives you greater depth in understanding and calculating your pay per click ROI.

Conversion tracking is actually a quick, simple and free process but we run into a lot of businesses and individuals that have not implemented it yet.

Google AdWords

When you log into AdWords you end up on the Account Snapshot screen or your Campaign Summary screen…simply click on the Conversion Tracking link below the main Campaign Management tab and Google walks you through the simple steps to adding the conversion tracking code to your site.

Here is their flash tour.

Yahoo! Search Marketing

When you log into Yahoo! Search Marketing you end up in the Dashboard. Yahoo! doesn’t make their conversion page easy to find so here is a little more detail on getting a Yahoo! conversion code - then you will want to follow the insertion instructions from Google…simply put the code tag from Yahoo! in front of the /body tag on your thank you or confirmation pages.

1. Click on the Administration tab.

2. Click on the Analytics link.

3. Enable Analytics.

4. You will have the option to Activate “Conversion Only” analytics…I recommend doing that, especially if you’re already using Google Analytics or another Analytics package.

5. The code will be on the same page! Simply copy and paste that code into your conversion page. If you want to add a value to each conversion, use the drop down menu right above the conversion code Yahoo! gives you and select Constant Average Value to insert the constant value each conversion is expected to bring.

Microsoft adCenter

I can’t hide the disappointment I have for adCenter…getting the tracking code is a pain! Here are the instructions though:

1. When you log into adCenter you land on an Account Summary page - click on the Campaigns tab and click on any campaign.

2. Click into any Ad Group. The first Ad Group page you see is the Keywords page…

3. Click on the Settings Tab.

4. The first set of data are your Campaign Settings…you should see the Campaign Name and Time Zone.

5. Click on Advanced Options right below Time Zone in your Campaign Settings - I know, we are actually in the Ad Group and it doesn’t make sense to me either.

6. Put a check mark in the Track Conversions box and the tracking code will show up!

7. Finally! You can copy that code into your conversion pages and you will start to see conversions being counted in your MSN reports…

Now you can quickly see how much each conversion is costing AND you can track each conversion back to specific keywords whenever you review your Google, Yahoo! and MSN pay per click reports!

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