Google AdWords Conversion Tracking(PPC Tracking) : How it works?

How it works?

Once you've defined an action, Google gives you a JavaScript snippet to paste on the pages you wish to track. This code builds a URL that passes parameters back to Google and also allows you to display the Google Site Stats text on your page if you opted in to show it on your conversion pages. The query string data within the JavaScript code snippet is used in the following way:

* google_conversion_id: A unique value that allows Google to identify the advertiser receiving the conversion.
* google_conversion_value: A numeric value defined by the advertiser equaling the value of the conversion.
* google_conversion_label: The type of conversion that occurred (purchase, sign-up, page view, or lead). Google does not currently support advertiser-defined conversion types. Consequently, you cannot customize this string.
* google_conversion_language: The language of the conversion tracking Google Site Stats text that appears on your website.

If you can see the code generated for your action, you can learn how to paste it into the pages you're tracking by reading our AdWords Conversion Tracking Setup Guide. Proper installation of the code on to your site activates conversion tracking. Here's how it should behave once it starts working:

1. A user clicks your AdWords ad.
2. Our googleadservices.com server places a temporary cookie on the user's computer or mobile device.
3. If the user reaches one of your designated conversion confirmation request pages, his or her computer or mobile device passes back the cookie and requests that our server send the conversion tracking text. If cookies are rejected for any reason, the conversions made from that user won't get recorded. Conversion tracking is also not supported if the mobile phone user disables images.
4. Google records the conversion event and correlates it with your campaign, ad group, URL and keyword.
5. At the next report update, you will see conversion statistics from the campaign level down to the keyword level.

How does Google use cookies in conversion tracking?

The cookie that Google adds to a user's computer when he/she clicks on an ad expires in 30 days. This measure, and the fact that Google uses separate servers for conversion tracking and search results, protects the user's privacy.

Users who don't wish to participate in tracking activities can easily not accept this cookie by setting their Internet browser user preferences. These users will simply not be included in your conversion tracking statistics.

After having activated Analytics within my AdWords account, my ads are linking to an Error page.

When Analytics is activated within AdWords, "Destination URL auto-tagging" is automatically turned on. This feature allows Analytics to track information about clicks on your AdWords ads by tagging your AdWords keyword Destination URLs with a "gclid=" parameter. This parameter is displayed in your landing page URL. For example, http://www.example.co.uk/?gclid=12345abcd

A small number of websites do not allow URL parameters and serve an error 404 page. If your site does not allow parameters, you can prevent this error from occurring by either turning "Auto-tagging" off in your account (see steps below) or asking your webmaster to allow URL parameters. You can also turn auto-tagging off if you do not want the "gclid=" parameter to appear in your URLs.

TURN AUTO-TAGGING OFF
1. Log in to your AdWords account
2. Navigate to My Account-->User Preferences
3. On this page under the Analytics section, click "Edit"
4. Turn Destination URL auto-tagging: "off"
5. Save changes