Ad tracking for Yahoo! Store

Using  search marketing ROI data as the basis for making smart business decisions (as I recommend you should) obviously requires that your conversion tracking is done properly. If you don't have the data you can't make decisions. Sounds like common sense, but it is not common practice from what I see.

If you run Yahoo! Search Marketing campaigns or Google Adwords campaigns, follow their respective instructions or wizards to grab the conversion tracking script and paste it in the Page Message field of the Order Confirmation tab of the checkout manager.

This is a the good first step and most of you do that. However, out of the box, these scripts only count conversions, not revenue. Or you can specify a fixed average order value for all conversions, which is obviously not very accurate.

Here is a tip that every Yahoo! Store merchant can use right away to not only count conversions, but also grab the actual revenue amount for each order. It takes 5 seconds to implement and is easy to do.

A) For Yahoo! Search Marketing, your conversion script looks something like this. 

<SCRIPT language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
<!– Yahoo! Inc.
window.ysm_customData = new Object();
window.ysm_customData.conversion = "transId=,currency=,amount=";
var ysm_accountid = "1AEQN9C3347IVBPF2EAH4P8N2UC";
document.write("<SCR" + "IPT language='JavaScript' type='text/javascript' "
+ "SRC=//" + "srv2.wa.marketingsolutions.yahoo.com" + "/script/ScriptServlet" + "?aid=" + ysm_accountid
+ "></SCR" + "IPT>");
// –>
</SCRIPT>

Just make this simple change, highlighted for clarity:

<SCRIPT language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
<!– Yahoo! Inc.
window.ysm_customData = new Object();
window.ysm_customData.conversion = "transId=orderNum,currency=,amount=orderSubTotal";
var ysm_accountid = "1AEQN9C3347IVBPF2EAH4P8N2UC";
document.write("<SCR" + "IPT language='JavaScript' type='text/javascript' "
+ "SRC=//" + "srv2.wa.marketingsolutions.yahoo.com" + "/script/ScriptServlet" + "?aid=" + ysm_accountid
+ "></SCR" + "IPT>");
// –>
</SCRIPT>

B) For Google Adwords, the script looks something like this (this example assumes that you have specified a fixed conversion value of $20):

<!– Google Code for PURCHASE Conversion Page –>
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
<!–
var google_conversion_id = 1234567890;
var google_conversion_language = "en_US";
var google_conversion_format = "1";
var google_conversion_color = "666666";
if (20.0) {
var google_conversion_value = 20.0;
}
var google_conversion_label = "PURCHASE";
//–>
</script>
<script language="JavaScript" src="https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion.js">
</script>

Just make this simple change, highlighted for clarity:

<!– Google Code for PURCHASE Conversion Page –>
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
<!–
var google_conversion_id = 1234567890;
var google_conversion_language = "en_US";
var google_conversion_format = "1";
var google_conversion_color = "666666";
if (orderSubTotal) {
var google_conversion_value = orderSubTotal;
}
var google_conversion_label = "PURCHASE";
//–>
</script>
<script language="JavaScript" src="https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion.js">
</script>

That's it. These scripts will now use the actual revenue amount from each transaction.

If you use Adcenter, I am sure the change would be simple too. Also, instead of orderSubTotal, you could use orderTotal. I like orderSubTotal because it excludes shipping and tax, but you may prefer the total order amount.

And finally, since every Yahoo! Store uses the checkout manager it would be nice to have a simple wizard in YSM that gives you the enhanced conversion tracking script out of the box, but until then just follow these simple instructions.

Update on 10/05/2009

The value of the transaction is not shown by default in Adwords. In the reporting section you should create a new report and add Sales Conv. Value (many-per-click) in the Add or Remove Columns section:

(Click for larger version)

and then you can sort on the last column when the report is ready for viewing:

(Click for larger version)