Track paid keywords :: Google Analytics :: Custom Filters

By default Google Analytics will show you the keyword associated with your PPC ad for users who clicked on that ad to arrive at your site. So for example if you have an ad running against the keyword “mens suits” and someone type in “mens+large+suits” to trigger that ad, in Google Analytics this would be marked against the keywords “mens suits”.

It could be worth creating a separate profile and adding a custom filter to highlight what keyword a user actually searched for to trigger your ad and arrive on the site.

Create the following two filters

a. Filter 1

i) Custom Filter – Advanced
ii) Field A -> Extract A : Referral : (\?|&)(q|p)=([^&]*)
iii) Field B -> Extract B : Campaign Medium : cpc|ppc
iv) Output To -> Constructor : Custom Field 1 : $A3
v) Field A Required – Yes
vi) Field B Required – Yes
vii) Override Output Field – Yes
viii) Case Sensitive – No

and the screen shot

Google Analytics - Custom Filter

b. Filter 2

i) Custom Filter – Advanced
ii) Field A -> Extract A : Custom Field 1 : (.*)
iii) Field B -> Extract B : Campaign Term : (.*)
iv) Output To -> Constructor : Campaign Term : $B1.($A1)
v) Field A Required – Yes
vi) Field B Required – Yes
vii) Override Output Field – Yes
viii) Case Sensitive – No

Google Analytics - Custom Filter

I have this running on a large PPC driven account for some months and it works really well. I have read quite a few books on Google Analytics so I am not 100% sure where I picked this up from. But I am pretty sure it was from the excellent book by Brian Clifton “Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics”. A great read for anyone who is really interested in conversion optimisation

Related posts:

1. Google Analytics – Advanced Filter to track clicks from images
2. Google Analytics SubDomains Tracking Part One
3. Filtered Traffic provides great information :: Google Analytics :: Google Analytics Filters
4. Advances Segments in Google Analytics to Track Multiple Currencies
5. Track SubDomains Part 2 :: Google Analytics :: link(), linkByPost()

Tagged as: custom filters, google analytics filters

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