How do I set up Google Analytics to track paid visitors from Bing

[cpantages]

When looking at Traffic Sources in Google Analytics, Google is broken out into paid and organic visits.

I want to do the same with Bing.  How do I do it?

[trafficdigitalagency]

Would have been much easier if they would have said that....

[aaron-215456]

We (Bizible) built an easy Bing auto-tagger to solve this problem.  Use it free here: http://www.bizible.com/bing-ads-auto-tagging/

[SandyPardal]

While using Google's URL builder tool, it's easy to use similar but not identical names for the same campaigns - and that poisons the Google Analytics data.  For example, writing the medium as email once and as Email Marketing the next time, will have the same campaign/medium reported in fractured parts.

It's advisable to plan ahead and use a spreadsheet showing exactly what names go for each type of campaign or medium.

[bronxpad]

Bing just introduced its new Webmasters tools. You might want to check it out for Bing related analysis.

[Dr-Pete]

The other option for keyword, although it's a lot tougher, is to use a separate URL for each keyword (and specify "keyword="). That will track what you bid on, and not what people queried (which is what DKI does). It's time-consuming, but if you use the desktop editor, it's doable. Of course, if you use phrase-match and exact-match, it won't be that different from "{keyword}". I'd strongly suggest narrowing targeting - it's starting to matter a lot in Bing (it used to be we just all put everything on broad-match for Bing/Yahoo).

[Gustav-Northclick]

Agree, use Url builder tool. That should solve it rather quick.

[AnthonyYoung]

We had the same problem but founnd that by using the "utm_source=MSN" parameter in the URL parses the paid and organic referrals quite well. The problem, however, is that if the ADcenter campaigns have significant age on them then you will reset history and it will take a while for the campaigns to build up again. This was our experience.

[ChristianMaund-Anderson]

adCenter is a little more tricky when setting up utm source links for GA these days - as depending on what you've opted into, it could include Bing and Yahoo traffic, or  Bing and Yahoo partner traffic, or both. I would recommend watching your GA statistics before and after you make any switch and test until you are comfortable with the data, both in adCenter and GA.

[HalogenDesigns]

Hi Chris:

The other commenters are spot on but they all failed to mention the URL builder tool which makes it much easier to build your urls.  http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?answer=55578.  Sounds to me like you have coded the fields in incorrectly.

My most recent blog post explains the role of the Google URL builder tool and how it applies to tracking social media, specifically Facebook.  The information on this page applies to any url you wish to track as a campaign - including short URLs! http://www.halogendesigns.com/blog/social-networking-in-business/tracking-social-roi-facebook-twitter-google-analytic/

EDIT:  Wanted to note part of Curtis Noble's comment:  "I would just leave the others blank.  GA will pick up the keyword already from the search engine without you having to tell it what keyword you bid on."

[cpantages]

Yes and no.  It does allow us to differentiate between organic and paid traffic.  Paid search clicks on Bing and in GA correlate within 10%.

It's not working to track the actual keyword clicks in GA.  Based on the comments in the practical commerce article, we used {ItemOrderId} in place of [keyword] for the utm=term field.  That part is not working.  GA now reports ItemOrderId as one of our top referring keywords.

[KeriMorgret]

Hi Chris, just wondering if you were able to get Google Analytics configured the way you wanted it for Bing, and if so, which solution you used.

[summitseo]

that is partially correct.  I would use utm_source=bing rather than MSN.  If you make it match how GA reports the organic traffic from Bing, then you'll be able to report total search traffic as well combined in one report.  It is case sensitive, so be sure you use all lower case, as that is how GA does it with the organic search engines.  And you don't have to use all of the patterns.  The only required ones are utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign.  I would just leave the others blank.  GA will pick up the keyword already from the search engine without you having to tell it what keyword you bid on.

[Tobiask-121573]

Yes, this is right and should be working. I am not using Bing ads, so I cannot test it. This shouldn't affect your ads, and you'll see the result within 2-4 hours after implementing the change.

[cpantages]

If I understand the Practical Commerce article correctly, I should append (without quotes) "?utm_source=MSN&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term={keyword}&utm_content={AdID}&utm_campaign={OrderItemID}" to the end of each of the Destination URLs in my Bing campaigns and then GA will read those visits as paid visits.

Is that correct?  If not could you please explain in more detail?

[Getz.pro]

Not sure I understand GA does show visits from Bing, and if you want to track paid search on Bing, then either have a landing page just for Bing or use tracking code on the Bing links.

Unless I missed read your question which is very possible : )

[Tobiask-121573]

Use the custom GA tracking for campaigns to do it, creating a special campaign for paid bing traffic.

Have a look at this article: http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/1288-Integrating-Yahoo-Search-and-Microsoft-Bing-with-Google-Analytics - this provides a good solution.

The article also mentions that you can use the Bings adCenter Desktop tool ( http://advertising.microsoft.com/support-center/adcenter-downloads/adcenter-desktop ) to setup the campaings.