Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Google URL Builder / Campaign Tracking on two Different Domain using the Same Analytics Code
-
Hey Everyone,
I think I know the answer to this but I'd like to get some confirmation.
I currently have a landing page at "www.xyz.com", it's a separate domain in which only the landing page exists and not a vanity URL which redirects. However, the navigation and all the links on "www.xyz.com" actually link out to "www.abc.com". The domain / landing page "xyz" has the same analytics tracking code as domain "www.abc.com".
My question is this, if I use Google URL builder to create custom URL's to track for each ad that I'm running in Adwords, will this data show up in the analytics of "abc" even though it's a separate domain because it has the same analytics code?
In other words, does campaign data show only if the domain and the google analytics code line up, or does the domain not matter and as long as you have the same analytics code (despite two separate domains) that campaign data (built through Google URL builder) will show?
My hunch and best guess it that as long as the analytics code is the same (regardless of a separate domain) that the data in campaign will show with the custom URL's I build. I'm aware that I can test this and I will but I'd like to get an idea from the community first to make things easier. Anybody have experience with this? Answers greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
-
Thanks Tom, I'll try to implement this.
The link for http://psgrep.com/ isn't working? If I implement the solution for cross domain tracking above, will my adwords data flow through? Right now I'm getting no behaviour data even though my adwords and analytics are linked up or is there additional work I will need to do that is available on the link that isn't working?
Thanks!
-
Hey Jon,
I hope what is written above is more helpful and explains I do not want to copy the instructions Word for Word.
But I think this will give you enough to understand if you have implemented these changes you are all set if not please make the changes.
Because there are code changes that should be in place to use to different domains in order to track them you need to set up her primary and secondary.
You are on the right track I hope the information above gives you what you need if it does not.
Let me know and I would try using http://www.analytics-debugger.com/en http://memo.suan3se.com/?p=643 & http://psgrep.com/
in order to set up and know that it set up properly.
Sincerely,
Thomas
-
HI Jon,
There are because
Because cross domain tracking is dealing with a primary and secondary you do have to change the tracking snippet
For Adwords
by following the steps in the link above you will be able to set up Adwords
I have pasted example below using example1.com as well as example2.com represent the different domains. One of the easiest ways to set this up is to simply use the Google analytics debugger it is available in the chrome store as well as a this incredible resource
Here is exactly what you need to do for ad words because it is slight differences you will need to use Google auto linker plug-in
Step 1: Set up a property in your Google Analytics account.
autoLink plugin
to your tracking code, it automatically loads with your pages and does a substring match on all your links. It then recognizes any links that include a domain name that you’ve specified in your tracking code. Any traffic that clicks a link to those domains get counted as cross domain traffic.
The tracking code snippet must contain these changes every place it appears on your secondary domain.
For three or more domains
Follow the example above, but add the other domains to the autoLink plugin. Even the additional comma here is important:
ga('linker:autoLink', ['example-1.com', 'example-3.com'] );
See what this looks like in full context
The tracking code snippet on your secondary domain(s) should look like this:
https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/cross-domain
for GA
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1034342?hl=en&ref_topic=2772342
For cross domain tracking, set up one property in your Google Analytics account. Use the same tracking code snippet and tracking ID from that property for all of your domains.
You need to edit the tracking code snippet for cross domain tracking to work. If you haven’t already included the snippet on all your webpages, you might want copy and paste it into a text editor before continuing with the instructions here. This way, you only have to make the changes once before including the modified snippet on all your webpages.
For details on setup help, follow the instructions on how to set up the web tracking code, but remember: You must customize the snippet using the instructions in this article for cross domain tracking to work properly.
Step 2: Edit the tracking code for the primary domain.
Find the create line in the snippet. For a website called example-1.com, it looks like this:
ga('create', 'UA-XXXXXXX-Y', 'example-1.com');
Make the following changes to the snippet (the changes you need to make are in bold red text
ga('create', 'UA-XXXXXXX-Y', 'auto', {'allowLinker': true});
** ga('require', 'linker');**
** ga('linker:autoLink', ['example-2.com'] );**
Remember to replace the example tracking ID (UA-XXXXXX-Y) with your own tracking ID, and replace the example secondary domain (example-2.com) with your own secondary domain name.
http://www.analytics-debugger.com/en
https://www.google.com/search?q=google+analytics+debugger&oq=google-analytics-debugger
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-analytics-debugger/jnkmfdileelhofjcijamephohjechhna
I hope this is more helpful and explains I do not want to copy the instructions Word for Word.
But I think this will give you enough to understand if you have implemented these changes you are all set if not please make the changes.
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1042508
TRACKING ACROSS MULTIPLE DOMAINS
autoLink plugin
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/4627488
https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/cross-domain
I hope this will tell you yes or no
let me know,
Tom
-
Hey Thomas,
Just to be sure, could you answer the question whether my assumption is correct or not? I'll read through the resource you sent but your opinion would be great.
Thanks!
-
here is a detailed answer to your question.
https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/gaTrackingSite
https://developers.google.com/analytics/resources/concepts/gaConceptsDomains
Please let me know if I can be of more help,
Thomas
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Do IP and/or DNS changes impact Paid search (Adwords, Bing, etc.)
What impact (if any) does IP or DNS changes, have on paid search campaigns? We recently performed an upgrade to our sites that required a datacenter change (but within the same region East US) and DNS change. We believe there may have been an impact to our ad campaigns in the form of suppression of our ads following the change, specifically - Google Adwords. Is there any information regarding this issue or has anyone experienced this before? Thanks
Paid Search Marketing | | MWM37721 -
How do you guys deal with product description and titles in PLA for different variation products?
Hello guys!
Paid Search Marketing | | Sorin_T
I have to say that I have been browsing, reading, learning and so on Moz for a long time now, and when I had a question to ask I was scared of askings so I don't look stupid but since I've asked my first question a few weeks ago and got a really helpful answer that helped me to no longer think like that. Therefore here is my question: What is the best way of writing product description and titles on Google PLA for product variation? Let's say you have a rope for example which come in different diameter and colour. Right... The title yes it should include variation such as Brand Size Model Colour Other Attributes on each individual product title but the question is .. does to description has to be different for each product so that you also include the attributes for the given product variation? I hope someone out there will understand my question and come up with a good answer. Thank you!0 -
Can Google Shopping Ads Lower Ranking due to Bounce?
I am noticing Google Shopping Ads are showing up for really irrelevant keywords on some of my products. This quite predictably causes a high bounce rate when a user comes from these ads. There is very little control over what Google Ads seems to decide are relevant keywords from what I can see. Only control is by viewing search terms and setting as negative keywords, but his doesn't help much. Negative keywords are often ignored or they come up with some other really irrelevant new keyword. Seems this high bounce rate could hurt ranking? Any experiences shared with Google Shopping ads appreciated!
Paid Search Marketing | | Chris6611 -
Will pausing my AdWords PPC campaigns impact my organic rankings?
Over 95% of my revenue comes from organic search; less than 5% comes from AdWords PPC (all other sources account for about 1-2%). My ROI on AdWords is roughly zero. It's negative if you include opportunity costs. My question is: if I pause all of my AdWords campaigns, is there ANY chance that my organic rankings (and organic click-through rates) will suffer? This is really two questions. First, could Google retaliate to my reduced ad spending by dropping my rankings? Second, will searchers think differently about my organic link if they don't also see the accompanying paid link on the SERP?
Paid Search Marketing | | ahirai2 -
Using the same landing page for seo and ppc
When does it make sense to create one landing page for both seo and ppc?
Paid Search Marketing | | melen0 -
Google Analytics CPC and PPC not Matching
Hi Why do our CPC in Google Analytic not match our PPC in Adword, surely they should be identical? We have Auto-tagging switched on and data in our history is wrong so it is not a timing issue. Thanks
Paid Search Marketing | | Studio330 -
Keyword Domains for PPC
I have a client who wants to buy a lot of long domains with keywords in them, for example, thesandiegopetstore.com (this is fictional) and then set up a PPC landing page for each. They think that when someone types in "san diego pet store" that their domain will be listed high and then they will get a lot of traffic. My concern is that they will own a lot of domains for their company and I thought Google is getting pretty adamant about companies not having a lot of domains, and I thought that keyword domains are not as effective as they used to be -- that branding is more important now. Also, I think the domains they've picked target very competitive keywords and that perhaps they will get a lot unqualified traffic and will still have to pay for the clicks. What do you think? What is the best way to set up PPC landing pages?
Paid Search Marketing | | klkirby0 -
Does anybody know of a good bulk import http response checker? The one I was using has disappeared and I can only find checkers that only take one URL at a time.
An example of something I'm looking for but I want to check multiple checkers: http://web-sniffer.net/
Paid Search Marketing | | SWKurt0