Using a single tag (the container snippet) that you place on all your website pages, you can implement all the different conversion tracking and optimization tags you need. The container snippet replaces AdWords, Google Analytics, Floodlight and some other third party tags on your site. Once the container snippet has been added to your site you can manage, update, and add tags from your Google Tag Manager account with ease.

To follow this guide you will need;

• A Google Tag Manager Account,
• Your container snippet correctly installed and working on your website,

If you haven’t got the above in place, don’t worry;  just check out last week’s blog for a step by step guide to bring you up to speed.

Setting up Ecommerce Tracking

Start by creating a ‘New Tag’ in the relevant container of your account.

From the ‘Tag Type’ drop down select Google Analytics, give the tag a clear relevant name, and add the UA-##### code from your GA Admin in to the ‘Web Property ID’.

Select ‘Transaction’ from the Track Type.

 I set my event to fire on receiving an {{event}} that contains trackTrans.

This is an example of the code I implemented on my site to track each of the purchases. I have used a <php> script to pass the relevant information to the <php> variables declared in this code.On load, the <php> variables are pushed to the data.layer of GTM.

In your version you will probably need to replace the variables with something else. This code must be placed above your GTM container snippet – it must be loaded first.

Your TransactionProduct Data should be stored in an Array, which should contain a list of items purchased in the transactions.

As per normal, this will appear in the “Conversions>E-commerce” report in Analytics.

Setting up ecommerce tracking is slightly more involved that the standard GA implementations due to the back-end coding needed. However, it can provide you with a wealth of insight because, although you would no doubt have this data any way, you can now segment it across all your other Google Analytics reporting, such as advertising campaigns, traffic sources, keyword reporting and much more.

If you need any support setting up your ecommerce tracking don’t hesitate to drop Search Star a message.

The post Advanced Tracking with Google Tag Manager – Ecommerce Tracking appeared first on Search Star.

In a previous blog, ‘Setting up Google Analytics with Tag Manager’, I covered the basics of setting up GTM. This was followed up with a second blog: ‘On Click Tracking Tags in GTM’.

In this post, I’m going to walk you through an implementation of Custom Variable Tags. Every business can benefit from custom variables, especially ecommerce businesses. They give you the opportunity to track key data dimensions and segment these across the standard reporting functions in Google Analytics.

For instance, custom variables could allow you to track repeat customers and those that ordered a sample before returning to make a full purchase. The user journey of these customers is going to be very different from that of site users who don’t make a purchase, so it is important that you can track them independently.

Alternatively, you might want to focus your analysis only on Registered Users, or those who took up an offer from a Coupon or Promo code, in order to answer questions like: How did these users find your site? What they did once they arrived? Is your information architecture set out how they would expect?

To follow this guide you will need;

• A Google Tag Manager Account,
• Your container snippet correctly installed and working on your website

If you haven’t got the above in place, don’t worry; just check out my previous blog post for a step-by-step guide to bring you up to speed.

Setting up Custom Variables

1. Open up your ‘GTM account’ and ‘Container’ for the relevant site and select ‘New Tag’.

2. Select Google Analytics from the ‘Tag Type’ drop down list and it will expand out to give you the standard GA options.

3. For Google Analytics (GA) tags you will need to get the UA-##### code from your GA Admin and place this in the ‘Web Property ID’. Select ‘Page Views’ from the Track Type, scroll down and select ‘More Settings’ and then ‘Custom Variables’.

4. You will be prompted to complete the values that are normally hard coded in to the standard GA implementation of a Custom Variable.

The standard tag looks like this - _setCustomVar(index, name, value, opt_scope. But with GTM, these four parameters are offered as simple input boxes.

Index- is a number from 1 – 5. The standard version of Google Analytics allows you a maximum of 5 custom variables. The index parameter is where you declare which of your 5 available custom variables you’re going to use.
Name- this is a string parameter used to identify the custom variable within Analytics reports and is used to group ‘values’. For instance the name could be – ‘Selected Payment Method’

Value- The value is paired with the ‘Name’. Typically, you will have more than one value. The value in this instance could be ‘Visa’, ‘PayPal’, ‘PO’. For our example we are going to make our own ‘+macro’ that will allow you to insert a JavaScript variable in here.
opt_scope- the scope is optional and is used to define the level of user engagement with your site. You can insert a number whose possible values are 1 (visitor-level), 2 (session-level), or 3 (page-level). If left empty, the scope defaults to page-level.

5. In our example there is more than one option a user could fill the custom variable with. Users can normally pay on a website via different methods and we are interested to know which ones they use and if their journey is different. We are going to need to add a piece of code to the website that will pass this piece of information to the tag when it fires. As there is nothing relevant in the drop down I am going to create a ‘New Macro’.

6. I’m going to give it a simple clear name and select JavaScript Variable from the ‘Macro Type’. I then declare the Global Variable Name as ‘card’, on the website I will need a variable declared ‘card’ that will contain the ‘value’ I want to see in my Google Analytics Reports.

7. As always we need to add a rule to fire the tag. On this occasion I have sent the ‘Rule’ to fire when the data.layer receives an ‘event’ that contains ‘card’.

8. On your website you will need to add some code that looks similar to this. When a user makes a purchase their payment method should be passed to card, the <VARIABLE> will be replaced with their chosen payment method i.e. Visa, PayPal or something else.
When the event loads it contains ‘card’ and so will fire the rule passing all the information through to Google Analytics.

9. You can confirm that the rules are set correctly by using a tool like httpFOX and checking that the tags fire as expected.

10. Visit your Google Analytics account and under Audience> Custom> Custom Variables you will find your custom variable report table.

Custom variables can be a huge asset to any business that needs access to unique data not available as standard in the GA interface. That data can often be key to improving the user experience of your website, tailoring your product or service to your customer, or highlighting gaps in your advertising spend. The main thing to think about is how you’re going to use this data to your advantage.
If you think you’re losing important data that can make the difference to your business, and need help with your Analytics, don’t hesitate to get in contact.

The post Tag Manager Advanced Tracking – GA Custom Variables appeared first on Search Star.

To follow this guide you will need;

• A Google Tag Manager Account,
• Your container snippet correctly installed and working on your website,

If you haven’t got the above in place don’t worry – just check out last week’s blog for a step by step guide to bring you up to speed.

Setting up On- Click Events

1. Log into your GTM account, select the container for the relevant site and select ‘New Tag’. If you look after more than one company’s website data I would recommend a separate account for each company. That will give you one code snippet for the website, but from this you could create many containers, i.e. one for Analytics, one for Adwords and so on.

2. The Tags are the snippets of code that GTM uses to collect data. For instance, you may have a Google Analytics page view tag, Google Analytics Ecommerce tag, Google AdWords conversion tracking tags or possibly even DoubleClick tracking Tags stored within Google Tag Manager.
Because there can be so many different tags within your GTM container, it is important to give each tag a clear, relevant name that follows a standard convention across all your tags. Start with something like ‘Google Analytics – Postcode Search Button’ and select Google Analytics from the ‘Tag Type’.

3. For Google Analytics (GA) tags you will need to get the UA-##### code from your GA Admin and place this in the ‘Web Property ID’. Select ‘Event’ from the Track Type and you will be prompted for the Category and Action values that are usually hard coded into the standard onclick tag.

4. The next step is to input the Category and Action for the event. For Event Tracking the category is a name that you supply as a way to group objects that you want to track. Your ‘Category’ will appear in the reporting interface as Top Categories in the Events Overview page. Typically, you will use the same category name multiple times over for related user interface elements that you want to group under a given category.

The term “Action” is used to track the type of event or interaction you want to track for a particular web object. For example;

• Time when the video completes load
• “Play” button clicks
• “Stop” button clicks
• “Pause” button clicks

5. Now select ‘+Add Rule to Fire Tag’. Rules allow you to decide when to fire a particular tag, for instance you might only want to fire an Adwords Conversion tag if the {{URL}} matches /Thank-You.html or if the user comes from a particular {{Referrer}}.

6. Adding rules is relatively simple with GTM’s standard set up. In this example, we are going to ‘Create new rule’, the Rule name is Post Code Search Event Trigger, and we have set the tag to fire if GTM receives an {{event}} that contains ‘PostCodeSearch’. Before this tag will work we will need to implement an ‘event’ tag on the web site and name the event ‘PostCodeSearch’.

7. Once you have created and saved your rule, save the tag.

8. ‘Create Version’ and ‘Publish’ your tag to your live website.

9. You now need to hard code your tag to your website to push to the GTM data layer on your website. You declare the event like this onclick=”dataLayer.push({‘event’: ‘PostCodeSearch’});”

10. On clicking the button this event will be pushed into the data layer. If it is true according to the rules you set, you will see the tag fire in httpFOX. If it is not equal to the rule, the tag will not fire.

Using a single Google Tag Manager container with one Google Analytics Account you can manage numerous websites. For instance, if you have separate website for individual branches of your business I would suggest one GTM container and one Analytics account. This allows you to separate the data out into different profiles by using the hostname. Crucially, you’ll also be able to segment your data as a whole to measure things like events across your different branches.
If you have any questions or want some help getting the most out of your website data don’t hesitate to get in contact.

The post Advanced Tracking with Google Tag Manager – On-Click Events appeared first on Search Star.

There are, unfortunately, still occasions when you may have to add additional code to your page such as with the implementation of onClick events, pageviews or e-commerce tracking. However, if you take the time to plan out your tracking strategy in advance, it’s relatively simple to have the code in place ready for when you need to track an action.

Step by step guide to setting up Google Analytics with Tag Manager

Navigate to www.google.co.uk/tagmanager/‎ and login. If you’re using Analytics, Adwords or DoubleClick already, use that account.

Start by creating an Account and a Container.

The account level is relatively similar to the Account level in Google Analytics; from here you can add and remove users, alter settings and create containers.

The container is where all the different tags in your account will be managed. From one container you can set up multiple different tags and functions that will provide the tracking for your website. For instance, under one container you may have Analytics, Adwords or DoubleClick tracking tags and these could be page view or onClick events.

Give the account a name (My Business) and the container a name (My Business – UK website)

Currently, you do not need to “Add Domain” to the container but, if you choose to, GTM will offer additional help. Once you save the container, GTM will create a short piece of JavaScript that you add to your website. Add this piece of code to every page on your website after the opening body tag on your website. I think of the GTM snippet as a window; it will be loaded every single time the page is loaded but it will only fire the tags setup in your container setting based on the rules you specify.

Now you have created the container, you’ll need to fill it with tags. Select “New Tag” and then select “Google Analytics” as the tag type.

For this example we are going to set up a Google Analytics Tag. To make it simple, GTM has a bespoke form for each tag with the required fields you need to activate the tag effectively.

Give the tag a name (Google Analytics Standard Tag), and add the Web Property ID. It will look something like this: UA-21034665-11. You can easily find the Web Property ID in you Google Analytics account under “Admin”. Before saving you will need to “Add a Rule to Fire Tag”. Rules tell GTM when to fire a particular tag.

For this implementation we want to ensure the Google Analytics tag appears, or fires, on every single page. We can use a default rule that will meet this condition. Give the Rule a clear descriptive name; this is essential for management when you have a lot of tags. This particular example will fire when the URL > contains > . (full stop), eg. on every page of the site.

You can save the tag but it will not be live and will not be published to your website yet. First you will need to check the “Versions”, “Preview” the tag for testing and then “Publish” a version for the tag to go live.

Once live I would also recommend visiting your website and using a tool like httpFOX to test if the Google Analytics Tag is tracking correctly. httpFOX is a Firefox add-on that monitors and analyses all incoming and outgoing HTTP traffic between the browser and the web servers.

https://addons.mozilla.org/En-us/firefox/addon/httpfox/

If you need help or support managing your Google Analytics, or need advice on effective conversion tracking don’t hesitate to get in contact with the team.

The post Setting up Google Analytics with Tag Manager appeared first on Search Star.

Adwords Scripts are not just for the big players like Kenshoo or Searchforce but anyone who has some JavaScript experience and needs more sophisticated e-commerce functionality. At Search Star one of our client’s sells thousands of different products that are regularly in and out of stock. We have built the Adwords Script below to integrate a live product feed with AdWords so that users aren’t going to clicks on ads for out of stock products.

Using Google’s lightweight interface and huge library of functions we can quickly access live CSV files from external URLs or Google Drive Spreadsheets. These powerful tools enable us to perform routine activities against an account, such as updating and reporting on accounts and making it possible for us to develop custom tools that will increase conversion rates.

AdWords scripts support Google Spreadsheets and HTTP service integration giving you access to important data and take action in your account. Additionally, the ability to send email from the interface makes it possible to develop advanced reporting and data analysis solutions. If you have limited resources this a platform you should be investigating.

• The platform clearly opens a lot of doors and here are some ideas to get you thinking;
• You can use spreadsheet data or external data to make campaign decisions.
• If you have a jump in inventory you can automatically increase bids or add you keywords.

You can quickly output campaign reports into a more use able format or even drop them into a web page and display them with the beautiful Google Charts API.

If you have any questions about Adwords Scripts or have a challenge you want to set us feel free to contact us to talk through your problem.

/* 

 * Michael King
 *
 * Adwords Stock Level Tester - Turns Adgroups On and Off depending on the values 
 * stored in a Google Spreadsheet
 *
 * Instructions
 * Schedule your ecommerce system to produce an XML or CSV stock feed, it should 
 * look something like this http://www.mywebsite.co.uk/mynewstockfeed.csv.
 * Open a Google Drive Spreadsheet and use the 
 * =importData(“http://www.mywebsite.co.uk/mynewstockfeed.csv”) function to fill 
 * your spreadsheet.
 * Google spreadsheets should refresh roughly every hour. Set the script below 
 * to run as often as you like.
 *
 */

function main() {

/* Replace this variable with the URL of your Google Docs Spreadsheet */
 var url = 'THE URL OF YOUR SPREADSHEET';

/* Gets the spreadsheet and the named sheet, don’t forget to change the it to 
the name of your sheet */
 var spreadsheet = getSpreadsheet(url);
 var sheet = spreadsheet.getSheetByName('Stock Levels');

function getSpreadsheet(spreadsheetUrl) {
 var matches = new RegExp('key=([^&#]*)').exec(spreadsheetUrl);
 if (!matches || !matches[1]) {
 throw 'Invalid spreadsheet URL: ' + spreadsheetUrl;
 }
 var spreadsheetId = matches[1];
 return SpreadsheetApp.openById(spreadsheetId);
 }

/* Grabs the entire range and uses the array length to work out the number of 
rows in your spreadsheet, rowIndex is now equal to the number of rows in the 
spreadsheet */
 var range = sheet.getDataRange();
 var values = range.getValues();
 for (var rowIndex = 0; rowIndex < values.length; rowIndex++) {
 var row = values[rowIndex];
 }

/* Set the for loop to run untill n = rowIndex, row Index has been set to the 
number of rows in the spreadsheet */
 for (var n = 1; n < rowIndex; n++) {

/* Select the relivant cells in your spreadsheet, change so match yours */
 var adGroupName = sheet.getRange("A" + n + "").getValue()
 var StockLevel = sheet.getRange("M" + n + "").getValue()

/* If the cell StockLevel cell contains 'No' get the relivant AdGroup that matches 
the spreadsheet, you could change this to less than 1 (StockLevel < 1) */
 if (StockLevel == "No") {
 var adGroupsIterator = AdWordsApp.adGroups()
 .withCondition("Name = '" + adGroupName + "'")
 .get();

/* Pause the Ad group */
 if (!adGroupsIterator.hasNext()) {
 Logger.log("Ad group '" + adGroupName + "' not found.");
 } else {
 var adGroup = adGroupsIterator.next();
 adGroup.pause();
 }
 }

/* else If the cell StockLevel cell contains 'YES' get the relivant AdGroup that 
matches the spreadsheet you could change this to more than 1 (StockLevel > 0)*/
 else if (StockLevel == "Yes") {
 var adGroupsIterator = AdWordsApp.adGroups()
 .withCondition("Name = '" + adGroupName + "'")
 .get();

/* enable ad group */
 if (!adGroupsIterator.hasNext()) {
 Logger.log("Ad group '" + adGroupName + "' not found.");
 } else {
 var adGroup = adGroupsIterator.next();
 adGroup.enable();
 }
 }
 }
}

The post Automate tasks using Adwords Scripts appeared first on Search Star.

Today’s topic covers the (not provided) keyword that often appears at the top of reports in Google Analytics. Annoyingly, this can often be the keyword with the most data corresponding to it… So what do you do with it?

The (not provided) label is applied to search queries from users who were signed in securely to Google when searching. Conveniently, (ahem) Google wants to assure their customers’ data protection by not publishing their search query history in Analytics. Currently, this is a mild annoyance for us PPC managers, but according to Click Consult, the appearance of our little friend has been more and more prevalent since it was enabled in 2011. This could mean that by August 2014, (not provided) will account for 100% of search queries. Scary huh?

It isn’t clear whether Google will ever release the hidden data, so in the meantime, I’ve done some research to see if there is a way to squeeze more information from it.

Below is a typical keyword report on Analytics. (not provided) dominates the number of clicks, followed closely by own brand keywords. This data was taken from March this year.

At the beginning of April I activated a filter in Analytics to get more out of the (not provided) keyword. Here are the results for the first few weeks of April:

No longer does (not provided) dominate the keyword report and we can see some new keywords beginning with np in the results.

The filter has taken all the search queries that were grouped in to the (not provided) keyword and split them out by landing page. Although this doesn’t publish the original search query itself, it can give you a good idea of what it probably was:

• np – / is the homepage, so it’s reasonable to assume it was an own-brand search
• np – /stainless-steel-tube.html is a page all about stainless steel tube, so it’s reasonable to assume the search queries related to something about stainless steel tubes

In a nutshell, this is what the filter does:

1. Look for (not provided) search queries
2. See what the landing page was for each (not provided) search query
3. Replace (not provided) with the landing page instead.

Here’s why it’s useful:

1. It enables a better understanding of the split between own-brand search and non-own-brand search
2. You can get a better idea of what the search queries could have been for (not provided) search queries

How to set up the filter

To set up the filter you will need to log in to your Analytics account. The filter is a profile level so it will need to be set up for each profile or account. Once set up, the filter will automatically apply to all (not provided) keywords within the profile. To disable the filter you would have to delete it.

Step 1

Under the Admin tab, choose the profile you wish to work with, click on Filters and then New Filter

Step 2

Create the filter as per the screenshot below

Step 3

Save and give yourself a high five. The filter only applies to data from the time you set it up, so it will not change historic data.

This filter has proven helpful for us in better understanding the behaviour of visitors to various websites. Hopefully it’ll help you out too.

The post Some Analytics advice for the youth of today appeared first on Search Star.

An agency entering is asked to supply a full client contact list – the clients are then contacted and their opinions and scores are gathered in to a central database. Given that the vast bulk of our business comes in by referral from existing happy clients & contacts we were optimistic that this honest & straightforward system of awards should be healthy for us.

We were therefore absolutely delighted to be nominated for 7 out of the 30 awards categories including Best Digital Agency, Best Media Buying Agency  & Best Advertising Agency. Hopes were high that we were about to strike gold. A ticket for the Awards Dinner (£185+VAT) was purchased, I put on my smartest suit and took the train to London. I arrived at the Montcalm Hotel in London quietly optimistic that we were going to win big.

Two hours of red carpets, photographers, champagne & good food later and it was time for the judges to announce their decisions. The room went quiet and my adrenalin levels mounted. What was the best route for me to the stage…should I kiss the lady judge on the cheek or shake her hand…maybe I should have brought a bag to take all the awards home?

Each category came and each time “Search Star” was read out as a nominee…again and again we were not the winner. We won in none of the categories we had been nominated for. Finally the Grand Prix for the agency with the best overall score…we had been nominated in more categories than any other agency so perhaps….we didn’t win that either.

We won nothing…congratulations to those who did especially our friends at TRT Direct who won Best Media Buying Agency.

Awards are a swizz…rubbish…we never wanted one anyway. Maybe we’ll win next year.

The post The RAR 2013 Awards Results – Nominated for 7 Awards… appeared first on Search Star.

The deadline for changing over to Adwords Enhanced Campaigns has been announced, and July 22nd will be here before we know it. Of course, the ultra-organised Search Star team are already there, with our checklists for account migration all but fully ticked off. Google promised that getting stuck in and making the switch to Enhanced Campaigns wouldn’t be too complicated or time consuming and, for the most part, it hasn’t been. But how will this change to Adwords, marked as one of the biggest since its launch, affect your campaigns?

Google states three key advantages to the enhancements. The first is multi-device marketing; it is now no longer possible to target campaigns to mobiles only, instead you can set a bid multiplier to adjust the bid that is set for mobile devices. At the launch of Enhanced Campaigns back in February, it was clear that Google wants to divide the digital world into big screens and small screens – not mobiles, desktops and tablets. In Adwords at least, PCs and tablets are now lumped together as a single device type. Google’s reasoning behind this is that the line between tablets and PCs is blurring, as more and more products are brought out that combine features of both.

The second advantage, as stated by Google, is the ability to advertise based on a person’s context and device capabilities. Within single campaigns, advertisers can now customise their ads depending on a person’s location, device and what time of day it is. This is pretty useful for advertisers with physical shops or offices. For example; an advertiser can choose to only show links with shop locators to a person on their mobile, when they’re in the area and if the shop is open all within one campaign – perfect!

The third advantage is advanced reports for new conversion types. Supposedly, Google are going to provide more information on conversions than ever before! Tying in nicely with Universal Analytics, this will include reports on purchases made over the phone, app downloads and conversions that were initiated on one device and completed on another. Gaining this extra insight as to how campaigns are converting will of course be extremely useful for running successful PPC.

Of all the changes that the enhancements will bring, the one that we are most concerned about is bundling PC and tablet into one device option. A large ecommerce client of ours had an 82% difference in the volume of conversions between tablet and PC over February (PC converting the most), and a 46% difference in the conversion rate. Differences like these prompt us to look into why they’re not converting the same and result in differences between how we manage tablet and PC campaigns. Bids are managed differently, ad copy is changed and keywords can be different.

People use tablets and PCs in different environments and situations; tablets are often used whilst travelling, on holiday or to have a browse at home on the sofa. Compare this to people using PCs all day at work with access to fast broadband, wallet in hand and a wondering mind in their lunch hour, and you get a very different picture. It’s also thought that people feel more comfortable purchasing on a PC as this is what they’re used to. Touch-screen tablets can become fiddly and it somehow feels less secure entering your bank details on one.

So we’re not as convinced as Google that the two devices are blurring into one. But, perhaps as tablets become more and more popular they will be proven right and purchasing on them will become less alien. Interestingly, where Adwords leads Bing Ads normally follows, but Bing have claimed that advertisers “deserve control” and will be maintaining the mobile/tablet/PC split on their PPC platform. Regardless, Google are not about to do a U-turn on this issue and, rather than bemoan the loss of control, we’re now very much in the process of taking advantage of the (very) positive aspects of Enhanced Campaigns.

The post Enhanced Campaigns: Help Or Hindrance? appeared first on Search Star.

For an example see Search Star’s own PPC ads below…we practice what we preach & in the adtext below we are showing 46 positive reviews from happy clients:

For e-commerce retailers the benefit of getting stars is immediately obvious with a search for “Samsung 46” TV” having 3 of the top 4 advertisers showing Seller Rating Extensions:

However service providers (who stand the gain the most having customers far more interested in relative quality) use the extensions far less. A search for “Tax Accountants in London” shows no Seller Rating Extensions for any advertiser:

Google has published that advertisers with Seller Rating Extensions on average get a 17% increase in click through rate. This means a 14.5% drop in CPC for exactly the same position.

- For the ecommerce people it is simple to set up an automated email to customers after each online transaction and asking for a review.

- For the service providers especially in the legal sector its more problematic – client relationships are more complex and clients can be shy of leaving “I was completely in the wrong yet Mr Solicitor won the case – 5 stars” style reviews

Across Search Star’s client base we are seeing increases in CTR % of up to 30% for services providers and up to 20% for ecommerce companies. Every client I see and every proposal that passes across my desk and I say “you need to get reviews & the stars”:

Clients may say they’ll put it on the job list but often they don’t action it. Reviews are a pain…they can be labour intensive & there may be negative reviews. Howver an average 1% boost to CTR is massive and should always be worth it for an advertiser serious about Adwords.

However challenging the review collection has been our clients always see a noticeable lift in the leads and sales when they get the stars against ads. I struggle to come up with any advertiser in any category who wouldn’t want them for the increase in CTR, reduction in CPC & improved conversion that they drive.

If you have questions about how to gather them in the most efficient and effective way then please get in touch. We are seller rating extension evangelists & happy to help.

The post Getting Stars Lifts CTR 17% appeared first on Search Star.

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