Regards

PPC Spy

As for 301s, you can quickly check to see if a URL is being redirected by using a tool like this one: http://bit.ly/OrXI

Just insert your landing page URL, and it will tell you if there is an active 301 redirect in place.

I’ve always just pulled in the search query data into Analytics. It sounds like to me that you’ve got some sort of filter set up to display both the search query and the actual keyword from MSN – and something’s gone wrong. I’m not sure how to fix that one… I’ll do some searches and see if I can’t figure something out.

Is anyone else having trouble with MSN keyword tracking in Google Analytics recently?

Last week I wrote how a newly created campaign was not tracking correctly with a method that had been proven to track in some of my other clients’ MSN campaigns. Today I discovered that one of my clients MSN accounts which had been tracking for a few months is also not tracking properly. Instead of seeing the keyword with the exact search query in parentheses in Analytics, it is now displaying the exact search query as the actual keyword too. In the meantime, none of the keywords or tracking code has been messed with in the account itself.

Is this happening to anyone else?

I know the URLs are entered correctly as I have tested/checked them. The problem lies in the fact that when the ad displays on MSN search results and it is clicked, the URL takes you to just the normal website URL rather than the long tracking URL that should appear.

How would I find out if there is a 301 redirect messing things up too?

Thanks

I would suggest that you carefully review your tracking parameters in your destination URLs. Double check that you’ve listed Source and Medium correctly (those are the parameters that will tell Analytics that this traffic is PPC).

One other thing you should take a look at is whether or not your MSN destination URLs are hitting a 301 redirect. If they are – the 301 “kills” the tracking parameters completely – thus the traffic showing up as Organic (or possibly as Direct).

I’ve inserted tracking into MSN and Yahoo PPC campaigns/keywords before and they have worked wonderfully in Google Analytics. Now this occurred….I set up campaigns in Yahoo & MSN for one website over this past month (Dec.). Yahoo tracking is working fine in Google Analytics, but for some reason MSN is not showing up as cpc. Only MSN Organic is appearing in Analytics. I’ve checked the tracking codes for MSN keywords and they are exactly how they should be.

Any suggestions as to why MSN is not appearing in Analytics?

Thanks

You could still use the basic principles and build out URL tags that would work with Ask.com. Here’s an example:

example.com/?utm_source=ask&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=adgroup1&utm_campaign=campaign1

To track specific keywords, you can always go the manual route and enter &utm_term=keyword1 However, I’m certain you can use the following to pull in the keyword: &utm_term={keyword}

I was wondering if you have found any methodology for accomplishing this task in Ask Sponsored Listings.