Google rolls out mobile search and display ad tracking

By Giselle Tsirulnik - July 28, 2010

Google Inc.'s move to separate mobile search and display advertising click tracking from online is evidence of the growing importance that mobile plays in the marketing ecosystem.

The company's ValueTrack parameter has long allowed advertisers to track both search and Google Display Network clicks separately. However, mobile and online clicks had no way of being distinguished.

"We hope that this feature will allow you to better track your mobile performance and ensure that users get the best experience on mobile," said Miles Johnson, a member of the Inside AdWords crew at Google, Mountain View, CA.

Mobile ValueTrack works the same way it does for search and content. It automatically adds a tag to a company's Web site URL.

To use this feature, brands just need to add the Mobile ValueTrack parameter: {ifmobile:NewTagName} to the "Destination URL" field when they create a text ad.

There are two ways to take advantage of this feature: automatic redirects to mobile-optimized sites and third-party tracking tags.

By adding the MobileTrack parameter to a landing page URL, marketers can automatically redirect mobile users to a mobile-optimized version of the site.

It is very important to note that non-Google-ads traffic to a site will not have the ValueTrack parameter, so it is still a best practice to send all mobile users to an optimized site.

For advertisers that opt for third-party tracking to identify how many visitors clicked through to the landing page site from AdWords ads, Mobile ValueTrack can be used to track clicks coming from mobile devices.

Advertisers need to just insert a tag into the destination URL.

For example, a Travel Dog Company wants to distinguish clicks coming from mobile devices. By adding the Mobile ValueTrack parameter to its landing page URL, www.travelingdog.net?type={ifmobile:hello}, the tag "hello" will be inserted into the destination URL allowing the company to see which clicks are coming from mobile devices.

Mobile ValueTrack works for both WAP mobile ads and regular text and image ads on iPhones and other mobile devices with full Internet browsers.

Any changes made to URLs will need to be reviewed and approved before they go live.

Advertisers get more stats for mobile devices with full browsers by selecting "Segment By: Device" within Campaign Management.

"My thoughts are this is a good start," said Julie Ask, vice president and principal analyst of Forrester Research, Cambridge, MA. "It is a good first step. This is probably about as much information as advertisers need at this point. Surely they will want time of day, day of week, location, further calls-to-action  – other elements that can be provided via mobile, but not necessarily yet. The analytics solutions in mobile are emerging.

"It is hard to imagine Google not keeping up with advertiser demand," she said. "It would be interesting to know what else they can provide from Android devices. It would also be interesting to know more about related search applications on phones – in Maps for example.

"Redirects to sites with content optimized for mobile – this is good. There was a time when sites were being reformatted on the fly through carrier gateways or otherwise. A straightforward solution that redirects to a mobile-appropriate Web site must happen."

http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/advertising/6928.html