Site Intelligence Tracking – guidance notes 1

1. Overview

These guidance notes expand on the overview of Site Intelligence (SI) tracking for web based campaigns, “Campaign tracking tools – Agency briefing 24/05/07”.

‘Pay per click’ (PPC) campaigns are tracked in two ways

1. Simply placing Site Intelligence parameters on the campaign landing page URL and using these within the Google etc
2. Using combination of BidCentre tracking and URLs with SI parameters in redirect

All PPC campaigns are required to carry SI tracking parameters to enable identification of traffic channel and type within strategic web traffic flow models.

2. Parameter formats

Site Intelligence parameters for PPC tracking follow a standard format. A spreadsheet template is available to assist with the creation of SI parameterised landing URLs (available from http://www.open.ac.uk/online/p4.shtml)

2.1.Part 1, this section identifies the agency and parent campaign

2.1.1. Format

kwcampaign=<>

2.1.2. Example

kwcampaign=zed_ generic

2.1.3. Standard managing agency ids should be used when constructing this part of the parameter. These are listed in Appendix 1.

2.1.4. Underscores should be used to replace spaces

2.2.Part 2, this section can be used to identify the location, search engine and individual keyword

2.2.1. Format

keywordid =<>

2.2.2. Example

keywordid =ukggl_open_university

keywordid =ukmsn_open_university

2.2.3. Standard international country codes and search engine ids should be used when constructing this part of the parameter. These are listed in Appendices 2 and 3 .

2.2.4. Underscores should be used to replace spaces

3. Appending to campaign landing page URL

3.1.1. Parameters are appended to the landing page URL using a ? unless the landing page URL already contains a ?, in which case they are appended using &.

3.1.2. The join between the Part 1 and Part 2 parameters is made using &

3.1.3. Format

<>?(&)kwcampaign=<>& keywordid =<>

3.1.4. Example

3.1.5. http://www.open.ac.uk/cam/masters/index.shtml? kwcampaign=zed_mba& keywordid =ukggl_specialist_masters_degrees

4. Using SI tracking with BidCentre

4.1.When uploading landing URLs into BidCentre ensure parameters are allocated to the landing page URL as described in sections 2 and 3 above.

4.2.BidCentre creates it’s own URL for the keyword/creative which redirects to the uploaded landing page URL which carries the SI parameters

4.2.1. Example

http://cust011.pool001.bidcenter-14.inceptor.com/74764/adult+basic+learning+skill/Google?source={ifsearch:search}{ifcontent:content&placement=}{placement}&creative={creative}&keyword={keyword}

Re-directs to http://www3.open.ac.uk/courses/bin/p12.dll?A02&kwcampaign=zed_gen&keywordid=ukggl_access_further_education

The OU website

Appendix 1 – Managing Agency IDs

Managing Agency	ID
Green Cathedral	gc
Cybercom	cy
Tim	tod
Zed	zed

Should further ids be required please contact v.l.stirling@open.ac.uk

Appendix 2 – Search Engine IDs

Search Engine	ID
Google	ggl
MSN	msn
Yahoo	ysm