Monday 19 November 2012

Adwords and Analytics - a marriage made in... Google!

You all know that to run an Adwords campaign for a website you really must be running Google Analytics, right? If you're not doing this already, go away now, right now and install Analytics to your website. Trying to run a successful Adwords campaign without Analytics is like trying to tie your shoelaces with one hand tied behind your back.

OK, now all the people not using Analytics have left, we can carry on. So, we all know Analytics is an essential part of a good Adwords campaign, but it's kind of a pain that it's separate from Adwords. You have to open up two tabs and switch around all the time and it's not that easy to compare data one to another. Well, now it's just got a lot easier.

It's now possible to import three key Analytics metrics directly into your Adwords account interface and view down to the keyword level: Bounce Rate, Avg. Visit Duration and Pages/Visit.

That keyword you thought should do really well: It's got a 100% bounce rate. That one you thought would bring people in to look around your site: just 1.2 Pages/Visit average.

Of course, as with all data on Adwords, you've got to use it sensibly, not jump to wild conclusions and think, but for me it's one of the best innovations in recent times and you should all be using it - now!

As usual, I'm not going to try and better Google's own help files, just link to them. So here it is: See Google Analytics data within your AdWords account. Go, do it now...