Google conveniently provides easy integration of Google Adwords data with their Analytics program, allowing you to track results of your Adwords pay-per-click campaigns through Analytics.  If you have sponsored listings on Yahoo, Bing, or any other paid search program, you will have to do a bit of customization in order to supply the same data about these additional PPC (Pay-Per-Click) programs to Analytics.

In order to signify to Analytics that a specific visitor is a paid search visitor, you will need to provide custom destination URLs for your ads – these custom URLs have URL parameters that help Analytics identify details about the PPC campaigns you are running on other search services.  Conveniently, Google has provided a URL Builder Tool, to help create these URLs for you.  Once you start running your ads with new destination URLs, Analytics will automatically collect and display data on visitors who come in to your site from your campaigns.

Viewing paid "Keywords" in Google Analytics shows msn and yahoo PPC traffic.

For example, instead of inputting a destination URL of http://www.ccseo.com/ on a Yahoo! PPC ad, you can use the URL builder tool to generate a URL like this:

http://www.ccseo.com/?utm_source=Yahoo&utm_medium=PPC&utm_content=Ad3&utm_campaign=Local

This URL has 4 added parameters (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_content, utm_campaign), which signal to Google Analytics that incoming traffic from this particular ad originated through Yahoo PPC, come from ad number 3, and from the “Local” campaign.

Effective use of the URL Builder Tool can give you a lot of valuable information about traffic from non-Google paid search sources in Google Analytics, helping you to effectively measure and track the results of your paid search campaigns.

Have you used the URL builder tool? Do you have any questions about using this Analytics feature?

Many websites give consumers the opportunity to comparison shop; enabling shoppers to compare and contrast products, find the best price and the lowest shipping costs. They also provide store reviews so users can get an idea of whether the online merchant they want to buy from has a reliable track record with goods, shipping and customer service.

As an online merchant you can sign-up with these websites and offer your products through them, thereby increasing your web visibility and enhancing your credibility.

Almost all work on a Cost-Per-Click (CPC) basis, where you only pay for leads (click-throughs) to your site, and your click-through costs vary depending on the product category.

All of them require a data feed which consists of a .txt file formatted to their guidelines that lists your product inventory and related details.

Comparison Shopping & Product Review Web Sites

Yahoo! Shopping

To get your products listed in Yahoo Shopping’s online marketplace, you must sign up for a Yahoo Product Submit account – this can be done by associating this Yahoo service with an existing Yahoo! ID, or by creating a new ID. Yahoo Product Submit is a part of Yahoo Search Marketing, Yahoo’s pay-per-click advertising department, and is a cost-per-click service. You will be charged each time a user clicks to view one of your products in Yahoo Shopping’s large comparison-shopping database.

If you already have a Yahoo! Merchant Solutions account, you can receive a discount on Yahoo! Product Submit, and your products can be automatically submitted to Yahoo! Shopping.

You also have the option to submit your site to Yahoo! Shopping at no cost. If you submit your site, Yahoo’s spiders will crawl your products, but Yahoo! gives no guarantee that your products will be included in the Yahoo! Shopping database. To submit your site fill out this form.

If you are a paying customer you have the option to provide a product feed to Yahoo!, instead of relying on the crawlers to find all of your product information. You will also have control over which products are included in Yahoo Shopping!, and have the ability to change details like prices without having to wait for a new crawl of your site.

Shopping.com

An Ebay company, Shopping.com is one of the web’s leading comparison shopping sites. To have your products listed in the Shopping.com network (including Epinions, DealTime, and AT&T), you must sign up for a Shopping.com Merchant Account. You are then allowed to deposit money into your account, and set your desired per-click price for your products. After you sign up, you will be given the format required in order to submit your product feed to the Shopping.com system. There is a minimum pre-payment of $700.00 in order to start promoting with Shopping.com.

Price Grabber

Storefronts is a service that allows smaller merchants and individuals to list and sell merchandise on PriceGrabber.com without the need for their own websites. It does not have listing fees, but charges a percentage of the sale price, when your item sells.

Merchant Sales – the CPC Merchant Services Program works the same as Yahoo! and Shopping.com in that Merchants pay for click-throughs to their products. Cost-Per-Click is based upon PriceGrabber’s rates table, and varies based on product category. There is a minimum initial deposit of $50.00, and you may be required to pay additional setup fees. You will need to provide a data feed.

Manufacturers – Pricegrabber also offers similar services targeted specifically towards manufacturers.

Pricegrabber offers their services to a global market, with options for US English, US Spanish (Preciomania.com), UK, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, France, and Germany.

NexTag

Much like the previously listed comparison shopping sites, NexTag offers a cost-per-click merchant account, with user-controlled rates (each category has minimum rates). NexTag also implements a product feed for product submission and, “Products can take up to a week to be listed on the site”.

Shopzilla

Like Shopping.com, Shopzilla has a network of comparison shopping sites, including BizRate. Shopzilla uses a cost-per-click system, and requires a fully-refundable $50 initial deposit. You can sign up for Shopzilla Business Services to get started. Shopzilla offers an on-site product listing manager, and accepts product feeds.

Amazon

Amazon.com offers product placement on their extensive online catalog, with a percentage based referral fee charged when you sell an item. 3rd party sales are currently restricted to a subset of Amazon’s category listings. Amazon charges a $39.99 monthly service fee to list products in their catalog. Amazon allows sellers to add their products through an online interface, a desktop software application, or inventory files.

Google Product Search

Formerly Froogle, Google Product Search offers a free product listing service which is tied into Google Base. Google does not charge for inclusion of your products in their database. Submission of single items is available on the product search website, as well as the option to include a data feed.