Integration of PPC with Adobe Analytics

Paid Search includes traffic coming from Google Adwords, MSN, Yahoo, etc., We can configure Reports
& Analytics to track the paid search traffic using Data Sources.

In this document we will represent the prerequisites required to complete the upload of the data
successfully and Steps to configure an integration with Adwords data as well as metrics such as
impressions, clicks, cost per click and more.

Steps explains on how to setup a one-time import of pay-per-click data to Adobe Analytics using Data
Sources. However, Data Sources allows for the ongoing import of data using the file format described
here. Depending on your paid search platform, you may be able to schedule periodic exports (daily,
monthly, etc.), set up automated processes for transforming those exports into the file format that
Adobe Analytics requires, and upload these files into Adobe Analytics for going paid search integration
reporting.

Prerequisites:
Before integrating the PPC metrics with Adobe Analytics, the below steps need to be implemented:

From Adobe Analytics Team:

1) Implement Paid Search Detection - Tracking codes need to be implemented to track the Ad
Groups or Campaign Traffic
2) Capture the tracking code data – Should capture tracking codes data in to Adobe Analytics.
3) Unique Tracking codes for each Ad Group – Shouldn’t use the same tracking code for two
campaigns or Ad Groups
4) Date Format – Date format should be MM/DD/YYYY/HH/MM/SS
5) Use Delimiter to divide the Columns. For reference please use below image of the “txt” file as
screenshot.

From Paid Search Team:

1) Generate a file from PPC account containing the Date, tracking code (parameter after the “?
gclid”), clicks, impressions and cost.
2) Date Format – Date format should be MM/DD/YYYY/HH/MM/SS
3) Use Delimiter to divide the Columns. For reference please use below image of the “txt” file as
screenshot.

Steps to implement for Paid Search Tracking in Adobe Analytics by Adobe Team
1) Configuring Success Events – Set up success events will enable analytics to receive the 3 rd part
metrics.

Success events tracks actions performed by the user. To track the paid search, we will setup
success events around clicks, impressions and total cot and enable tracking code.

To configure the success events in reporting analytics, please follow below steps:
Integration of PPC with Adobe Analytics

 Go to Analytics > Admin > Report Suites

 Select the appropriate report suite to which the Success events needs to be added
 Click Edit Settings > Conversion > Success Events

 Under Custom Success Events, use Add New to create 3 custom success events Clicks
(Counter), Impressions (Counter) and Total Cost (Currency).

 Click Save.
Will receive a message stating that the new events are created and approved.

 Navigate to Admin > Report Suites > Edit Settings > Conversion > Conversion Variables.

 Enable tracking codes by selecting the checkbox next to Tracking Code under Campaign
> Campaign Variable
Integration of PPC with Adobe Analytics

2) Set Up Data Sources

Data Sources allow you to share non click stream data with Adobe Analytics. In this case we will
use Adobe Analytics to track paid search metrics. We will use the tracking code as our key to tie
the two pieces of data - paid search metrics and Adobe Analytics metrics - together.

 Navigate to Admin > Data Sources.

 Select the Create tab to start activating new data sources.
 Under Select Category, select Ad Campaign.
 Under Select Type, select Generic Pay-Per-Click Service.
 Click Activate.

The Data Source Activation Wizard displays

Integration of PPC with Adobe Analytics

 Click Next and name your data source. This name will appear in the Data Source Manager.
 Accept the service agreement and click Next.
 Select the three standard metrics: Impressions, Clicks and Total Cost and click Next.
 Now “map” this new data source to the custom events we created in Configure Success Events.

 Choose data dimensions

Check the box next to Tracking Codes and click Next.

 Map data Dimensions.

Map the imported data dimension (attribute) to the Adobe Analytics attribute that you want to
store it in. This may be a standard dimension or an eVar. After you click Next, the resulting
mappings are shown in the summary.
Integration of PPC with Adobe Analytics

 Click Save.
 Click Download to download the template file for this data source.

The file name corresponds to the data source type you initially specified - in this case, Generic
Pay-Per-Click Service template.txt.

 Open the template in your favorite text editor.

The file is already populated with the metrics and dimensions and their mappings.

Steps to implement for Paid Search Tracking in Adobe Analytics by PPC Team:

The below steps are similar to the work for Google Adwords, MSN, Yahoo and other PPC accounts.

1. Log in to your PPC Account and create a new report or export. Ensure that the export
includes the following fields: date, Tracking code from the destination URL (landing
page), impressions, clicks, and cost. The export can include other fields, but you will
delete them the steps below.

2. If possible, save the report as a .csv or tab-delimited file. This will make it easier to work
with in the following steps.

3. Open the file in Microsoft Excel.

Edit the File in Microsoft Excel. In Microsoft Excel, delete all columns other than those
mentioned above.
Delete any extra rows on top.
To isolate the tracking codes from the destination URLs:
Integration of PPC with Adobe Analytics

a) Copy and paste data from all columns.

b) Click Data > Text to Columns.
c) In Step 1 of the wizard, make sure that Delimited is selected and click Next.
d) In Step 2 of the wizard, specify the delimiter depending on how you have created
your URLs (either ? or &) and click Next. e) In Step 3 of the wizard, preview your data
and ensure that one of the columns is trackingcodename=trackingcode. If you have
additional variables, repeat these steps (using & as the delimiter).
f) Delete all columns except for tracking codes, impressions, clicks and cost. Add a new
column called Date and organize your columns in the following order: Date|
Trackingcode|Impressions|Clicks|Cost.

4. Add this data to the template you downloaded in the Activate Data Sources section.
Now you are ready to upload the file.

Below is the example of the file that needs to

When creating a Data Sources file, remember the following:

1) Date Format : (Required) A time stamp for each data row in the file. Date Format should be of
MM/DD/YYYY/HH/MM/SS
2) Effectively, each row in the Data Sources file contains one data record, where each record is
made up of a series of tab-separated fields and should be separated by a delimiter. The column
headers in the Data Source template define the order of these fields.
3) The file needs to be saved with “.txt” format to upload in DataSources.

Uploading Data Source File to Adobe Analytics using Data Sources by Adobe
Team:
Go back to the Data Source wizard for instructions and upload the file via FTP.
Integration of PPC with Adobe Analytics

1. Use an FTP client to send the data to your Data Sources FTP site. We used FileZilla to incorporate this.

2. Upload all the data sources (“.txt”) files created by using the “PPC” data to the FTP server using
FileZilla. After the datasources file upload is completed, make sure to upload a “.fin” file to notify Adobe
that the Data Sources file upload is complete.

The .fin file must have the exact same name as the Data Sources file, except for the file extension.
Adobe does not queue the Data Sources file for processing until you upload the .fin file

Do not upload the file until all Data Sources files have finished uploading. Otherwise, Data Sources
might attempt to process an incomplete file.

3. Watch for any messages during the Data Sources file processing. Data Sources Manager displays any
errors that occur during the file processing.

After the upload is completed you will see a “success” status in the File Log.