Our application offers a flexible approach to tracking conversions and/or revenue. Revenue can be tracked in four fundamental ways:

1. Publisher tracking (e.g. Google Ads conversion tracking)
2. Marin Attribution
3. Direct upload of revenue data
4. Upload of third-party revenue data

Each method has its own benefits and drawbacks. Our goal is to allow you to use the method that makes the most sense for your business.

Below we'll outline each of the four options.

Publisher Trackers

Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft all offer their own tools to track conversions. Setting up a publisher tracker involves adding a snippet of JavaScript code to your website. This code is publisher-specific and is available directly from the publisher. The primary benefit of using the publisher tracker is that keywords do not need to have unique keyword IDs since the publisher will handle tracking. Our application will download the revenue and conversion information as part of publisher cost reports.

Marin Attribution

Similar to the publisher javascript approaches, we offer you a tracking system for revenue capture. The advantage of using Marin Attribution is that you will only need a single JavaScript snippet to handle all search engines. Using the application's tracker pixel requires that each keyword have its own URL with a unique keyword ID.

Revenue Upload

Marin offers a comprehensive revenue upload capability. Revenue upload is the most popular approach to revenue capture. A file can be uploaded containing the conversion events that correspond to specific keywords. Revenue upload is the most “accurate” approach to revenue capture because it eliminates any discrepancies between your internal systems and what is used within the application. Revenue upload allows tracking of offline conversions, such as 800 number calls. Revenue uploads also require unique keyword IDs.

Third-Party Revenue

Our application has working integrations with Google Ads 360, Google Analytics, and more third-party tracking systems. For example, by linking your keywords to placements, we can capture recorded revenue events, making revenue capture seamless for customers. Contact your Marin account representative for more information.

Understanding Our Attribution Logic

Regardless of which integration you use and where your revenue data comes from, the same set of rules are used to attribute this data to objects linked into your client account. Here are the rules we use:

Creative ID: This is what appears in the Creative ID column in the platform-ready revenue file.

• This should match the publisher ID for your creative
• If you edit an ad within the application, we will store the old publisher ID, as well as the new one.
• We use this to determine which ad group the conversion is attributed to.
• If we are not able to find a match, or if the Creative ID is not passed in the revenue file, we will skip this step.

Keyword ID: This is what appears in the Keyword ID column in the platform-ready revenue file.

• This is actually more of a Tracking ID and belongs to the object whose url was served, which may be a creative instead of a keyword.
• The Tracking ID is assigned to all objects in the application that contain a destination URL. It is parsed out of the URL based on the Tracking ID settings (Settings > Revenue & Tracking > Tracking IDs). This value is what needs to match the Keyword ID column in the revenue file.
• If a valid Creative ID match was found in step 1, the system will only look for this ID within the group in which this creative lives.
• If a valid Creative ID match was not found in step 1, the system will first look through all creatives for a Keyword ID match. If no match is found, it will then look through all keywords for a Keyword ID match.
• If we are not able to find a match, or if the Keyword ID is not passed in the revenue file, we will skip to the next step.

Keyword and Match Type pair: This is what appears in the Keyword and Match Type columns in the platform-ready revenue file.

• If a valid Creative ID match was found in step 1, but no Keyword ID match was found, the system will only look for a keyword/match type pair within the group this creative lives in.
• If a valid Creative ID match was NOT found in step 1, and no Keyword ID match was found, the system will look for a keyword/match type pair within the entire application.
• If only Keyword is passed (no Match Type), and we are able to find 1 Keyword within the group, we will attribute to this keyword.
• If only Keyword is passed (no Match Type), and we are able to find multiple keyword matches within the group, we will attribute different percentages to each match type variation.

Multiple Conversion Types

For many search marketers, there are often several different ways in which a site visitor can convert. For example, a visitor to an e-commerce site might make a purchase, sign up for a newsletter, or look up the location of a store. Each of type of conversion is valuable to the retailer, and for optimal search management, each should be considered when determining the success of a creative or keyword. Marin also gives you the visibility to understand which keywords are driving which types of conversions and lets you adjust your bidding strategy to reflect differences in bids.

To learn more about setting up conversion types, including details about total conversions, total revenue, and the ID associated with your conversion type, check out our Setting Up Conversion Types Advanced Guide.