Category: Tips

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PayPal Versus Google AdWords

I wanted to bring to your attention some issues in using PayPal and tracking conversions on sales on Google AdWords in this issue.

Right now with PayPal, if the user selects to purchase with their PayPal account they will be automatically be redirected back to your selected landing page in which you have embedded your Google AdWords conversion tracking code. However, if the customer selects to pay by credit card (not the one tied to their PayPal account), they will no longer be automatically redirected to your landing page accruing a conversion. For this type of user, your buyer must now click an orange button to return to your website on their order confirmation page.

If they perform this action, they will go to your landing page and a Google AdWords conversion will be recorded. If they choose not to click the orange button to return to your site, the sale is recorded, but a conversion for Google AdWords is not recorded. This is a very big problem for any client who is using PayPal and then marketing these services on Google AdWords and really needs to know conversion statistics.

As a Professional Google AdWords Account Manager I will not be recommending that clients use PayPal if they are promoting their items on AdWords unless they are using a third party PayPal Web Pro integrated shopping cart. As an account manager, the recording of conversions is one of our biggest tools to understanding if the advertising spend on AdWords is an investment or an expense.

So what can you do if this is a problem for you?

1. In your PayPal settings you can force all users to use either their PayPal account or set one up. This means they will be redirected at the completion of the order to your conversion tracking landing page.

2. You can move to a different credit card processing program – I use Sage Payment for my online credit card transactions. Although PayPal makes it very easy to do online transactions, the issues in regards to accurate conversion tracking may force you to use an alternative service. 

3. You may even want to test, for two weeks or so, forcing customers to use their PayPal account for transactions online and see if you receive complaints. The reality is that most people who do buy online at some point have set up a PayPal account, but for some reason may not want to use it. If tracking a conversion is crucial to your business, you may need to force them to use their PayPal account to shop on your site.

It is easy to change this one setting (forced use of the buyers PayPal account) in your PayPal account settings and easy to undo as well. If you choose not to do this, you and your AdWords account manager simply need to be aware that some sales simply will not be recorded as AdWords conversions. If that is the case, AdWords conversions and overall sales should be evaluated together when reviewing the success of an AdWords program. The big draw back to all of this is that your statistical data on which keywords convert for you and which do not will not be accurate.

I wish these work arounds were not needed, as the redirect issue has not been an issue before, but for some reason PayPal has decided to make these important changes in the order confirmation page that impact conversion tracking forcing us to look for alternatives to their service.

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Totally Off Topic For a Change – I’m Going to Russia!

My Mom is taking me on a trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg via a small cruise ship on several Russian rivers. The trip is almost 14 days long. We’re going in the mid summer season of 2010. Who knew that you had to get a Visa to go to Russia? I personally think that in today’s world of global travel getting a Visa is simply a $200+ tax to go visit their country. I personally don’t know of too many other countries that require a Visa, but I’m sure that there are some.

I casually asked our travel agent about shots and was directed to the CDC website where I am glad I have started a year out as I have to get Hepatitis A (2 shot series), Hepatitis B (2 shot series), Tetanus, Typhoid, and a booster on Mumps, Measles, Rubella, and Polio. Good grief! I got three shots this past week and both of my arms are so sore that you’d better not brush up against me or I will have to literally howl in pain. You’d have thought that I was going to the ends of the Earth to have this shot list, but I am visiting small villages in Russia and the CDC says that if so, you need these extra immunity protections.

I feel like maybe I should be learning some kind of conversational Russian. Who wants to go as the “Ugly American”? I have experienced, by traveling abroad widely, that if you make an honest effort to speak in the native language that your experience and interaction with others is much more special and meaningful. So, I will have to start checking my library for Russian language tapes. I don’t think I will be able to learn the alphabet so I am just focusing on knowing how to say some important phrases. At least that’s a start!

My husband and I are taking our whole family to Paris, France and then to Brussels, Belgium this summer as well and so I am working hard to brush up my French as I had been a fluent speaker. I had lived for a year with a French speaking family in Brussels my senior year in high school with the AFS foreign exchange program. Maybe I will be able to use French in Russia as well.

If you have any tips on traveling to Russia or where a family of six should stay in Paris, take just a moment and click comments below and give me your tips. I would be most grateful!

Next week I am off to the San Francisco area to watch my husband get his MBA degree from the Navy Post Graduate School in Monterey, California. We’re turning our trip into a mini-vacation with my Mom watching the kids for a week. I’ll be back in full force the week of the 28th, but please come back and visit our blog next week as I have already written and scheduled some great content pieces to keep you entertained and educated.

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Check Out Our White Papers and Downloads

If you haven’t browsed our website recently, I would like to invite you to do so. We have a wealth of information on many important and interesting topics. All of our papers are free. For just a few top papers you may have to share your email address with us and that will subscribe you to our monthly e-newsletter. But never fear, we never spam you and we do have great articles in our newsletter and you can easily unsubscribe anytime.

So, without further ado, here’s the link to our download and white paper section. Below is a list of some of our topics to whet your appetite.

Twitter Demystified for Business Users
Twitter 101
How to Use LinkedIn for Successful Social Networking
The Tangible Benefits of Blogging White Paper
AdWords and Yahoo! Sponsored Search Compared White Paper
Advanced Digital Photography
Computer Network Set Up For High Speed Internet Access
Domain Name Spoofing, Our Candid Experience
Google Sitemap Instructions
Hawaiian Screen Saver–Free Download
How to Turn Your Vinyl Albums into CDs
Networking Basics
Washington DC Screen Saver — Free Download
Yellowstone National Park Screen Saver — Free Download
And more…

I usually do one big white paper a year and this last year my white papers were on Twitter and LinkedIn. If you have a topic that you would like to learn more about, just click comments below and I’ll consider it for my next white paper.

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Creating a File Shortcut in Office Applications

windows-tipI think that you will love this neat little shortcut that I have been using, if you don’t know about it already. Follow the instructions below to add a shortcut link on the system file menu screen for any Microsoft Office Applications. Now, I just wish Microsoft would allow me to create these handy shortcuts from any Windows and systems application.

I’ve inserted an image from one of my file menus just to the right so you can see exactly what I am talking about. As I do not save my files in the My Documents folder, it is helpful for me to have shortcuts to file locations that I use frequently on the file menu bar. Here’s how to do it so you can save time too.

  1. Open the office application of your choice (Word, Excel etc.). Microsoft calls this file menu the “My Places” bar. Navigate to and select, but do not open the folder that you want to add to the menu.
  2. Click Tools and then Add to My Places. Your selected folder will now appear at the bottom of the My Places menu bar. If you don’t see it, right click on the bar and select small icons as it may be hidden for the moment or resize the dialog box so you can see your new folder.
  3. To move your new folder up to the top of the menu on the My Spaces bar, right click on the item you want to move and click move up or move down as needed.

I find the addition of my most frequently used files to be very helpful and only wish that I could do this in all my computer applications. I think that once you try it, you’ll be doing custom file additions to your My Places bar too!