Click Tracking

How do you track the amount of traffic sent to my site?

Bid4keywords has built a proprietary click-tracking system that enables us to count the number of clicks your ad receives across the Bid4keywords network of partners. The clicks tracked by our system are used to determine your traffic costs, which are then debited from your account.

Why do third-party tracking software packages (like Webtrends) report that my site is getting fewer clicks than Bid4keywords?

There are a number of reasons why third-party software fails to capture the correct amount of clicks, all of which arise from the way Bid4keywords counts the source of clicks. Bid4keywords counts the number of times a user clicks on one of our ads from anywhere in the Bid4keywords network. Many third-party tracking systems only count the number of times a user actually visits or "lands" on your site. If a site is broken, down for maintenance, or if the site or user has a poor connection, they may not be able to reach your Web site. Because Bid4keywords can't control whether or not a given page is operational, or if users have a good connection, we don't count clicks in this way. We count a click each time a user clicks on the link in your listing, not each time a user "lands" on your website. In addition, clicks may not register through third-party click tracking methods for a variety of reasons including, but not limited to, the following:

• If the third-party tracking system relies on referral information to track the source of visits, that system may undercount clicks from Bid4keywords, because many of Bid4keywords's ads are distributed to other sites. In other words, clicks from our partner sites may not register Bid4keywords as the initial source of those ads, and as a result, third-party tracking would not attribute those clicks to Bid4keywords. For example, your ad will likely generate clicks registered not only from Bid4keywords, but clicks from our partners.
• If the third-party system counts users or "sessions" instead of actual clicks (as Bid4keywords does), the third-party data would likely be quite different from Bid4keywords data. Typically, tracking systems that count users or sessions use the IP address of the first click to establish where the visitor came from. An IP address is a unique code that identifies a user's computer when it connects to the Internet. Due to the use of proxy servers (which can mask individual IP addresses) by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and businesses, many clicks coming from different users could appear to these tracking systems as one user or session, rather than tens or hundreds of different clicks. This would cause third-party numbers to be significantly lower than numbers provided by Bid4keywords.
• If your site is not operational, if the link is dead, or if the user is prevented from accessing your site for any reason, Bid4keywords would still register that a user clicked on the link in your ad. For this reason, it's imperative that you ensure that your link and your site is functional 24/7. You're responsible for all clicks generated by your Bid4keywords ad even if your site is not operational.

What if my tracking does not match Bid4keywords reports?

The data produced by Bid4keywords's reporting tracks closely with third-party tracking systems. Generally, an accepted level of variance between two tracking systems +/- 10%, any greater difference warrants further analysis. If this is the case, contact Bid4keywords Support at support@bid4keywords.com.

What is Estimated monthly clicks and how is it calculated?

Estimated monthly clicks are calculated by multiplying a click-through-rate (CTR) of 1.47% by the number of monthly queries for a keyword. Please note that this is only an estimate and the actual number of clicks you receive will be affected by your actual CTR, your rank and the number of queries for your keyword.