Understanding Google Checkout Support for Third-Party Conversion Tracking

Overview

Affiliate marketers, search engine marketers (SEMs) and web analytics providers enable merchants to track page views and conversions on their websites. To track information, merchants include 1x1 pixel images, known as web beacons, on their web pages. The pixels then relay information about a page view or order to the third-party provider.

This document explains an addition to the Google Checkout XML schema that lets merchants include these web beacons on Google Checkout order confirmation pages. The order confirmation page appears after a customer finishes placing an order.

Please note that Google only supports pixel-based tracking solutions. If you use another solution to track page views and conversions, please work directly with your vendor to determine whether a pixel-based version is available. In addition, Google wants to ensure that conversion tracking information is only sent to reputable providers. Please check our list of approved third-party conversion tracking vendors to verify that your vendor's solution will work with Google Checkout. If you have trouble integrating third-party conversion tracking with Google Checkout, please contact us.

This document contains the following sections:

• The Understanding API Changes for Third-Party Conversion Tracking section provides an overview of the API changes for third-party conversion tracking.

• The XML Examples section provides excerpts from Checkout API requests that demonstrate how a merchant includes information about web beacons in a Google Checkout API request.

• The XML Element Definitions section provides complete definitions for the elements in the Google Checkout schema that support third-party conversion tracking.

• The Using AdWords Conversion Tracking with Google Checkout section explains how to integrate Google AdWords Conversion Tracking with Google Checkout using the new tags defined in this document.

Understanding API Changes for Third-Party Conversion Tracking

Google Checkout supports third-party conversion tracking by allowing merchants to include conversion tracking URLs in Checkout API requests. Merchants can pass two types of information about conversion tracking URLs:

• The url attribute of the <parameterized-url> tag contains the base URL for a web beacon. The base URL may include query string parameters that have a fixed value, such as a partner ID that identifies you to the third-party tracking provider.

• The optional <url-parameter> tag identifies variables that will be included in the web beacon URL even though the values of those variables are not known when the Checkout API request is submitted. For example, information about the billing and shipping address are not known when the Checkout API request is submitted. The <url-parameter> tag allows you to still include that information in the web beacon URL.

Using this data, Google Checkout will construct the URL for the web beacon by appending the variables with dynamic values to the base URL.

XML Examples

This section provides two XML examples that demonstrate how a merchant would include information about web beacons in a Checkout API request. The XML elements used in the examples are defined in the XML Element Definitions section.

• Example 1 is a simple use case that does not identify dynamic variables that will to be added to the web beacon URL.

• Example 2 is a more complex use case that uses four dynamic pixel variables.

Note: Both examples display the new XML elements that have been added to the Google Checkout XML schema to support dynamic pixel tracking as well as the <merchant-checkout-flow-support> tag, which encapsulates those elements. The remaining tags from the Checkout API request have been omitted and are represented in the examples by ellipses (...).

Note: All values must be XML-encoded. In addition the url attribute of the url-parameter has additional encoding requirements.

Example 1

...
<merchant-checkout-flow-support>
  <parameterized-urls>
    <parameterized-url
      url="http://www.example.com/track?partner=123&amp;partnerName=Bob&apos;s%20Shop"/>
  </parameterized-urls>
  ...
</merchant-checkout-flow-support>
...

Example 2

 
...
<merchant-checkout-flow-support>
  <parameterized-urls>
    <parameterized-url
      url="http://www.example.com/track?partner=123&amp;partnerName=Bob&apos;s%20Shop">
      <parameters>
        <url-parameter name="orderID" type="order-id"/>
        <url-parameter name="totalCost" type="order-total"/>
        <url-parameter name="taxes" type="tax-amount"/>
        <url-parameter name="shipping" type="shipping-amount"/>
      </parameters>
    </parameterized-url>
  </parameterized-urls>
  ...
</merchant-checkout-flow-support>
...

XML Element Definitions

The Google Checkout XML schema uses the following tags to support third-party conversion tracking:

Using AdWords Conversion Tracking with Google Checkout

The following steps explain how merchants who use Google AdWords Conversion Tracking to track conversions can easily integrate this solution with Google Checkout.

1. Log in to your Google AdWords account. Then click the Conversion Tracking subtab under the Campaign Management tab. If you have already set up conversion tracking for your AdWords account, click the Get conversion page code link outlined in Figure 1. If you have not already set up conversion tracking for your AdWords account, click the Start Tracking Conversions button that appears at the bottom of the page outlined in Figure 2.

   Figure 1: Retrieving AdWords Conversion Tracking Code
   

   Figure 2: Setting Up AdWords Conversion Tracking for the First Time
   

2. The Conversion Tracking Setup page displays a table that asks you to select the types of conversions that you would like to track. Check the box next to the Purchase/Sale conversion type and then click the Continue button at the bottom of the page. The image below, which shows this table, highlights the box that you should check.

   

3. The next page allows you to customize the text block that appears to indicate that the purchase was tracked using AdWords Conversion Tracking. Please note that this text block does not appear in Google Checkout, so any selections you make on this page will only affect other sites where you use AdWords Conversion Tracking. When you have completed the page, click the Continue button at the bottom of the page.

4. The Insert Code page demonstrates how to insert AdWords Conversion Tracking code into your website. A textarea element displays near the bottom of the page with the relevant code snippet as shown in the image below. Please note that the image only displays the part of the page that displays the code snippet.

   

   To integrate AdWords Conversion Tracking with Google Checkout, you do not need the full code snippet. Instead, you need to extract a URL from the code snippet and use that URL as the value of the <parameterized-url> tag in Checkout API requests. Example 1 in the XML Examples section demonstrates how to use this XML tag. The example below shows a sample AdWords Conversion Tracking code snippet. The URL that you would need to extract from this code snippet is shown in bold, blue text.

   <!-- Google Code for purchase Conversion Page -->
   <script language="JavaScript"
   type="text/javascript">
   <--
   var google_conversion_id = 0062225003;
   var google_conversion_language = "en_US";
   var google_conversion_format = "1";
   var google_conversion_color = "666666";
   if (1) {
     var google_conversion_value = 1;
   }
   var google_conversion_label = "purchase";
   //-->
   </script>
   <script language="JavaScript"
     src="https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion.js">
   </script>
   <noscript>
   <img height=1 width=1 border=0
   src="https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion/0062225003/?value=1&label=purchase&script=0">
   </noscript>
   

   Click the Continue button at the bottom of the page to complete your AdWords Conversion Tracking setup.

Note: Data for each of these pages is reported separately in Google Analytics reports.