Using VWO to Create Tests for Google AdWords Traffic

Creating tests for your Google AdWords traffic helps you personalize your website content for traffic from ads or even lets you A/B test your website to determine what works best for the visitor segment from AdWords. 

For example, if your ad is about “A/B Testing,” you need to personalize the traffic from these ads and show relevant content of A/B Testing. If the search ad says “split testing tool,” then ensure that the visitor lands on the “Split-Testing” page after clicking the ad.

Website visitors coming from sources like AdWords are appended with query parameters to the URLs. By using these parameters, you can define a visitor segment in VWO to display a specific variation to the visitors tagged with the AdWords parameters.

How AdWords Tracking Work

To send data back and forth between AdWords and analytics tools, use any of the following approaches to configure your AdWords settings and track visitors by using VWO. To learn about AdWords tracking, refer to Tracking in Google Ads.

• GCLID: A globally unique tracking parameter (Google Click Identifier) that Google uses to track visitors coming from AdWords. Google appends the ?gclid parameter on your destination URLs at runtime.

• Custom Parameter: A URL parameter that you can add to your AdWords tracking templates and final URLs.

• Tracking Template: You can put all tracking information on the template. When a visitor clicks an AdWords link, the tracking information you add here is appended to your final URL before landing on the page. A tracking template created at the ad group, campaign, or workspace level applies to all ads in the corresponding ad group, campaign, or workspace.
  

To create VWO tests targeting Google AdWords traffic, perform the following steps:

1. Add a tracking template.
2. Create a custom Segment by using VWO.

Add a Tracking Template

To start tracking your AdWords traffic by using VWO, log in to your Google AdWords dashboard and add a tracking level. After adding the template, please update it for both campaigns and ads.

To add a tracking template, go to campaign details and click Additional Settings. Under Campaign URL Options, enter the tracking template and custom parameters you want to append for visitors coming from AdWords. Assign values to each parameter, and then click Save and Continue.

Update Tracking Template for Ad Groups

Procedure

1. Select the Ad groups option on the AdWords dashboard.
2. Select an ad for which you want to update the tracking template.
3. Select Edit > Change tracking templates.

Update the Tracking Template at the Ad Level

Procedure

1. Select the Ads & extensions option on the AdWords dashboard.
2. Select an ad for which you want to update the tracking template.
3. Select Edit > Change tracking templates.

Define Custom Visitor Segments

After the query parameters are set, log in to your VWO and then define the segment for the test you want to set up for visitors coming from Google AdWords. You can select a predefined segment by using Segment Gallery or create your custom segment to target.

Procedure

1. Login to your VWO account.
2. Using the TESTING section, create a test campaign.
3. In the URL(s) page, expand the More Options section and select the Enable campaign for a specific visitor group option.
4. Now, go to the Custom segment. To know more about custom segments in VWO, refer to How to Define Custom Visitor Segments.
5. From the first dropdown, select the Query Parameter and enter the query parameter values, as defined in your AdWords campaigns in the field next to it. 
6. From the second dropdown, select the appropriate operator and in the field next to it, enter the value of each query parameter you add for the segment. After visitors qualify for the segment conditions, they will automatically become part of the test. You can save the custom segment you created and use it to view the segment report without defining the conditions every time.
   For example, consider having a Google AdWords campaign running for a weekend sale. Using VWO, you can direct all visitors from AdWords to a specific variation target for the weekend traffic. You can analyze the test reports to determine what worked best for a visitor segment.
7. To add multiple conditions, click Add condition. Also, you can define the logical relationship between the different conditions using the AND/OR operators and use brackets to organize the segment condition.