Tracking my PPC on the cheap

I'd like to be able to track the results of my PPC campaign by doing the following:

1- use a unique referral code for each keyword and ppc provider, such as ?r=kanoodle_keyword
2- then track this users path through my site.
3- track any click on external links on my site (since I don't sell anything, all revenue is generated from affiliate programs)/ I'd like to know if the ppc ad led to someone clicking on an affiliate banner.

Are there any tutorials available that anyone knows about on how to create a simple tracking system like the one I discussed above?

Thanks.

Mike

conversion ruler costs something like $20 a month.

in my opinion it is better to spend a little to get a better quality tracking system then to have a really cheap one. if you are a good programmer I am sure you could cook something up rather easily.

Thanks for that recommendation. I'm testing out their service and a few others that have trials.

I keep running into a problem though. Each service seems like they will be fine for tracking the source of the referral and the path of the visitor on my site. The problem comes when tracking "conversions" as these programs call it. A conversion is typically a sale and is easily tracked by these programs since you can ad their conversion tracking code to the landing page after someone checks out.

That works great on e-shops, but what if my site generates its income from my referrals to other sites via affiliate programs. I'd like to be able to know if the PPC visitor clicked on one of my banner ads. To me that would be my conversion.

The problem is, most of these tracking programs require the conversion code to go on a specific page. If that page is reached then a conversion is made. I don't have a landing page on my site. When my user "converts" they land on another site.

Is there a way I can rework the links on my site to cause the user to "land" on a page on my site with this conversion code, and then redirect to the true destination?

Thanks for the help.

Mike

Open a special account for your ppc traffic at your affiliate program. if you have a good manager they will put the tracing script on your checkout page on their end. My checkout pages have scripts on them for several click sources.

also you can put your affiliate link through a redirect page which has tracking stuff on it.

Sorry if this question is silly, but I have been searching various php tutorials and I'm not sure if I'm looking in the right place.

Can I use php to handle the redirection? If not what language do I need to use.

Thanks.

I would assume you can easily use PHP or Java, but I am not a programmer. I hppe to be one soon enough though

Try www.hotscripts.com and search through the php stuff there are a bunch there and you can choose something that will work with your system.

Thanks they had exactly what I was looking for, and some other good things too.