Comments on: What is in a gclid? http://www.brandonchecketts.com/archives/what-is-in-a-gclid Web Programming, Linux System Administation, and other geeky stuff Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:11:59 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Brandonhttp://www.brandonchecketts.com/archives/what-is-in-a-gclid/comment-page-1#comment-1195 Brandon Fri, 17 Apr 2009 03:34:54 +0000 http://www.brandonchecketts.com/?p=348#comment-1195 Yeah, I read all of those and then found that I had wasted a couple hours without really accomplishing anything. I'm pretty certain that there is some interesting information contained in there, but since this is their main method of generating revenue, it is likely very well thought out and well enough encoded that I will never be able to extract any useful information (although that click fraud detector idea might be useful if it pans out). Yeah, I read all of those and then found that I had wasted a couple hours without really accomplishing anything. I’m pretty certain that there is some interesting information contained in there, but since this is their main method of generating revenue, it is likely very well thought out and well enough encoded that I will never be able to extract any useful information (although that click fraud detector idea might be useful if it pans out).

]]> By: Kevinhttp://www.brandonchecketts.com/archives/what-is-in-a-gclid/comment-page-1#comment-1194 Kevin Fri, 17 Apr 2009 03:25:42 +0000 http://www.brandonchecketts.com/?p=348#comment-1194 A very long article about it:http://blog.merjis.com/2007/07/16/click-fraud-google-adwords-and-gclid/"The “(stuff)” that is added appears to be unique for each advert impression, and appears to be unique in a clever way… The first part of the ID varies rapidly and the last part varies slowly. This is clever because when you are looking for string matches, you get an early failure in the string match, helping to speed the search up - an indication that some smart people may have been working on this.""I’ll guess that the last part of the gclid value encodes, or more likely references in some way, the advertiser ID, the keyword, adgroup, campaign and account ID’s. The first part, that changes rapidly, is probably some combination of timestamp and instance ID or advertising channel (where the advert was published). I suspect that the account and keyword part is a database ID that delivers a row with the account ID, campaign and so on - rather than being an encoding. I suspect that the first part is a timestamp and instance ID, which will also be recorded on Google servers and will tell them when the advert impression was delivered, on which site and how long it was between that impression and the click."And, then there's Matt Cutts blog with some good links:http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/better-click-tracking-with-auto-tagging/ A very long article about it:

http://blog.merjis.com/2007/07/16/click-fraud-google-adwords-and-gclid/

“The “(stuff)” that is added appears to be unique for each advert impression, and appears to be unique in a clever way… The first part of the ID varies rapidly and the last part varies slowly. This is clever because when you are looking for string matches, you get an early failure in the string match, helping to speed the search up – an indication that some smart people may have been working on this.”

“I’ll guess that the last part of the gclid value encodes, or more likely references in some way, the advertiser ID, the keyword, adgroup, campaign and account ID’s. The first part, that changes rapidly, is probably some combination of timestamp and instance ID or advertising channel (where the advert was published). I suspect that the account and keyword part is a database ID that delivers a row with the account ID, campaign and so on – rather than being an encoding. I suspect that the first part is a timestamp and instance ID, which will also be recorded on Google servers and will tell them when the advert impression was delivered, on which site and how long it was between that impression and the click.”

And, then there’s Matt Cutts blog with some good links:

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/better-click-tracking-with-auto-tagging/

]]> By: Kevinhttp://www.brandonchecketts.com/archives/what-is-in-a-gclid/comment-page-1#comment-1193 Kevin Fri, 17 Apr 2009 02:34:52 +0000 http://www.brandonchecketts.com/?p=348#comment-1193 A 5 in the 9th column probably means "Click Fraud detected" :) A 5 in the 9th column probably means “Click Fraud detected” :)

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