A do-not-track option, if implemented will allow users to decide whether they want advertisers to track their online activities for the purpose of future behaviour-targeted advertising or not.

Google Privacy Centre already offers an opt-out option, but it’s not directly accessible from the ad pages. Instead, users must proactively search for it.

The FTC has been asking advertisers to implement such a scheme on a voluntary basis since 2008. While there have been some discussions on the issue, nothing concrete has been done so far. The Federal Trade Commission therefore feels that it is time to take the matter into their own hands, and implement a law that would require advertisers provide such an option in the interest of safe-guarding user privacy.

According to the FTC proposal, the do-not-track mechanism would have to be in the form of a permanent setting that shows on the browser, informing users that the ad they are watching is being tracked. Users could then choose to opt-out of being tracked, if they so desire.

Jon Leibowitz, Chairman of the FTC believes that there will be a substantial rise in the number of privacy related lawsuits if such a system is not put in place soon. The U.S. government report states that “To be effective, there must be an enforceable requirement that sites honor those choices.” It goes on to state that “industry efforts to address privacy through self regulation have been too slow, and up to now have failed to provide adequate and meaningful protection.”

In short, the report lays stress on the fact that users should have the choice to decide who can collect their data, what data can be collected and where it can be used.

However, several sources have expressed reservations about the implementation of a do-not-track option, as it could affect the functioning of the Internet. It should be remembered that a ‘free’ Internet is largely dependent on the financial support provided by advertising. If advertisers are unable to reach their target audience, and hence unable to make some money, the economy of the Internet could be badly affected.

While most people agree that users should have a choice, and their privacy should be respected, it is strongly felt by some that the system should not be made compulsory. Advertisers should be allowed to use self-regulatory measures to go about this issue.

Would you opt out?

If you had the option, would you opt out of having your online activity tracked? Let us know by voting on our Facebook poll at:

http://apps.facebook.com/opinionpolls/index.php?pid=1292242071

Conversion actions can be classified as:

• Purchase/Sale
• Signup
• Lead
• View of a key page
• Other

Actions can be used with pay per click as well as pay per action campaigns. Google launched the pay per action beta test just over a year ago in March 2007.

The new conversion tracking tool allows more sophistication for pay per click advertisers who have for the longest time only been able to track overall conversion volumes. Advertisers using the pay per action system will benefit much more, though, as they can now determine which keywords lead to more valuable actions and are worth bidding more for.

The ‘Campaign Summary’ page still shows the total number of conversions, cost per conversion and conversion rate. However, a new ‘Conversion Tracking’ page has been developed, which provides a breakdown of the number of conversions by conversion type.

Strangely enough, the various actions cannot be viewed for individual campaigns and Ad Groups just yet. The reports have not been updated either, so the Conversion Tracking page offers the best, albeit extremely limited, view of the types of actions visitors from AdWords have taken on the site.

A vast number of mobile phones do not allow JavaScript to run on their browsers. Furthermore, even with those that do allow JavaScript, many do not allow cookies. In fact, a number of mobile network operators block cookies as well as session details from being passed on to third parties such as Google AdWords.

Without cookies, the vast majority of conversions resulting from AdWords ads on mobile devices will go undetected. This is a serious issue, as it implies that the ROI calculations many mobile advertisers make for their campaigns will be far from the actual figures.

Not only is this a serious problem for Google, who has traditionally bragged about the exceptional accountability and reporting capabilities of its advertising platform, but it is also one that cannot be solved by the search giant.

Google needs to either find a better, more innovative way to provide accurate conversion tracking for mobile ads, or advertisers will shrug their shoulders and accept it as a flaw till a better, more reliable system is introduced, probably by a network operator.

An account manager at Google AdWords has confirmed this is the case. Her reply to our query is quoted below:

“A significant percentage of mobile browser and carrier combinations do not support cookies. Google adds cookies to a user’s mobile device when he or she clicks on an ad to track conversions. Therefore, if users are using mobile browsers or carriers that do not accept or support cookies, they will not be included in your conversion tracking statistics.

Additionally, cookies on mobile phones expire faster than the ones created for PCs. Therefore, a significant number of conversions for your site may go unrecorded after a certain period of time. When viewing conversions for a specified time period, note that conversions are assigned to the date on which the ad click occurs, not the date on which the conversion occurs. In addition, we will not be able to report conversions for users who disable cookies.

Conversion tracking is also not supported when users disable images on their mobile phones.

Although Google cannot record every conversion due to the reasons mentioned above, your conversion rate, cost-per-conversion, cost-per-transaction and value/click are adjusted to reflect only those sites from which we can track conversions.“

Update:

The post has been updated to clarify that the lack of JavaScript support on a mobile device is not a problem in and of itself. The problem lies in the cookies being rejected by mobile operators. Since the time of publication of this post, Google has updated its conversion tracking platform, and now offers an improved solution for conversion tracking on mobile searches.