AdWords Ad Click Referrer Updated

Google announced their improvements to the ad clicking experience for users by updating the ad click referral. For those who currently develop Web analytics software or analyze their own traffic logs be aware that there will be a change in how some clicks from Google will appear in the logs.

Up to now, referrers for clicks on ads for the term "flowers", for example, would be one of the following:

  http://www.google.com/search?...&q=flowers&...
  http://www.google.com/aclk?...&q=flowers&...

Google is now adding a third possible referrer:

  http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?
 ...&q=flowers&...&ohost=www.google.com&...

The new referrer will be on a different domain (www.googleadservices.com) with a new path (/pagead/aclk). The GET parameter 'q' will remain the same for the query as well as the click originating host GET parameter 'ohost'.

There will be no change to Google Analytic reports. The new referrer will be tested through July keeping the affected search number percentages low until August when it will increase to 100% and all three URL forms will be shown.