Marketers dishing dough for site traffic via AdWords may not know that many final transactions don't occur until later - when users return to the site organically. And Google Analytics, by default, attributes transactions to the last referrer.

This how-to by ROI Revolution offers a way to change your Google Analytics Tracking Code so that it credits these transactions to the initial referrer rather than the last referrer, allowing a better handle on the return for your paid marketing efforts.

Before changing the settings, it is important to know that changing your Google Analytics code to give transaction credit to the first referrer is a permanent change that affects all profiles. This means you can't have one profile that gives first referrer credit and another profile that gives last referrer credit because both profiles use the same set of cookies, even if those profiles use separate account numbers.

If you want to ensure all profiles attribute transactions to the initial referrer rather than last one, use the following code:

If, however, you want to be able to track first referrer in a separate profile by using a local, modified version of ga.js, follow these steps:

1. Upload the ga.js file to your site.

2. Create a profile with a new account number. To do this, start with the Analytics Settings page, click "Add Website Profile," then select "Add a Profile for a new domain." You can enter the same URL as your current profiles, but selecting this option means that this new profile will use a new account number, separate from all of your existing profiles. After you create this profile, make a note of the account number or "Web Property ID."

3. Add the following code to your site, either before or after your Google Analytics Tracking Code:

You will need to supply the correct path for the local ga.js file that you uploaded to your site back at step one and the account number for the profile that you noted when you created the new profile at step two.

Adding this transaction filter set to your profiles will add the source, medium and keyword to the end of each transaction ID, allowing you to compare the Transactions report for both profiles to see both the initial referrer and the latest referrer for each of your transactions.

Techniques like this and advice on how to get the most out of Google Analytics will be discussed in the Google Analytics Training Seminar in Miami on June 10th and 11th.

Last month, a presentation given at eMetrics San Jose 2009 stated that SEO success should be measured by ROI, rather than by target keyword and ranking.