Ad Tracking
February 11, 2011 | 
Author 
Saamntha Olea asked:
Like most businesses today, yours is likely cutting back on spending and revising the budget. While advertising is necessary in order to gain a wider customer base, by nature it can be hit or miss at times. It is important to know what works and where it works which is why advertising tracking is a step that your business should not overlook.
Ad tracking is actually a pretty simple process and can be done in various ways. Below I’ve added my shortlist to get you started better understanding what ads are working for your company both on line and offline.
First, decide how exactly you want to track your visitors. There are many ways, but your basic options are:
- Read your web site’s server stats: Most hosts have a form of tracking built into your cPanel already so if you have cPanel access and are comfortable with this method, this may be the way to go for your web site.
-Find a free third party site meter: There are so many available, just do a search of free site meters, have your web designer put the code on your pages and you’re finished. Look for reviews before deciding on any particular site meter as some offer more detailed reports and others only track how many times a page is loaded and nothing more. The more information that you have about your site’s visitors, the better benefit to your business.
-Google Analytics: This is a free service from Google that many web site owners are finding helpful in tracking their web site’s visitors and where they are coming from. This service not only tells you where your visitors are finding your site online, but their geographical location, their length of stay on your site, their bounce rate and so much more. I suggest Google Analytics to all of my clients.
Next, have your web designer create a one page wonder or landing page for each ad placement in your campaign. A landing page is a page that is not directly linked to by the rest of your web site, and has a specific web address that is only mentioned during a specific ad placement. For instance, you are advertising your web site on a local real estate web site. You create a special page at your web address and give that address, not your main web address, to the web site so instead of yourwebsite.com, you would give them yourwebsite.com/realestate. Now, you may also be running an ad in the paper that week and you would have your web designer create a similar landing page and name it a unique file name that you use in the paper which may be something like yourwebsite.com/sundaynews.
At the end of the month when you notice that your sales are up, it will be easy to look into your tracking method and find out which page received the most traffic. This will help you better understand where your audience is and help you make sure that you are allocating your advertising budget in the way that helps your business the most.
Now, you may be asking, “Why can’t I just add one of those ‘Where did you hear about us’ boxes on my order form?”. You can, but remember that people may not always remember where they saw an ad especially if they just jotted down the web address and visited at a later time. Also, the faster you can get your customer to and through the check out process, the better. While you may notice a lot of companies going with the trend of data collecting through bugging their customers upon check out right now, I believe you will begin to see this trend fall off as people grow more tired of the ’20 question’ approach. Don’t give your visitors even the slightest reason to go else where, especially if by using the methods I have mentioned above you can find out not only where your visitors are finding you, but you will be getting a far more accurate response than you can ever expect to get by asking your visitors as they try their best to simply check out, pay you and move on.
Keep in mind that a well thought out and tracked advertising campaign can easily help you stretch your advertising dollar two and three times as far as you focus less on placement that does not gain site traffic and more on those placements that do.
Kansieo.com
Like most businesses today, yours is likely cutting back on spending and revising the budget. While advertising is necessary in order to gain a wider customer base, by nature it can be hit or miss at times. It is important to know what works and where it works which is why advertising tracking is a step that your business should not overlook.
Ad tracking is actually a pretty simple process and can be done in various ways. Below I’ve added my shortlist to get you started better understanding what ads are working for your company both on line and offline.
First, decide how exactly you want to track your visitors. There are many ways, but your basic options are:
- Read your web site’s server stats: Most hosts have a form of tracking built into your cPanel already so if you have cPanel access and are comfortable with this method, this may be the way to go for your web site.
-Find a free third party site meter: There are so many available, just do a search of free site meters, have your web designer put the code on your pages and you’re finished. Look for reviews before deciding on any particular site meter as some offer more detailed reports and others only track how many times a page is loaded and nothing more. The more information that you have about your site’s visitors, the better benefit to your business.
-Google Analytics: This is a free service from Google that many web site owners are finding helpful in tracking their web site’s visitors and where they are coming from. This service not only tells you where your visitors are finding your site online, but their geographical location, their length of stay on your site, their bounce rate and so much more. I suggest Google Analytics to all of my clients.
Next, have your web designer create a one page wonder or landing page for each ad placement in your campaign. A landing page is a page that is not directly linked to by the rest of your web site, and has a specific web address that is only mentioned during a specific ad placement. For instance, you are advertising your web site on a local real estate web site. You create a special page at your web address and give that address, not your main web address, to the web site so instead of yourwebsite.com, you would give them yourwebsite.com/realestate. Now, you may also be running an ad in the paper that week and you would have your web designer create a similar landing page and name it a unique file name that you use in the paper which may be something like yourwebsite.com/sundaynews.
At the end of the month when you notice that your sales are up, it will be easy to look into your tracking method and find out which page received the most traffic. This will help you better understand where your audience is and help you make sure that you are allocating your advertising budget in the way that helps your business the most.
Now, you may be asking, “Why can’t I just add one of those ‘Where did you hear about us’ boxes on my order form?”. You can, but remember that people may not always remember where they saw an ad especially if they just jotted down the web address and visited at a later time. Also, the faster you can get your customer to and through the check out process, the better. While you may notice a lot of companies going with the trend of data collecting through bugging their customers upon check out right now, I believe you will begin to see this trend fall off as people grow more tired of the ’20 question’ approach. Don’t give your visitors even the slightest reason to go else where, especially if by using the methods I have mentioned above you can find out not only where your visitors are finding you, but you will be getting a far more accurate response than you can ever expect to get by asking your visitors as they try their best to simply check out, pay you and move on.
Keep in mind that a well thought out and tracked advertising campaign can easily help you stretch your advertising dollar two and three times as far as you focus less on placement that does not gain site traffic and more on those placements that do.
Kansieo.com
Gennifer C. asked:
I recently decided to do some serious research on tracking
software for my Google AdSense program and was a little bit
surprised with the results.
There are several nice looking products out there, some of
which are available for free as open source programs while
others are for sale with a free trial or a money back
guaranty. A simple Google search for “adsense tracking
software” will keep you busy for hours.
There is, however, a problem with all of these options if
you are one of the many bloggers hosting your Google AdSense
ads on blogger.com or any of the other free blog hosts. You
will find that all third party software programs require
files to be loaded on the server. This issue alone excludes
them from use on your free blog.
For those bloggers using a free platform, the question
becomes, “How do I track my AdSense ads?”. Rest easy dear
friends. There is a solution. Granted, it’s not as slick or
simple as one of those cool self contained programs, and
this method will not produce quite as much data, but it is
free and it will work and it’s not overly complicated.
The first thing you have to do is take advantage of the
channels option when you set up your ad designs. It is a
very simple process to complete. After you have chosen the
size and colors of the add block, you will be asked to
“Choose Ad Channels”. Click “add new channel” and enter
a name for this new channel. I prefer to use a name that
describes the ad or referral link, such as “Top Banner”,
“Right Wide Tower”, “FF Referral”, etc. This way I can
easily recognize each ad block or referral in my reports and
gauge it’s performance. If you have multiple sites, be sure
to include a site prefix in each name. (“Dogs Right Link
Box”, Cats Left Referral Button”) For proper tracking, it
is necessary to go through this process for each ad unit,
link box, referral button, or text link.
Next go to Google Analytics. Get your account set up, then
install the javascript code into your template and wait for
the system to start gathering information. This process
takes overnight because the Google Analytics system collects
and compiles it’s data every 24 hours. When this data
starts to flow you will have plenty to look at for a while
until you decide exactly what is important to you. You can
dissect this information any number of ways including the
all important “Keywords” category and you can set up the
system to report multiple websites.
I also like to set up an account for each site over at Sitemeter.com.
One benefit to having the sitemeter account
is that it reports in real time instead of having to wait
until the next day for your hit count.
Now you have the ability to see exactly which ad units and
referral links are performing and which are not by checking
your AdSense report with channels. You can monitor the flow
of traffic through your site(s) including the referring URL,
keywords used, and tons more through Google Analytics. You
have a source for real time hit data with sitemeter. All of
which was free.
With these three tools in place you should be able to
generate all of the data you need to manage a successful
Google Adsense experience.
ad tracking
I recently decided to do some serious research on tracking
software for my Google AdSense program and was a little bit
surprised with the results.
There are several nice looking products out there, some of
which are available for free as open source programs while
others are for sale with a free trial or a money back
guaranty. A simple Google search for “adsense tracking
software” will keep you busy for hours.
There is, however, a problem with all of these options if
you are one of the many bloggers hosting your Google AdSense
ads on blogger.com or any of the other free blog hosts. You
will find that all third party software programs require
files to be loaded on the server. This issue alone excludes
them from use on your free blog.
For those bloggers using a free platform, the question
becomes, “How do I track my AdSense ads?”. Rest easy dear
friends. There is a solution. Granted, it’s not as slick or
simple as one of those cool self contained programs, and
this method will not produce quite as much data, but it is
free and it will work and it’s not overly complicated.
The first thing you have to do is take advantage of the
channels option when you set up your ad designs. It is a
very simple process to complete. After you have chosen the
size and colors of the add block, you will be asked to
“Choose Ad Channels”. Click “add new channel” and enter
a name for this new channel. I prefer to use a name that
describes the ad or referral link, such as “Top Banner”,
“Right Wide Tower”, “FF Referral”, etc. This way I can
easily recognize each ad block or referral in my reports and
gauge it’s performance. If you have multiple sites, be sure
to include a site prefix in each name. (“Dogs Right Link
Box”, Cats Left Referral Button”) For proper tracking, it
is necessary to go through this process for each ad unit,
link box, referral button, or text link.
Next go to Google Analytics. Get your account set up, then
install the javascript code into your template and wait for
the system to start gathering information. This process
takes overnight because the Google Analytics system collects
and compiles it’s data every 24 hours. When this data
starts to flow you will have plenty to look at for a while
until you decide exactly what is important to you. You can
dissect this information any number of ways including the
all important “Keywords” category and you can set up the
system to report multiple websites.
I also like to set up an account for each site over at Sitemeter.com.
One benefit to having the sitemeter account
is that it reports in real time instead of having to wait
until the next day for your hit count.
Now you have the ability to see exactly which ad units and
referral links are performing and which are not by checking
your AdSense report with channels. You can monitor the flow
of traffic through your site(s) including the referring URL,
keywords used, and tons more through Google Analytics. You
have a source for real time hit data with sitemeter. All of
which was free.
With these three tools in place you should be able to
generate all of the data you need to manage a successful
Google Adsense experience.
ad tracking
Lars Rohde asked:
With the growth of e-commerce, online marketing has become an inescapable tool for the e-companies. If you want to reach out to greater number of customers, you have to employ several online advertising tricks. But how can you know which of the online advertisements do really work and which of them don’t? The ad tracking program will help you to get familiar with the comparative worth of each online campaign. You can not do without this tracking mechanism, because you have to constantly experiment with the types and sources of advertisements to make them effective, that is drawing more and more traffic to your website, where customers can come to know about your product and also make some purchase.
How does the ad tracking mechanism work? To track performances of all your advertisements, you have to simply place the ‘tracking’ URL provided by the ad tracking program in your advertisement. When someone reads your ad on an ezine, say XYZ, and clicks on the tracking URL, which you have placed in this ezine, the visitor will be taken to your website and the ad tracking system will register that the click came from the XYZ ezine.
Now there are two types of ad trackers. The first is tracking software and the second is tracking service. The tracking software basically follows the mechanism described above. It helps you to generate specific web address for each campaign. In case you are using ad tracking software, the visitor can not directly go to your website. Instead their browser passes through a program installed in your web server, an additional counter is created for that address and then only the browser reaches your page.
The software will help you get all the stats via your browser any time with full details. With ad tracking software, it is possible to set up more than one tracker. Ad tracking software will help you to locate the ROI (return on investment) of your pay per click listings. It will also generate reports on the performances of the auto responders, exit pop-ups, article, affiliate, ebook and reciprocal links, and newsletter, banner and off-line ads.
Using software means one time investment. You have to install it once and it goes on rendering you services for years. You need to have some minimum technical knowledge to deal with its installation procedures. If you are not confident of installing it yourself, the software company can also install it in your website for a nominal fee. The tracking URLs carry your own domain name in case you are using an ad tracking software.
There are certain advantages of ad tracking software. If you are using software, you need not be dependent on another service provider company. Dependence on service provider may make you handicapped in certain events like when their site goes down or the company shuts off etc.
On the other hand, using software requires your site to provide several system resources like disk space for program and tracking files and so on. Then in case of program up gradations, the software needs to be re-installed once again.
Caffeinated Content – Members-Only Content for WordPress
With the growth of e-commerce, online marketing has become an inescapable tool for the e-companies. If you want to reach out to greater number of customers, you have to employ several online advertising tricks. But how can you know which of the online advertisements do really work and which of them don’t? The ad tracking program will help you to get familiar with the comparative worth of each online campaign. You can not do without this tracking mechanism, because you have to constantly experiment with the types and sources of advertisements to make them effective, that is drawing more and more traffic to your website, where customers can come to know about your product and also make some purchase.
How does the ad tracking mechanism work? To track performances of all your advertisements, you have to simply place the ‘tracking’ URL provided by the ad tracking program in your advertisement. When someone reads your ad on an ezine, say XYZ, and clicks on the tracking URL, which you have placed in this ezine, the visitor will be taken to your website and the ad tracking system will register that the click came from the XYZ ezine.
Now there are two types of ad trackers. The first is tracking software and the second is tracking service. The tracking software basically follows the mechanism described above. It helps you to generate specific web address for each campaign. In case you are using ad tracking software, the visitor can not directly go to your website. Instead their browser passes through a program installed in your web server, an additional counter is created for that address and then only the browser reaches your page.
The software will help you get all the stats via your browser any time with full details. With ad tracking software, it is possible to set up more than one tracker. Ad tracking software will help you to locate the ROI (return on investment) of your pay per click listings. It will also generate reports on the performances of the auto responders, exit pop-ups, article, affiliate, ebook and reciprocal links, and newsletter, banner and off-line ads.
Using software means one time investment. You have to install it once and it goes on rendering you services for years. You need to have some minimum technical knowledge to deal with its installation procedures. If you are not confident of installing it yourself, the software company can also install it in your website for a nominal fee. The tracking URLs carry your own domain name in case you are using an ad tracking software.
There are certain advantages of ad tracking software. If you are using software, you need not be dependent on another service provider company. Dependence on service provider may make you handicapped in certain events like when their site goes down or the company shuts off etc.
On the other hand, using software requires your site to provide several system resources like disk space for program and tracking files and so on. Then in case of program up gradations, the software needs to be re-installed once again.
Caffeinated Content – Members-Only Content for WordPress
Posted in Ad Tracking | 
Tags: Advertisements, Roi Return On Investment, Software Help | 
No Comments »
Mico Jonathan Ellison asked:
Like in other spheres of life, technology is making life easier for internet marketers as well. The phenomenal growth in development of apps to cater to a niche section has opened up a whole new world of opportunities for internet marketers. Using this software an internet marketer can magnify his exposure on the web, promote his website and make his web site search engine optimised.
Most of the good software comes with a price tag. The free ones are mostly useless. Also before buying software justify its need. There is no requirement to overdo these apps. A few basic apps will suffice all your need.
Based on my experiences some the much requires apps for a internet marketer include auto responders. This software helps you to keep in touch with your customers via regularly emails. You can program the frequency and content of each email.
Other useful software is Keyword Research Tool, Forum Managing Software, and Ad Tracking or Link Tracking Software. The keyword research tool helps you to optimise your site to the search engines. Search engines work in various algorithms. So having your site optimised for search engines will enhance visibility on web. To manage postings on various forums you can use one of the many forums managing software. They help you create cool links to post on forums.
An ad tracking tool tracks monitors everything about your website, numbers visited, which country, which is the search engine that give you most hits, which is your most preferred page etc. Using this software you will be able to enhance your software to suit customer needs.
There is one other apps which is necessary in the armamentarium of an internet marketer. To facilitate easy writing of sales letter you should get one of those automatic letter writing applications. This app will save you a lot of time from writing those monotonous letters. This time can be utilised by you to promote your business.
Driving traffic to your website is a time consuming affair! The key is to find products that reduce time and effort and produce the same results. Basically, you need to find software that manages your time effectively and increase productivity!
Create a video blog
Like in other spheres of life, technology is making life easier for internet marketers as well. The phenomenal growth in development of apps to cater to a niche section has opened up a whole new world of opportunities for internet marketers. Using this software an internet marketer can magnify his exposure on the web, promote his website and make his web site search engine optimised.
Most of the good software comes with a price tag. The free ones are mostly useless. Also before buying software justify its need. There is no requirement to overdo these apps. A few basic apps will suffice all your need.
Based on my experiences some the much requires apps for a internet marketer include auto responders. This software helps you to keep in touch with your customers via regularly emails. You can program the frequency and content of each email.
Other useful software is Keyword Research Tool, Forum Managing Software, and Ad Tracking or Link Tracking Software. The keyword research tool helps you to optimise your site to the search engines. Search engines work in various algorithms. So having your site optimised for search engines will enhance visibility on web. To manage postings on various forums you can use one of the many forums managing software. They help you create cool links to post on forums.
An ad tracking tool tracks monitors everything about your website, numbers visited, which country, which is the search engine that give you most hits, which is your most preferred page etc. Using this software you will be able to enhance your software to suit customer needs.
There is one other apps which is necessary in the armamentarium of an internet marketer. To facilitate easy writing of sales letter you should get one of those automatic letter writing applications. This app will save you a lot of time from writing those monotonous letters. This time can be utilised by you to promote your business.
Driving traffic to your website is a time consuming affair! The key is to find products that reduce time and effort and produce the same results. Basically, you need to find software that manages your time effectively and increase productivity!
Create a video blog
Michael Helton asked:
If you’re like me, you welcome traffic to come to your website from any source but you would really want the traffic to be targeted to your specific product or service…especially if you’re paying for the traffic. So, in order for you to know where your traffic was coming from, you need a way to capture that information.
The major tool you need to do that is through ad tracking software. There are several tracking tools on the Internet. These trackers can supply you with enough valuable information, that after analyzing it, you should be able to tailor your ads for the source you’re advertising in. It’s very simple. All you do is ad a tracking code in the URL of the link to the website you want to track.
After you submit your ads with the special link and when people click on the link, the software will be able to compile that information which will not only tell you where the traffic came from, but one very important piece of information…if your ad was clicked on at all.
Here are some benefits of using ad tracking software.
1. You can set up as many different ad tracking codes as you want.
2. You can put the ad in several different places. The same ad that gets most of the clicks is the HOT spot. You may want to concentrate your advertising efforts in that ‘spot’ for a while.
3. You can split test your ad. This means that you can create different ads or headlines for the same product. The ad that gets the most clicks in this example is the ad you would want to use in other places. NOTE: You can save this ad, then modify it a little to use for marketing a different product.
4. You can test headlines.
5. You can test sales pages or OTO’s.
6. Test the ad in your AdWords campaign
7. Test a signature file
8. Test a forum post
The uses of a good ad tracking program is practically endless and is worth it’s cost in the advertising savings it will save you and the profits gained by applying your advertising efforts in all the right places with just the right copy.
Without applying an ad tracking program to all your advertising, you really don’t know where your traffic is coming from, how your ad copy is performing, or if you’re getting any clicks at all. You don’t know if they’re even interested in your product.
It makes sense that if you knew where your traffic was coming from, you would be striving to concentrate your advertising efforts and dollars in that area instead of some place that you’re not sure will give you the proper ROI.
Not all ad tracking programs are the same so it would be good for you to explore your options. When looking for ad tracking software, here are some things you might want to consider. You want a tracker that will;
1. Track your results in real time
2. Redirect links to expired affiliate programs
3. Win advertisers with tracking reports
4. Measure your readership
5. Not have to be installed on your server
No marketer should be doing any advertising, whether offline or online, without being able to compile stats that show the ads performance. That’s like leaving money on the table and throwing the rest of it away. Don’t do it the hard way.
ad tracking
If you’re like me, you welcome traffic to come to your website from any source but you would really want the traffic to be targeted to your specific product or service…especially if you’re paying for the traffic. So, in order for you to know where your traffic was coming from, you need a way to capture that information.
The major tool you need to do that is through ad tracking software. There are several tracking tools on the Internet. These trackers can supply you with enough valuable information, that after analyzing it, you should be able to tailor your ads for the source you’re advertising in. It’s very simple. All you do is ad a tracking code in the URL of the link to the website you want to track.
After you submit your ads with the special link and when people click on the link, the software will be able to compile that information which will not only tell you where the traffic came from, but one very important piece of information…if your ad was clicked on at all.
Here are some benefits of using ad tracking software.
1. You can set up as many different ad tracking codes as you want.
2. You can put the ad in several different places. The same ad that gets most of the clicks is the HOT spot. You may want to concentrate your advertising efforts in that ‘spot’ for a while.
3. You can split test your ad. This means that you can create different ads or headlines for the same product. The ad that gets the most clicks in this example is the ad you would want to use in other places. NOTE: You can save this ad, then modify it a little to use for marketing a different product.
4. You can test headlines.
5. You can test sales pages or OTO’s.
6. Test the ad in your AdWords campaign
7. Test a signature file
8. Test a forum post
The uses of a good ad tracking program is practically endless and is worth it’s cost in the advertising savings it will save you and the profits gained by applying your advertising efforts in all the right places with just the right copy.
Without applying an ad tracking program to all your advertising, you really don’t know where your traffic is coming from, how your ad copy is performing, or if you’re getting any clicks at all. You don’t know if they’re even interested in your product.
It makes sense that if you knew where your traffic was coming from, you would be striving to concentrate your advertising efforts and dollars in that area instead of some place that you’re not sure will give you the proper ROI.
Not all ad tracking programs are the same so it would be good for you to explore your options. When looking for ad tracking software, here are some things you might want to consider. You want a tracker that will;
1. Track your results in real time
2. Redirect links to expired affiliate programs
3. Win advertisers with tracking reports
4. Measure your readership
5. Not have to be installed on your server
No marketer should be doing any advertising, whether offline or online, without being able to compile stats that show the ads performance. That’s like leaving money on the table and throwing the rest of it away. Don’t do it the hard way.
ad tracking