Tracking files located on the website
By tracking the downloads of a certain file, it can be measured how many visitors have actually open that particular file. This is useful knowledge if we want to estimate the importance of or interest for the file. All types of files can be measured, ranging from text documents (doc, txt, etc.) to images (jpg, gif, bmp etc.) to other common file formats (pdf, mp3, avi, zip etc.)
1. Login to your Snoobi account via www.snoobi.com. Select URL Redirection from the settings.
2. Into the Identifier field, write down the desired name by which Snoobi will create the necessary URL Redirect page. The Redirect page is where the actual tracking will take place. The Identifier is free of choice, but shouldn't contain special characters (spaces, é, ü å, ä, ö, ?, + or " to name a few). As shown in Image 2, we could choose cameraX as the Identifier.
Into the URL for the target page, copy the file's current URL address (exactly as it is in the source code). For example http://www.companyname.com/products/photography.pdf. Save changes by clicking Add.
2.1 If there is a remaining field called Page name (this will depend on whether your pages have been given automated Page Names or not), you can write a short, descriptive name by which the file will appear in the report, under the "Pages" header. The name could, for example, be Camera X launch.
Image 1. How to set file tracking through URL Redirection in Snoobi's settings
3. A blue hyperlink Link», like in Image 2, should now appear. When clicking on the link, the pop-up window should display an address similar to: http://redir.snoobi.com/redir.php?tili=companyname.com&id=cameraX, in which companyname_com has automatically been replaced with the name of your Snoobi account and the cameraX is replaced with the identifier you selected in step 2.
Image 2. Copying the file's new URL-address from the Link»
4. The old address of a file (the same as in step 2) has to be replaced with this new address, by copying and pasting it to the source code of the web page containing the file. For example, the old address http://www.companyname.com/products/photography.pdf
is replaced by the new address, http://redir.snoobi.com/redir.php?tili=companyname.com&id=cameraX
When this is done, cameraX, or any other selected Identifier, appears in the Snoobi report as soon as first visitor has opened the file.
5. For clarity reasons, it might be usefull to add this identifier, %id=cameraX% also into the setting's Ad Tracking. This allows to avoid a problem with only being able to see the address of the redirect page (http://redir.snoobi.com/redir.php?companyname_com&id=cameraX) in the final report.
Visitor may still choose to save the file directly onto the hard disk before opening it. However, direct downloading from the website (“Save target as”) does not work if the tracking function has been enabled on the file.
It is possible to track multiple files at the same. If this is done by giving each file a differnet Identifier and a different name. If two files receive the same name, they will all appear under a single entry in the Snoobi report.