Inbound or tracking to-site advertising
Ad tracking functions based on a parametre, a short strip of identifying code, which is added into the link of the ad. The parametre enables the Snoobi database to recognize that the ad has been clicked and registers the visitor as stemming from the ad in question.
First, make sure the Snoobi tag has been installed into the landing page of the ad, in other words the page to which the ad directs the visitor. Then choose a parametre such as ?ad=FairTrade_banner07 or ?ad=VMcampaign_week5 and add it to the URL-address of the advertisement. When a visitor clicks on the ad, the the address of the page and its extra parametre are saved. Lastly, the extraparametre must also be added to Snoobi's Ad tracking settings. After this has been done, the visitors that have arrived to the site through that ad, will appear in the Snoobi report's Advertising box.
Please read one of the example cases below for a more detailed walk-through.
Case 1: Tracking a Google AdWords search word campaign
1) Adding the parametre into the hyperlink
If you wish to track the visitors of a Google AdWords ad that you have purchased, change the URL-address which defines the landing page of the AdWord by adding a unique parametre to the URL-address. The address of the the landing page can be changed from your Google AdWords' settings. The landing page need not be the front page of the website, but it can just as well be some sub page.
We recommend the usage of the ?ad= parametre, so it will not interfere with any other potential parametres already in use. Name the parametre appropriately, for example ?ad=2007_Spring_launch, and add this to the end of your Google ad's URL-address. Please refrain from using special characters or Scands. In Image 1, we've named the parametre AdWords, creating an identifier called ?ad=AdWords, which will appear in the Internet browser's address bar when the ad is clicked.
Image 1. Adding the parametre and identifier into the link of a Google AdWords ad
Instead of www.snoobi.com, Snoobi now records a visitor from www.snoobi.com/main?ad=adwords and this enables Snoobi to identify that the visitor has come to the site through an ad.
Note that if there is already one or more question marks in the URL-address of the ad, it is necessary to use the & sign in front of the parametre instead of a question mark!
Correct: http://www.company.com/index.php?language=english&ad=adwords
Wrong: http://www.company.com/index.php?language=english?ad=adwords
Correct: http://www.company.com/index.php?ad=adwords
Wrong: http://www..company.com/index.php&ad=adwords
If the link becomes broken as the result of the added parametre, make sure that there is no slash / sign in front of the ? or & marks.
2) Configuring the parametre into Snoobi's settings
Ad tracking settings can be found from the settings tab in Snoobi. These settings can be accessed by logging into your Snoobi account via www.snoobi.com.
Ad identifier: In order to make the ad be included in the Snoobi report, to follow the example above, we choose %ad=adwords% as the identifier. This is depicted in image 2. As a basic principle, each ad should be given a different Ad identifier so as to keep all ads separate.
As you add the ad identifier into the settings, always place percentage marks around it, %ad=adwords%. The percent marks indicate that the rest of the address, in front and in behind of the parametre, can comprise of anything at all. Without the percentage marks, Ad tracking does not work.
Ad name: The name of the advertisement can be defined freely. Unlike the ad identifier, the ad name may contain special characters, Scands and it will not be seen by the AdWords visitor. In this example case, the desired name for the advertisement could be “Google AdWords weeks 11-13 2007”. Is is convenient to include both the theme/location and the date/month/year of the campaign into the name of the ad.
Unlimited number of identifiers can be added; more rows will appear upon saving.
Image 2. How to configure the identifier into Snoobi's settings
In order to capture the entire advertisement campaign, the ad identifier should be put in place before the campaign starts. This is especially the case with adding the parametre into the ad's hyperlink. However, Snoobi's settings can be modified later without loss of data.
If two different identifiers are given identical ad names, Snoobi combines the visitor numbers of these two ads under a single category. It is also possible to sum up several ads as it has been done in Image 2.
When Ad Tracking has been configured, a view like that of image 3 will appear in the Snoobi report, as soon as first visitor has clicked the parametre-equipped ad.
Image 3. Advertising box from the Snoobi report
Case 2: Tracking own ad on foreign website
A. Let’s assume that that there is an advertisement banner on a website not your own, in this case on www.yahoo.com. Let us say that you wish for the visitors stemming from the Yahoo banner to be directed to the page www.mycompany.com/index.php?pageID=50.
B. We begin by logging in to your account from Snoobi's front page, www.snoobi.com. From the list of settings, we select Ad tracking.
Ad identifier: A good identifier could be %ad=yahoo.com%. The ad identifier must contain percentage marks both after and before in order to function.
Ad name: Add a title that you wish to see in your report. For instance, we could call the advertisement Yahoo frontpage Jan 07.
Save.
Image 4. Adding an advertisement into Snoobi’s settings
C. Next, the ad identifier should somehow be linked to actual ad. This is done by adding the ad identifier into the URL-address of the actual online advertisement (a banner or a text link). This time, however, using a percentage mark: ?ad=yahoo.
Note that if there is already one or more question marks in the target URL-address, it is necessary to use a & sign instead of the question mark!
Correct: http://www.mycompany.com/index.php?language=english&ad=adwords
Wrong: http://www.mycompany.com/index.php?language=english?ad=adwords
Correct: http://www.mycompany.com/index.php?ad=adwords
Wrong: http://www.mycompany.com/index.php&ad=adwords
D. Since the changes have to be made directly into website of a another company (Yahoo in this example case), it is necessary to contact Yahoo or the advertising agency responsible for the ad, with the purpose of requesting them to replace the banner's old URL-address with the new address we just created.
Image 5. Adding the ad identifier into the address determining the banner’s landing page
The old address
www.mycompany.com/index.php?pageID=50
address is thus replaced with the new
www.mycompany.com/index.php?pageID=50&ad=yahoo.
This change is made to the page which contains the ad, in this case www.yahoo.com.
After first user has clicked the tagged banner on www.yahoo.com, the report starts displaying visits from that banner.