Outbound or tracking from-site advertisements
The same tracking technique is used in outbound as in inbound advertising tracking. When measuring foreign advertisements located on one's own website, we can find out how many visitors have clicked on the ad. The results of the tracking can be utilized to analyze which banners from what type of companies are most successful and obtain most hits. This helps to choose the most suitable advertisers.
In order ot track outgoing marketing, a redirect page that contains the Snoobi tag has to be created. This redirect page then takes the user to the actual landing page. You can code the redirect page yourself, but Snoobi contains a feature, which enables simply and automatic creation of these pages. The following contains instructions about configuring outgoing ad tracking.
Image 1. The function of a redirect page
Creating a redirect page
1. A redirect page can be created by logging in to www.snoobi.com and selecting URL Redirection. If this link is not visible, contact Snoobi sales.
In URL Redirection each redirect page is given its own Identifier as shown in Image 2.
Image 2. Creating URL Redirect pages through Snoobi's settings
The Identifier –field is filled with name, which allows sufficient recogition of a single advertisement. All URL Redirection pages should be given a different identifier. Please refrain from using special characters or Scands as identifiers.
The URL for the target page –field is filled with the address of the landing page of the ad. Save info.
Replacing old address with a URL Redirection page
2. Now the redirect page has been created. A hyperlink like that in Image 4, “Link»” should appear on the screen left of the target page's URL. Click on the link and copy the address displayed in the pop-up window. The address in question looks similar to this: http://redir.snoobi.com/redir.php?tili=company_com&id=banner1
in which the company_com is automatically replaced with the name of your Snoobi account and banner1 is to be replaced with the Identifier that you chose in step 1.
3. The old address of the banner is replaced with this new one. This change is made into the source code where the banner's URL address is defined. The Redirect page will automatically take the visitor directly to the landing page.
Displaying ads in the Snoobi report
4. The identifier %id=banner1% of the redirect page should be added into Snoobi's settings under “Ad tracking”. The identifier can be found from the end of the “Link»”, starting from id=. Percentage sign must be added on both sides.
This causes a new row to appear in the report's marketing section, for example “Randomcompany: new camera” and it will display all the visitors who have clicked that ad. If an advertisement is not added to the “Ad tracking” –setting it will only show as a visited page and not as an ad.
Image 3. Adding a URL Redirect Identifier into the Ad tracking settings.
A brief example: Tracking an ad from company-X on one's own website
Let us presume that located on our own website is an advertisement banner by another company, Company-X. The banner is placed on the fictive page http://www.ownsite.com/ads/. Our objective is to guide visitors to from this banner to the website http://www.x-company.com.
A. We decide that the banner should be named as Company-Xbanner. We proceed to Snoobi settings by loggin in to service via www.snoobi.com . From the settings we select URL Redirection.
Into the Identifier field, we write Company-Xbanner.
Into the URL of the target page, we copy the landing page of the ad, in this case http://www.x-company.com. Save info.
B. Click on the Link» -box that just appeared and copy the URL address that the pop-up window displays (along the lines of http://redir.snoobi.com/redir.php?tili=ownsite_com&id=company-xbanner). The purpose of this is to replace the original link from step A with the link above.
C. The original landing page, www.x-company.com, is thus to be replaced by http://redir.snoobi.com/redir.php?tili_ownsite_com&id=company-xbanner. The replacement is conducted by changing the target URL in the source code of the page where the banner is located, in this case www.ownsite.com/ads/ .
D. Finally, in order for the ad to appear in the correct place in the report, we further select Ad Tracking from Snoobi's settings. Into the Ad identifier field, please write %id=company-xbanner%. Percentage signs on the both ends of the identification tag ensure that the tracking works no matter of session IDs or similar add-ons to the URL address.
As for the Ad name, it will only be visible to the those with access to your Snoobi report. We recommend that the name be informative, such as containing date, website name and/or campaign name. In this case we can call the ad X-company ad 2007. Update changes.
The report starts showing visitors that have clicked the x-company’s banner as soon as first visitor has clicked that banner.
Monitoring one's own banner at one's own website
If the starting page (containing the banner) and the landing page of the banner are on one and the same website or domain, creating a URL Redirect page is not necessary, on the condition that the Snoobi tag is in its place, both in the landing- and the starting page.
1. Add an extra identification tag, ?ad=ad_name, into the into the banner’s URL-address. This change should be made into the source code of the page on which the banner is placed. For example, if the banner leads to the address http://www.x-company.com/products,
the tracking-enabled address could look like this: http://www.x-company.com/products?ad=ad_name. What comes after ad= can be freely determined but should preferably not contain Scands or special characters.
Notice that if there is already a single or multiple question marks in the URL-address, then the & sign should be used instead of the ?
Example:
Correct: http://www.companyname.com/index.php?language=english&ad=email
Incorrect: http://www.companyname.com/index.php?language=english?ad=email
2. Copy the extra Ad identifier, that you have just made, into Snoobi's settings under Ad tracking. Place percentage marks in front of the Ad Identifier like this: %ad=ad_name%. Finally, choose a name for the advertisement, for example Orbit's front banner wks 23-26. This name will not be visible to the visitor.