Troubleshooting with ad tracking
Are you having problems tracking advertisements or they're not showing up in the report? Check the following things:
1. Has the advertisement had any visitors / clicks?
Are you sure that someone has clicked on the advertisement after the ad tag (i.e. ad identifier) has been added to it? No results can be collected from advertisements until an ad tag has been included to the advertisement's link
Is the report up to date? Check the last update's time stamp from the lower right corner of the web report
2. Have you used ?ad=xxx or &ad=xxx as the ad's identifier?
If the advertisement directs the visitor to an address which does not contain any question marks, use the ad identifier ?ad=xxx
Example www.company.net/ → www.company.net/?ad=xxx
If the advertisement directs the visitor to an address which already contains one or more question marks, use the ad identifier &ad=xxx
Example www.firm.net/index.php?id=2 → www.firm.net/index.php?id=2&ad=xxx
3. Has a Snoobi tag been installed onto the ad's target page?
Snoobi's JavaScript code must have been inserted into the source code/template of the ad's landing page for the tracking to function
If Snoobi's JavaScript code cannot be installed onto the ad's target page, you can solve the problem by using a URL redirection link that can be created from Snoobi's settings. The URL redirection link can be used as the ad's new target address (they look like this: http://redir.snoobi.com/redir.php?tili=company_net&id=xxx)
- If the target page isn't administered by you / the website is someone else's
- If you want to track image links or file links in e-mails
- If you don't wish to track all traffic for the target page, only traffic related to the advertisement
4. Does the ad identifier disappear from the browser's address bar when the web page has finished loading?
When clicking on the advertisement's link, the ad identifier must remain visible in the target page's address. If the ad identifier disappears from the browser's address bar, Snoobi cannot match the visitor to the advertisement
The ad identifier may vanish from the target page's address if, for example:
The website is built on a Content Management System that does not accept the addition of extra parameters into the page addresses. You can test this by adding ?ad=x or &ad=x into a page's address and loading the page
There are one or more URL redirections / forwardings between the advertisements and the final landing page. These redirections often obliterate the ad identifier.
This is fairly common for front pages which have "been moved", for example the advert points to www.company.com whereas the actual address for the front page would be www.company.com/index2.php. Solve the problem by letting the page finish loading first, before adding the ad identifier to its' address
URL redirections are sometimes used by ad space providers; the advertisement media wants to measure its own ad space's results with the help of a redirection. If this is the case, give the ad space provider a new target address for the advertisement, one that contains the ad identifier and ask them to direct all banner visitors there
5. Is the advertisement's target page enlisted in the Tracked sites?
If the advertisement takes the visitor to your own website, make sure that its domain is mentioned in Snoobi's setting called Included domains. Example: %mysite.com%
The website's domain shouldn't be enlisted in the Included domains if the advert directs the visitor to some other company's website or if the ad tracking is conducted using Snoobi's own URL redirection setting
6. Has the ad identifier been added to Snoobi's settings?
In addition to being present in the advertisement's link, the ad identifier must also be found from Snoobi's Ad Tracking settings.
In the settings, make sure that the ad identifier has been typed in with percent marks around it, such as %ad=xxx%
(Percent marks should not be added to the ad's target addess, only to Snoobi's settings)
7. Problems with the AdWords integration?
helpdesk@snoobi.com