Greater Uses of Post-Click Tracking

In past issues we have touched upon post-click tracking as a means of tracking advertising or marketing campaign results. Post-click tracking results can show newsletter sign ups, event registrations, and most importantly orders. One misconception of post-click tracking is that it only applies to banner ad campaigns, so this week we’re going to show you how post-click tracking can benefit you so much more.

Post-click tracking begins with setting up certain codes and tracers with an ad server. The advertiser determines to which pages of their site they want to track their visitors and tracers are placed on those specific pages. Then, upon the serving of an ad or the click-thru of a specially-coded link, the ad server delivers a cookie to the user’s computer. The tracer that have been implemented on the site pick up the cookie on the user’s computer, which then tracks from which exact advertisement and placement the sale (or action) originated. (For more information on ad servers read our tip titled “3rd Party Ad Servers“.) While post-click tracking works great for banner campaigns, it’s hardly the only purpose it can serve. With a little creativity, post-click tracking can be used for almost all forms of online marketing.

Paid Search Listings

With paid search engine listings like GoTo.com becoming a common promotional practice in developing a marketing plan, post-click tracking URLs can be substituted for the exact site URL. This is can be extremely beneficial in determining which search terms generate the most optimal sales/conversions for you, and ultimately if you want to continue the bidding for placement process.

For more about paid search listings, read:

• “Paid For Search Engine Advertising“
• “Tackling the GoTo Goliath“

Site Linking

Whether you solicit links, trade them, or purchase them, it’d still be helpful to know which of your links are really paying off. Using post-click tracking can help show such results.

E-mail Newsletters

One problem with post-click tracking links when it comes to email is that they tend to be quite long, don’t work if the link is broken due to text wrapping, they have no visible clue that they’re related to the site you are advertising, and they’re not too aesthetically pleasing, if you know what I mean. Here’s an example:

http://van.ads.link4ads.com/bin/wadredir?req=clickthru& siteid=273455&pageid=1.1&time=code_here

However, if you direct the URL to a “jump page” that is housed on the advertiser’s server, in which the jump page re-directs traffic to the post-click URL, you can set up a very email-friendly link that still brands the site itself.

Example: http://www.4checks.com/dollar.html

Pop-Up Windows

One of the more positive things about pop-up windows is that they are basically web pages served through a custom-sized browser window. As such, you can use them to either serve the jump page or the redirect URLs destinations so that the user’s path can be tracked, or they can be another form of an ad from which click-thru users can be tracked via site tracers.

To read more on pop up windows, check out our tip titled “Pop Ups Aren’t Always Pop-ular“

Measure Branding

Each time an ad is served and a cookie is placed on the user’s computer, this not only assures post-click tracking immediately following a click, but also if the user only views the ad and then re-visits the site at a later time! This is known as a “branded event” since it proves the impact of the banner regardless of an initial click.

Ad serving with post-click tracking capabilities doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg either. Volume campaigns can cost as little as $0.35 per 1,000 impressions served, but for the return on investment information alone, post-click tracking can be invaluable.

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