How to Track Stats across network of sites

[sharky]

Hey guys.

I've got a question about business process. I know Oprano is filled with big hitters, who no doubt have many different ways to run their business. I am looking to share information on ways to track traffic and conversions, on a per site basis.

Example:

Say I have 20 free sites (TGP's AVS, MGP, link list, whatever). Then I have Hundreds of accounts with different affiliate programs, each having links allover my network of sites. How do you track income per site? Even further, what do you do to track income per ad/link location on your site, when there are multiple locations per site?

I know some sponsors allow you to set up different tracking codes, while others don't. Furthermore, I use StatsRemote regularly. It tracks just about every program we are using and gives me a good global income #. However it doesn't do everything.

I am trying to prevent having to create a separate affiliate account for each site we have. I'm wanting to come up with better organization for the stats we do have allowing me to track income down to each and every location on our sites.

Perhaps a sponsor converts better on one site than another, and I have no way to really track as I only see 1 conversion and hits #

Can it be done?

Discuss.

[Lee]

Sounds like you need to have a central adcluster database setup.

Load it with your campaign groups for each site (or group of sites) and setup the ads and urls that each group will contain then just pick and choose which ad / url gets shown where.

Thats how we handle it on our network of 25 resources anyway and, barring a server upgrade a couple of days ago, we've been more than happy with the results.

[Trev]

Originally posted by Lee@Apr 9 2005, 12:26 AM
Sounds like you need to have a central adcluster database setup.

Load it with your campaign groups for each site (or group of sites) and setup the ads and urls that each group will contain then just pick and choose which ad / url gets shown where.

Thats how we handle it on our network of 25 resources anyway and, barring a server upgrade a couple of days ago, we've been more than happy with the results.
Use PhpAdsNew as your ad/click program, you can pull everything from 1 site/server/bathroom cupboard :)

[Lee]

Originally posted by Trev+Apr 8 2005, 03:40 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Trev @ Apr 8 2005, 03:40 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Lee@Apr 9 2005, 12:26 AM
Sounds like you need to have a central adcluster database setup.

Load it with your campaign groups for each site (or group of sites) and setup the ads and urls that each group will contain then just pick and choose which ad / url gets shown where.

Thats how we handle it on our network of 25 resources anyway and, barring a server upgrade a couple of days ago, we've been more than happy with the results.
Use PhpAdsNew as your ad/click program, you can pull everything from 1 site/server/bathroom cupboard :) [/b][/quote]
Adsnew is a good program no doubt (hey its free afterall) but we found the reporting to be somewhat 'iffy' at times.

We're currently using a modded version of Adcycle on webmasteradvertising.com at the moment and have been for a couple of years and we're loving the repot features, we can get reports mailed hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly for a specific campaign or a group.

It also has a great reports interface with mapping of impressions / clicks as well as percentages and CTR in addition to the standard stuff like CPC, CPA, CPM etc etc.

In fact we love it so much on the webmaster side of things that we're in the process of doing what i suggested to Mike above on surferadvertising.com for our non-webmaster trafficked sites :)

It takes a few hours to set all the sponsor codes up in the system (ive been at this for about 3 hours now) but once they are in, they are there for life until such a time as you delete them :)

[Trev]

Originally posted by Lee+Apr 9 2005, 12:48 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Lee @ Apr 9 2005, 12:48 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Originally posted by Trev@Apr 8 2005, 03:40 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-Lee@Apr 9 2005, 12:26 AM
Sounds like you need to have a central adcluster database setup.

Load it with your campaign groups for each site (or group of sites) and setup the ads and urls that each group will contain then just pick and choose which ad / url gets shown where.

Thats how we handle it on our network of 25 resources anyway and, barring a server upgrade a couple of days ago, we've been more than happy with the results.
Use PhpAdsNew as your ad/click program, you can pull everything from 1 site/server/bathroom cupboard :)
Adsnew is a good program no doubt (hey its free afterall) but we found the reporting to be somewhat 'iffy' at times.

We're currently using a modded version of Adcycle on webmasteradvertising.com at the moment and have been for a couple of years and we're loving the repot features, we can get reports mailed hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly for a specific campaign or a group.

It also has a great reports interface with mapping of impressions / clicks as well as percentages and CTR in addition to the standard stuff like CPC, CPA, CPM etc etc.

In fact we love it so much on the webmaster side of things that we're in the process of doing what i suggested to Mike above on surferadvertising.com for our non-webmaster trafficked sites :)

It takes a few hours to set all the sponsor codes up in the system (ive been at this for about 3 hours now) but once they are in, they are there for life until such a time as you delete them :) [/b][/quote]
I like the sounds of that, I'm thinking of converting if you'll shift my codes for me lol :)

[Lee]

Hahaha not a chance in hell LOL

They have a free 30 day trial though go check em out http://www.adcycle.com after the 30 days its $129 to register the script for life for each installation used :)

[sarettah]

Originally posted by sharky@Apr 8 2005, 06:10 PM
Say I have 20 free sites (TGP's AVS, MGP, link list, whatever). Then I have Hundreds of accounts with different affiliate programs, each having links allover my network of sites. How do you track income per site? Even further, what do you do to track income per ad/link location on your site, when there are multiple locations per site?

I know some sponsors allow you to set up different tracking codes, while others don't. Furthermore, I use StatsRemote regularly. It tracks just about every program we are using and gives me a good global income #. However it doesn't do everything.

I am trying to prevent having to create a separate affiliate account for each site we have. I'm wanting to come up with better organization for the stats we do have allowing me to track income down to each and every location on our sites.

Perhaps a sponsor converts better on one site than another, and I have no way to really track as I only see 1 conversion and hits #

Can it be done?

I have been sitting here racking my brain for the past half hour (which is about 29 minutes longer than it usually take me to say "two weeks")

I can sss some fairly easy solutions to coming up with where you sent the hits from, in other words tracking from your end but the other side of the equation, which of those hits made the sale is the part that is perplexing me. I know that some sponsor stats show it, so tying that part together is pretty easy, but the ones that don't show what referrer sent the hit and getting it tied back to the sending side stats is where I see the problem....

But, my brain is working on it :)

[Dravyk]

Originally posted by sarettah@Apr 8 2005, 07:27 PM
I can sss some fairly easy solutions to coming up with where you sent the hits from
Ok, Sare, what kind of verb is "sss"? Are you speaking Slitheran again? :P

[sarettah]

Originally posted by Dravyk+Apr 8 2005, 07:32 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Dravyk @ Apr 8 2005, 07:32 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-sarettah@Apr 8 2005, 07:27 PM
I can sss some fairly easy solutions to coming up with where you sent the hits from
Ok, Sare, what kind of verb is "sss"? Are you speaking Slitheran again? :P [/b][/quote]
sss is when my touch typing fails me and I stop looking at the screen while Jen is yakking in my ear :)

[sharky]

I'm glad I'm not the only one with this problem.. Yet it still has me concerned!

We do use PHPAdsNew across many of our sites. It's nice, but it doesn't give the Real stats I need.. where is my $$ coming from?

[sarettah]

Originally posted by sharky@Apr 8 2005, 09:24 PM
where is my $$ coming from?
checks ?



:blink:

[Dravyk]

I'm curious how much webmasters would pay (not say they'd pay, actually pay) for a program if it could do everything Sharky wants it to do. Opinions? What would it be worth it to you?

Mine you, yep, I'd probably want the same program myself.

[Jace]

i would love a program that could track a page from the moment it was put on the net to the moment a sale was made from it

and it tracked what link was clicked, what page they went to, and how exactly the sale was made....wow, that would be invaluable...you could even work with sponsors to allow the program to get referral info and all that....tie everything in together

i am tired, but i think i typed what I was thinking well enough

for instance, if I put up PAGE A on the net...and someone clicks LINK #11 for SITE 1 on PAGE A, and it goes to SITE 1, and a sale is made made after the surfer was on SITE 1 for 6 minutes, and the sale was made after PAGE 2 on SITE 1

how cool would that be...and how useful would it be in perfecting linking strategies....wow

[rendh]

Originally posted by JaceXXX@Apr 9 2005, 03:57 AM
i would love a program that could track a page from the moment it was put on the net to the moment a sale was made from it

and it tracked what link was clicked, what page they went to, and how exactly the sale was made....wow, that would be invaluable...you could even work with sponsors to allow the program to get referral info and all that....tie everything in together

i am tired, but i think i typed what I was thinking well enough

for instance, if I put up PAGE A on the net...and someone clicks LINK #11 for SITE 1 on PAGE A, and it goes to SITE 1, and a sale is made made after the surfer was on SITE 1 for 6 minutes, and the sale was made after PAGE 2 on SITE 1

how cool would that be...and how useful would it be in perfecting linking strategies....wow
Hey in a perfect world I'd have a program that would only let guaranteed sales view my website - oh wait - thats the kind of program you guys are looking for :P

[Biggy]

Ive seen some big TGP hitters with proprietary stats. I believe they are putting a PHP code before each link.

I like the idea, clicks aren't created equal, so it gives them a universal click for all their sites.

[Jace]

Originally posted by rendh+Apr 9 2005, 04:00 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (rendh @ Apr 9 2005, 04:00 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-JaceXXX@Apr 9 2005, 03:57 AM
i would love a program that could track a page from the moment it was put on the net to the moment a sale was made from it

and it tracked what link was clicked, what page they went to, and how exactly the sale was made....wow, that would be invaluable...you could even work with sponsors to allow the program to get referral info and all that....tie everything in together

i am tired, but i think i typed what I was thinking well enough

for instance, if I put up PAGE A on the net...and someone clicks LINK #11 for SITE 1 on PAGE A, and it goes to SITE 1, and a sale is made made after the surfer was on SITE 1 for 6 minutes, and the sale was made after PAGE 2 on SITE 1

how cool would that be...and how useful would it be in perfecting linking strategies....wow
Hey in a perfect world I'd have a program that would only let guaranteed sales view my website - oh wait - thats the kind of program you guys are looking for :P [/b][/quote]
haha

no, just a piece of software that does impossible tracking...:)

[Trev]

Originally posted by JaceXXX+Apr 9 2005, 10:15 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (JaceXXX @ Apr 9 2005, 10:15 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Originally posted by rendh@Apr 9 2005, 04:00 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-JaceXXX@Apr 9 2005, 03:57 AM
i would love a program that could track a page from the moment it was put on the net to the moment a sale was made from it

and it tracked what link was clicked, what page they went to, and how exactly the sale was made....wow, that would be invaluable...you could even work with sponsors to allow the program to get referral info and all that....tie everything in together

i am tired, but i think i typed what I was thinking well enough

for instance, if I put up PAGE A on the net...and someone clicks LINK #11 for SITE 1 on PAGE A, and it goes to SITE 1, and a sale is made made after the surfer was on SITE 1 for 6 minutes, and the sale was made after PAGE 2 on SITE 1

how cool would that be...and how useful would it be in perfecting linking strategies....wow
Hey in a perfect world I'd have a program that would only let guaranteed sales view my website - oh wait - thats the kind of program you guys are looking for :P
haha

no, just a piece of software that does impossible tracking...:) [/b][/quote]
Damn you beat me :)


But for any programmer that can develop: a program that would only let guaranteed sales view my website

I'm more than a little interested :lol:

[sarettah]

Originally posted by Trev@Apr 9 2005, 04:25 PM
But for any programmer that can develop: a program that would only let guaranteed sales view my website

I'm more than a little interested :lol:
For $100k a year I can guarantee you 50K a year in sales :okthumb:

[Trev]

Originally posted by sarettah+Apr 9 2005, 10:31 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (sarettah @ Apr 9 2005, 10:31 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Trev@Apr 9 2005, 04:25 PM
But for any programmer that can develop: a program that would only let guaranteed sales view my website

I'm more than a little interested :lol:
For $100k a year I can guarantee you 50K a year in sales :okthumb: [/b][/quote]
Hahahahah

Try that on Pro_Zac he might take the bait :lol:

[Trev]

Whats happened to your sig Sar?

[Armstrong]

Originally posted by Trev+Apr 9 2005, 01:25 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Trev @ Apr 9 2005, 01:25 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Originally posted by JaceXXX@Apr 9 2005, 10:15 PM
Originally posted by rendh@Apr 9 2005, 04:00 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-JaceXXX@Apr 9 2005, 03:57 AM
i would love a program that could track a page from the moment it was put on the net to the moment a sale was made from it

and it tracked what link was clicked, what page they went to, and how exactly the sale was made....wow, that would be invaluable...you could even work with sponsors to allow the program to get referral info and all that....tie everything in together

i am tired, but i think i typed what I was thinking well enough

for instance, if I put up PAGE A on the net...and someone clicks LINK #11 for SITE 1 on PAGE A, and it goes to SITE 1, and a sale is made made after the surfer was on SITE 1 for 6 minutes, and the sale was made after PAGE 2 on SITE 1

how cool would that be...and how useful would it be in perfecting linking strategies....wow
Hey in a perfect world I'd have a program that would only let guaranteed sales view my website - oh wait - thats the kind of program you guys are looking for :P
haha

no, just a piece of software that does impossible tracking...:)
Damn you beat me :)


But for any programmer that can develop: a program that would only let guaranteed sales view my website

I'm more than a little interested :lol: [/b][/quote]
Oh hell I'll have a piece of that pie :agrin:

[sarettah]

Ok, can this magic app be desktop or does it have to be html ?

[sarettah]

Originally posted by Trev@Apr 9 2005, 04:34 PM
Whats happened to your sig Sar?
I don't know. It all of a sudden changed :blink:

Prolly happen again pretty soon....My body is just a quiverin and whenever that happens my sig changes...

weirds me out... :huh:

[Jace]

Originally posted by sarettah@Apr 9 2005, 04:21 PM
Ok, can this magic app be desktop or does it have to be html ?
i like desktop apps personally

[Hell Puppy]

I've done what sparky is trying to do before, but haven't had time or inclination to automate it and thus haven't kept up with it.

The problem is tracking the sales and dollars, phpads and other solutions will tell you where the traffic went and how much of it. It's also excellent for measuring things like the pull rate of various campaigns (spotting banners or ads that flat out dont pull, etc).

But to map it back to dollars, you've got to combine that data with the data supplied by the sponsors stats program. If they provide referer stats so you can match the url, you can cut and paste all of that data into a spreadsheet, access or even mysql.

From there you can export your PHPads data similarly.

My solution was load the referers for each sale along with the name of the sponsor, the site, the dollars, etc into a table in mysql and then write some quick PHP code to build me a report cross referencing it against the tables in the phpads database.

Works great, but the problem is loading that data from each sponsor. It could be scraped and automated, but that's a level of pain I haven't gone to.