Tell me more ×
Server Fault is a question and answer site for professional system and network administrators. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote -1 down vote favorite

I'm trying to build a tracking server for banner ads that tracks the ad's impressions. I'm having some trouble with our accuracy. It appears we're missing maybe 20% of the impressions. I'm using a tracking pixel gif resting on a lighttpd web server. I have implemented anti-caching methods via a unique number attached to the URL of the gif. I have a cronjob set to parse the access log for the gif and enter the totals for that period into a database row, and clear the log.

Anyone know any other method of accurately tracking high volumes of impressions? Preferably using a gif file which can be loaded within a flash swf?

share|improve this question

1 Answer

up vote 0 down vote

You could set the flash thing to automatically request a unique document on the server, and every request is logged. Use a log analyzer to count how many accesses to that file there were?

Can you not implement something in flash itself? Like have a backend XML document that is modified every access. Or a simple external hit counter.

EDIT: GOOGLE ADWORDS! or GOOGLE ANALYTICS!

share|improve this answer
That's basically what we're doing now, serving up 1x1 GIF files and analyzing the server log for how many times that GIF was accessed. When we compare our numbers along side our ad server we only seem to be counting about 80% of them. – nuecaster Aug 30 '11 at 20:04
Well you could just estimate that you need to multiply by 1.20. – U4iK_HaZe Aug 31 '11 at 20:06
But that's like saying.. our accounting numbers are off every month, let's just add in a random $20 profit to bring us up to where we should be... That won't work, you need the actual data. Especially if a client wants to refute a bill or question the amount of impressions you recorded. – nuecaster Sep 1 '11 at 17:45
We also can't use a 3rd Party metrics solution. Has to be in-house.. So Google Analytics or other SaaS metrics are not a solution. – nuecaster Sep 1 '11 at 17:46

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.