Difference between revisions of "Can ConversionRuler track Flash advertisements?"

Revision as of 02:21, 23 February 2011

In short, yes.

Using some advanced event handling, ConversionRuler can track clicks on advertisements which may be Flash or images depending on how the advertisement is delivered. This works with ad networks such as DoubleClick which often produce both Flash and image based advertisements.

The following caveats apply:

It only works when JavaScript is enabled in the browser
It will only work for Flash advertisements which have the parameter wmode set to transparent or opaque
It will not work for Flash advertisements which have the parameter wmode set to window (specifically, in Microsoft Internet Explorer)
It can only track reliably when the mouse button is pressed down on an advertisement: there is no guarantee that the advertisement actually opened up a new window.
- For example, if a visitor clicks on an advertisement, then drags the mouse outside of the advertisement and lets go, then it will be tracked as a ConversionRuler Action, but will not invoke the Flash advertisement.
- In addition, for Flash advertisements which are interactive (such as a game, or a puzzle)

Note: If you own your advertising content and wish to track ConversionRuler actions within Flash, you can integrate tracking directly in Flash.

To apply to a specific advertisement, first you must give an id to the ad you wish to track. This is done in HTML by wrapping the advertisers code with an HTML div which is given a unique ID. So, if your advertisement code is:

<script type="text/javascript">
if(typeof(cachebuster) == "undefined"){var cachebuster = Math.floor(Math.random()*10000000000)}
if(typeof(dcopt) == "undefined"){var dcopt = "dcopt=ist;"} else {var dcopt = ""}
if(typeof(tile) == "undefined"){var tile = 1} else {tile++}
document.write('<scr'+'ipt src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/siteXXX.tmus/;cond=doubleclick-topic;cond=index;pos=2;' + dcopt + ';tile=' + tile + ';sz=160x600;ord=' + cachebuster + '?"></scr'+'ipt>');
</script>
<noscript><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/sitXXX.tmus/;cond=doubleclick-topic;cond=index;pos=2;sz=160x600;ord=123456789?" target="_blank"><img 
src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/siteXXX.tmus/;cond=doubleclick-topic;cond=index;pos=2;sz=160x600;ord=123456789?" border="0" alt="" /></a></noscript>

Note: The above is simply example code, do not use it on your pages.

Then you will wrap it with a div and give it an ID you will use later to track it, like so:

<div id="ad-top">
advertising code goes here
</div>

For the final result:

<div id="ad-top">
    <script type="text/javascript">
    if(typeof(cachebuster) == "undefined"){var cachebuster = Math.floor(Math.random()*10000000000)}
    if(typeof(dcopt) == "undefined"){var dcopt = "dcopt=ist;"} else {var dcopt = ""}
    if(typeof(tile) == "undefined"){var tile = 1} else {tile++}
    document.write('<scr'+'ipt src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/siteXXX.tmus/;cond=doubleclick-topic;cond=index;pos=2;' + dcopt + ';tile=' + tile + ';sz=160x600;ord=' + cachebuster + '?"></scr'+'ipt>');
    </script>
    <noscript><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/sitXXX.tmus/;cond=doubleclick-topic;cond=index;pos=2;sz=160x600;ord=123456789?" target="_blank"><img 
    src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/siteXXX.tmus/;cond=doubleclick-topic;cond=index;pos=2;sz=160x600;ord=123456789?" border="0" alt="" /></a></noscript>
</div>

Note that each and every ID on a page must be unique. Be sure no other element on your HTML page has the same ID.

Now, to enable tracking for the advertisement, use the cr_track_id function, as follows:

<script type="text/javascript">
cr_track_id('ad-top', ACTION_CODE);
</script>

The parameters use with cr_track_id are identical to the ones used with cr_track, with the exception that the first parameter is the ID of the item on the page you wish to track clicks on. ACTION_CODE is the Action Code which is to be tracked.

Tracking multiple ads on a page

First, wrap the ads with three div giving each an ID of ad-top, ad-right and ad-bottom. (Naming is up to you, however, remember each ad must be assigned a unique ID on each page.)

Tracking with different action codes

To track the ads using a multiple actions configured first in ConversionRuler:

<script type="text/javascript">
cr_track_id('ad-top', '2');
cr_track_id('ad-right', '3');
cr_track_id('ad-bottom', '4');
</script>

Tracking with same action, different parameters

To track the ads using a single action and parameter to identify which ad was clicked, like so:

<script type="text/javascript">
cr_track_id('ad-top', '2', 'top');
cr_track_id('ad-right', '2', 'right');
cr_track_id('ad-bottom', '2', 'bottom');
</script>

Other ideas

You can technically track any element on the page which has a unique ID using cr_track_id, and integration is simpler than using cr_link. You can track elements on a page which are not links with this function as well.

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