DISQUS

Sage Blogger: OpenAds Testing: Help Me Out And Click That Banner

  • 45n5 · 2 years ago
    I've never had two stats packages track clicks or impressions the same. Who is right? We'll probably never know

    I do find that openads tracks on the high side of things though, as if they aren't filtering many of the bots that are making some clicks.
  • Vlad · 2 years ago
    Thanks Mark,

    I have never thought of bots. Do you think networks like CJ and others filer them out?

    I really like what OpenAds can do in terms of geo-targeting or as they call it probability. But this gap between clicks on my end those reported by networks made me a little worried.
  • 45n5 · 2 years ago
    sure they filter them out, but none do it the same. It's also extremely hard to determine what is a human and what is a bot sometimes.

    I'm sure everybody tries their best but it's like any statistics package for anything, what's a bot and what's a human?

    you can even put sitemeter AND analytics on your site and watch the differences.

    heck I get different impression counts from google analytics and google adsense.
  • Vlad · 2 years ago
    would you be surprised by the difference that I have seen? I mean it was only one day (or less) worth of clicks.
  • 45n5 · 2 years ago
    if you are worried about it do a simple redirect on the link, record EVERY single click, then see how the results match up.

    they have basic php/mysql scripts that do it, google it
  • 45n5 · 2 years ago
  • Iantrepreneur · 2 years ago
    I had to stop with Open Ads - the queries was messing the display with my banners and stats - not too sure why or what was happening with my sql - but I know SQL filled up real quick 50mbs within 2 weeks!
  • Josh Spaulding · 2 years ago
    as if they aren’t filtering many of the bots that are making some clicks.


    I'd say that has alot to do with it, but who knows.

    I clicked the advert out of curiosity before I even read this post ;)
  • Lord Matt · 2 years ago
    Open Ads does give you very much the raw data without any prettying up that some companies use. I run awstats in addition to the OpenAds server and the two together provide a very nice overview. Awstats gives me a clue as to what is going on as a whole while OpenAds is better at the zone to zone stuff.

    I use OpenAds as the delivery agent for all my adverts it makes adding adverts to lots of sites much simpler. It also means that if an affiliate partner from DGM stops being active I can drop them at one location and that's all the work I need to do.

    As tools go I have to say it is useful if not especially well coded and by that I mean the code works very well but is no fun at all to edit.
  • Vlad · 2 years ago
    Lord Matt,

    Thanks for stopping by. Do you run your OpenAds on a dedicated server?

    I am not sure if OpenAds worth the effort if you run just a few banners on a website. I have also noticed that MySQL tends to "swell" quiet quickly.