Pixl Tracking - Tracking Ad Campaigns on the Internet
(Note: This posting is very similar to one posted at my GeoPlotting blog.)
Pixl tracking is a technique that originated when Internet marketers wanted to know if and when email subscribers opened their email. The basic concept is very simple: Send out an HTML-formatted email to subscribers of your e-newsletter or anyone who has given you permission to send the email offers. In the email, insert a 1x1 pixel image (i.e., essentially invisible) whose file lives on your web server. The image file is only requested when the email is viewed. This access will be recorded on your web server requests (access) log. Since you have access to this log file, you can see how many times the email was accessed and by how many different people (by IP address). This, of course, gives you at least an "impressions ratio" compared to the number of people who were sent the email.
If you are running several email campaigns, just use a different image file name for each campaign. You can in fact go one step better than a 1x1 pixel image. Instead, if you use a logo or a photo and have the image hyperlink to a web page, you will also be able to calculate a click-through rate for the emails. (Remember, this technique only works for HTML-formatted emails.) Of course, you can still get a click-through based on the number of people who received the email, and the number of people who clicked on any link in the email. If they number of people that viewed the email is much greater than the number of people that clicked through either on the image or some other link, then it's possible that your email content wasn't effective enough.
This method can be extended for other uses. For example, my blogs are on the free service Blogger.com, whose log files I have no access to. I can still capture a minimum of information (visitor IP address, date/ time/ zone of visit) by pixl tracking. I place a small photo image of myself on my web server, then link to it from each of my Blogger.com blogs. Since its my profile photo, anytime my blog is read, even on archived pages, the image file is requested back on my web server. My web server log captures the request. I've been tracking visitors this way. It's very rudimentary, and I don't have to write any web scripts, unless I want more information.
Another use for pixl tracking is for advertising campaigns in RSS Feeds. If you are advertising in someone else's RSS feed, you can track actual impressions. Depending on your advertising agreement, your logo or product image(s) may appear in one or more RSS Feed items. Each appearance of your images in the Feed should be hyperlinked to a web page on your website. If a subscriber to the Feed clicks on your image, they'll get your web page. This page request will be recorded on your web server. You can now compare the number of these page requests against the number of image impressions to get a click-through ratio.
(c) Copyright 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://netmetrics.blogspot.com
Pixl tracking is a technique that originated when Internet marketers wanted to know if and when email subscribers opened their email. The basic concept is very simple: Send out an HTML-formatted email to subscribers of your e-newsletter or anyone who has given you permission to send the email offers. In the email, insert a 1x1 pixel image (i.e., essentially invisible) whose file lives on your web server. The image file is only requested when the email is viewed. This access will be recorded on your web server requests (access) log. Since you have access to this log file, you can see how many times the email was accessed and by how many different people (by IP address). This, of course, gives you at least an "impressions ratio" compared to the number of people who were sent the email.
If you are running several email campaigns, just use a different image file name for each campaign. You can in fact go one step better than a 1x1 pixel image. Instead, if you use a logo or a photo and have the image hyperlink to a web page, you will also be able to calculate a click-through rate for the emails. (Remember, this technique only works for HTML-formatted emails.) Of course, you can still get a click-through based on the number of people who received the email, and the number of people who clicked on any link in the email. If they number of people that viewed the email is much greater than the number of people that clicked through either on the image or some other link, then it's possible that your email content wasn't effective enough.
This method can be extended for other uses. For example, my blogs are on the free service Blogger.com, whose log files I have no access to. I can still capture a minimum of information (visitor IP address, date/ time/ zone of visit) by pixl tracking. I place a small photo image of myself on my web server, then link to it from each of my Blogger.com blogs. Since its my profile photo, anytime my blog is read, even on archived pages, the image file is requested back on my web server. My web server log captures the request. I've been tracking visitors this way. It's very rudimentary, and I don't have to write any web scripts, unless I want more information.
Another use for pixl tracking is for advertising campaigns in RSS Feeds. If you are advertising in someone else's RSS feed, you can track actual impressions. Depending on your advertising agreement, your logo or product image(s) may appear in one or more RSS Feed items. Each appearance of your images in the Feed should be hyperlinked to a web page on your website. If a subscriber to the Feed clicks on your image, they'll get your web page. This page request will be recorded on your web server. You can now compare the number of these page requests against the number of image impressions to get a click-through ratio.
(c) Copyright 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://netmetrics.blogspot.com
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