I would suggest that you rethink the situation. This looks more like a business
problem than a technical one.
The values you see in your log files are correct. They are produced by what is
called a referer, which is part of http. This is given by the browser used to
visit your site, from the user, and the advertising website has no control
over it.
The numbers you already have prove it: People don't click your ad. My first
response is that regardless of the reason, advertising there just doesn't
work. Consider your options.
If you do insist on figuring this out the first thing you need to do is make
sure you use a separate url just for this site. This could be either a special
page that immediately directs to your page, or add a code describing
the advertiser,
e.g. http://www.mysite.com/index.html
becomes
http://www.mysite.com/page1234.html
where page1234.html shows nothing but redirects to index.html
or alternatively
http://www.mysite.com/index.html?code=1234
which loads index.html directly, but keeps the code in your logs, identifying
the advertiser. This gives you further proof of the number of people coming
through that site.
Second ask to see the logs for your ad that they must keep (as complete
as possible including IP addresses and identifying cookies). You ad would
be an image or a flash animation, so this should be available. Maybe they
won't give you full data, but they should give you at least the page it
was displayed in, and the time and date of each showing, for all showings.
With the data you have, it's reasonable to question them. Ask them to prove
that their setup is kosher.
Third ask them if you can store your ad in your servers, and have them link to
it. This will cost you bandwidth, but YOUR logs will show the times the ad is
displayed. This may not be possible for privacy reasons though.
Finally if you do any testing do it from other computers if possible, ones you
never used to log to the service, and also another internet connection. It
is possible that they use cookies or even IP addresses to know it's you, and
never show you your own ad (your ad is wasted on you after all). In addition
such a claim could be a defense for them if you take legal action.
Also note that your ad may be unattractive, the site may have the wrong
demographics (people going there may not be interested in your business etc)
These can be valid reasons or again excuses.
I am also assuming that ads are prominently displayed, there is just one ad
per page etc. If these are not true, then your 1% may be wildly optimistic.
One more thing: If you see a sharp increase in visits in your logs, do not
automatically assume everything is solved, especially if you start bothering
them too much. If they don't translate to sales they are useless. Check out
also the possibility of referer spam at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referer_spam
if you see a very sharp increase in visits.
But the bottom line is you are not getting your money's worth. If you don't
have hard facts (but you have to argue even for that) for the causes,and a
solid plan to fix it, consider other options for your business. |
