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In some cases advertisers complain
that their analytics software shows far fewer clicks than what
are reported by Ban Man Pro. Most analytics packages
simply rely on the Referrer header to determine where the
traffic came from and unfortunately this tracking method is not
accurate. What are
some of the reasons for these discrepancies?
- Browser Limitations:
Not all browsers support and pass the referrer header.
Most recent Internet browsers typically pass along a
referrer header when a user clicks an ad and is taken to the
advertiser's site. This referrer header indicates what site
the user came from. However, some older versions of
Internet Explorer and Netscape do not support this
functionality and will not send this information. Some
versions of Internet Explorer may also remove this header
for security reasons, depending on the level of security the
user has set on their browser. Also, some users have
3rd party software products installed that remove this
header.
- Referrer Header Lost on
Redirect: Ban Man Pro uses a redirect to track clicks.
When an ad is clicked the user is taken to the location
where you installed Ban Man Pro. Next, we track the
click then redirect the browser to the advertiser's web
site. During this process the referrer header can be
lost.
- Your Company Firewall may be
stripping the Referrer Header: Recent firewalls
have begun stripping this header for security purposes.
Consult with your firewall documentation to determine if
this is the case.
- The user's personal
virus/firewall software may be removing the Referrer Header:
Two of the most common virus/firewall software products are
from McAffee and Norton. Both will remove the referrer
header by default which makes it impossible for the
advertiser to see that the click came from your site.
How can the Advertiser
obtain more accurate stats in their analytics software?
Because the Referrer header can
be lost due to the above-stated reasons, your options are to
work around the problem and use an alternative tracking
mechanism.
There are two options:
- The first would be to
setup a separate entry or doorway page to their web site
that only you will send traffic to. That way the total
page views on that page would equate to the number of clicks
you sent them.
- The second would be to
pass some unique tag in the querystring that identifies your
site as the source of the traffic. Before using this
method the advertiser should confirm what syntax their
analytics software expects. For example, if the
current Target URL is:
http://www.advertiserssite.com/
You might use:
http://www.advertiserssite.com/?Referrer=http://www.mydomain.com
OR
http://www.advertiserssite.com/?Source=http://www.mydomain.com
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