[rhkocatas]

We are working out some new internal tools and were wonding if affiliates still use (or value) ad impression data? Seems like it is all clicks and Effective CPCs these days.

[Herb ԿԬ]

It still measures something. May not mean much to some, but it is still a tool.

[Rick - Bitcom]

With so much PPC going on it's hard to find or even believe any impression data. We have many partners with lots of clicks but little or no impressions.

[Leader]

I like to see impression data. If I'm not seeing sales, I want to know, is it because the page doesn't convert--or because nobody ever found the page in the first place?

Also it's good to compare imp data to clickthrough rate. If lots of people are seeing the page but not clicking the ad, it's time for a redesign...

Of course, when affs send the traffic direct to the merchant via PPC, they don't show imps. But there are still a lot of sites who could use imp data.

[Kevin]

While that's true Leader, I've found most of the impression data provided by the networks to be inconsistent (sometimes greatly) from my weblogs. The question becomes... who's right? Of course, I usually believe my weblogs...

[Donuts]

then there's imps by counting loading a banner graphic, and there's when you load a tracking pixel, and there's when you have 3 banners on a page plus a tracking pixel and all get counted, then there's a text link that doesn't get counted, then there's a dynamic page driven from a feed where I could load a pixel for every product shown or just one for the page, and my feed test page where I view 5,000 products to make sure the images load in my site (twice a week), and when the page is reloaded I could make it load again, or not, then there's shrmip gumbo, shrimp bread, shrimp soup and shrimp salad, and there's shrimp teriyaki and shrimp and chips...

merchant's shouldn't read much into imps...

affs need to know how they're counting them themselves and the nature of the traffic to make sense of it as a metric...

leave it in there... but if you're a merchant, think about the ways we can twist it to suit our needs and render it an unreliable info slice if you take it without a bunch of other knowledge bits.

[darkstar7]

I'm with Leader on this one. That's exactly what I use it for.

[Rexanne]

Originally Posted by darkstar7

I'm with Leader on this one. That's exactly what I use it for.

Me too

[Rexanne]

Originally Posted by GigaGolf

With so much PPC going on it's hard to find or even believe any impression data. We have many partners with lots of clicks but little or no impressions.

I don't use banners and most of the time, pull a basic text link from a link generated by the merchant, but remove everything but the tracking and specific product code. so impressions don't show. It looks like lots of clicks, no impressions. That's what you'e probably seeing GigaGolf.

[rhkocatas]

SO...Would you all work with a merchant that did not offer impression tracking?

[Kevin]

I would. But roll with the masses You know you have to

[Snib]

I pay almost no attention to impression tracking. Since I do most of my affiliate work with datafeeds, it would be too much effort to ensure impression tracking works. I used to do my own impression tracking and organize products based on their impressions, but even that was flawed. Now my products are organized by the number of clicks they get and I only compare my clicks to the network clicks to make sure everything is tracking properly.

Sometimes I'll look at the impressions in YPN or AdSense, but that's about it.

- Scott

[ecomcity]

I use impression tracking on all my links to verify (Except GoldenCan) my CTR for new showcase displays. I use it to figure out what type creatives get better sales ratios ...and you'd be amazed that text links aren't always #1. Guess I'm Old school and just take what's generated by the network link generators.