Third Party Click Tracking

OpenX can track third party clicks, you can create HTML banner using third party codes and OpenX will track clicks. On the other hand if you load OpenX Ad in the third party, the clicks of the OpenX Ad can be tracked in the third party.

Third Party clicks tracking in OpenX:

OpenX supports click tracking for a number of third parties. Follow the steps given below to track third party clicks:

You have to select the third party server from the drop down when you add the HTML banner (known third party).
If the third party ad server for which you want to track clicks is not available in the dropdown, you have to perform some manual changes in the code (unknown third party).

Known third party

To track clicks for a known third party:

Paste the HTML for the ad in the Banner Properties tab.
Select the third party from the pull-down menu below the ad HTML as shown in the screenshot.
Save the newly created HTML banner.

third party click tracking

Unknown third party

If the tag is from an unknown party, you must perform a manual change to the ad code. The third party will supply a mechanism to track clicks which is, typically, a placeholder in the ad code for the click trackng URL. Replace this placeholder with the magic macro {clickurl}.

Example

Following is an example third party click tracking tag:

var yctred='[CLICK_TRACKER]';

</SCRIPT>

<SCRIPT language="JavaScript1.1" src="http://report.example.com/cgi-bin

/redflash.cgi/250/;[RANDOM_NUMBER]">

</SCRIPT>

<a href="[CLICK_TRACKER]http://report.legalandgeneral.com/cgi-bin

/redshot.cgi/281/mo/ingif/" target="_blank">

<img src="http://report.legalandgeneral.com/cgi-bin/redshot.cgi/281/mo

/ingif/image.gif;[RANDOM_NUMBER]">

</a>

</NOSCRIPT>

To enable click tracking for this tag, replace [CLICK_TRACKER] part with the OpenX {clickurl} macro. OpenX also recommends that you substitute the {random} macro for [RANDOM_NUMBER] to avoid any issues with client/proxy caching. These changes are made in the following example:

var yctred='{clickurl}';

</SCRIPT>

<SCRIPT language="JavaScript1.1" src="http://report.example.com/cgi-bin

/redflash.cgi/250/;{random}">

</SCRIPT>

<a href="{clickurl}http://report.legalandgeneral.com/cgi-bin

/redshot.cgi/281/mo/ingif/" target="_blank">

<img src="http://report.legalandgeneral.com/cgi-bin/redshot.cgi/281/mo

/ingif/image.gif;{random}">

</a>

</NOSCRIPT>

Explanation

The {clickurl} and {random} placeholders are simple OpenX Magic Macros. The {clickurl} macro stands for the following example click tracking URL:

http://www.yourwebsite.com/openx/ck.php?oaparams=2__bannerid=1234__zoneid=234__

cb=c6ec93c6d6__oadest=

If you add the {clickurl} macro in front of the banner target URL in the <a href="www.bannertarget.com"> for example: <a href="{clickurl}www.bannertarget.com"> you should get the following result:

<a href="http://www.yourwebsite.com/openx/ck.php?oaparams=2__bannerid=1234__

zoneid=234__cb=c6ec93c6d6__oadest=href=www.bannertarget.com">

NOTE: If you enter the banner destination field in the banner properties tab it will be automatically added after the oadest= parameter.

NOTE:If you are not sure where to exactly place the {clickurl} placeholder or there is no unambiguous code part which should indicate the place you need to contact with your 3rd party tag provider for assistance. They will be able to tell you where to place {clickurl} placeholder.

OpenX clicks tracking in third party Ad Server:

When you load OpenX ad in an external ad server, OpenX will count the clicks but if you want the external ad server to count the clicks too, you will have to insert the click tracking macro for the external tracking system into the OpenX code.

If the tag is for a third party server, to enable click tracking:

In the Invocation Code tab, scroll to the Preferences section underneath the ad code snippet.
Select the server for the known third party from the pull-down menu, as shown in the following screenshot:

3. Click Refresh to update this preference in the ad code snippet.

OpenX currently provides automatic modification of click tracking macros for three known third parties:

Generic inserts the placeholder, "INSERT_CLICKURL_HERE", into the ad code for an unknown third party.
Rich Media - Doubleclick inserts "%c" into the ad code for loading OpenX tags into a Doubleclick server.
Rich Media - OpenX inserts "{clickurl}" into the ad code for loading OpenX tags into another instance of the OpenX server.

Example:

The following screenshot shows example JavaScript ad code before selecting a third party preference: