Campaign Management Readme
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How this system works:
When you install the campaign manager:
1. It creates a database with two tables, and some directories and files.
2. The directories and files contain information specific to your setup that the program needs to run.
3. The tracking file location is where the actual data is stored. This must always remain world-writeable.
4. a campaign called Test with id number c000 is created for you.
5. After installing the program, the next thing you do is create a tracking script.
Tracking scripts are what you actually link to. They write data to the tracking files.
Use the test campaign to test the system with real links and to see how it works.
The URL for the test campaign is your Tracking Files management page, so every time you test the tracking script with that campaign ID, it will 'redirect' you back to your tracking files page.
This application is made up of three main sections:
Users page - This section is to organize campaigns, or if you manage advertising campaigns for several business, each business would be a user.. Here you can:
• Create User
• Delete Users
• Manage Users
• Send status and final reports to users' emails
Campaigns page - Here is where you manage the campaigns. This is what you could call the 'administrative' page. Here you can:
• Create Campaigns
• Delete Campaigns
• View campaigns
Tracking Files page - This is where you can see and manage what scripts and tracking files are present.
Here you can:
• View real-time tracking information
• Create tracking scripts
• Test your tracking scripts - click on it in the list, and it will track a campaign called 'delete me'. Clicking on the 'delete me' tracking or hits file will just delete that file.
• Load data into the database for volume storage, and to compare unique email ID's with your lists*
• Fully manage the files this system is using
* You want to load tracking script files for two reasons:
1. To keep the flat files small for speed of the tracking system
2. To make the data useable:
The whole idea is to see who is reading your ads, and who is clicking through. When you load data, you can also load a list with email address | unique ID (if you are using email marketing) and you can then either filter your list to create a new one of people who clicked through and/or viewed.
You can also use the data to get a view-to-click ratio, also known as click-through ratio or CTO. This tells you how many people who viewed the creative also clicked through it.
When you create a campaign:
1. A table for that campaign is added to your tracking database.
2. That campaign is added to your campaign list.
3. The URL for that campaign is recorded in the database and in a lookup file for the tracking scripts.
Please note that a 'c' is added to the beginning of campaign ID's. This is for future scalability.
You create a campaign for anything:
A banner ad program. Your banner is your creative-but add your target page as your link, then use the click-through link generated for your banner link.
A search engine marketing campaign. Just add a campaign, and make the link for your search engine campaign your click-through link. Alternately, send them to a page with your view link. the numbers will still add up, but under your view tracking.
An email campaign (Do not spam!) - If you have a mailing list, your creative is your email message. Insert links for view and click-though.
Creating/Using Tracking Scripts:
The tracking script is what 'catches' the data and stores it into tracking files. Remember, the link contains two pieces of data: a campaign ID, and an email ID.
The tracking script does either two or three things (depending on whether you make an active or passive script)
Active (Click-though link):
• Tracks the click in a tracking file called 'CampaignID.hits (the hits file)
• Records the email ID in a tracking file called 'CampaignID.e (the email ID tracking file)
• Sends the user on to whatever URL matches that Campaign ID.
Passive (View link):
• Tracks the click in a tracking file called 'CampaignID.hits (the hits file)
• Records the email ID in a tracking file called 'CampaignID.e (the email ID tracking file) in the view directory
• Note that you can link to an active script directly. The link in your creative would point right to the tracking script, and contain the campaign and email ID's.
• You have to create at least one tracking script. Tracking files will be created automatically when the script gets a hit for a campaign.
When you create a script, there is an example link displayed, to the script you just created.
When you view a campaign, an example link to a tracking script named 'clk1.pl' is displayed. Clicking on 'clk1pl' on that page will create a script with that name.
When you market a campaign:
You set your link in the creative to any of your tracking scripts.
You can 'mix and match' tracking scripts and campaigns. The tracking scripts are independent of campaigns, so you can use any tracking script for any campaign. You can track several campaigns with each script.
The scripts are fast and can handle many hits, but if you're sending a lot of hits in, then just make another tracking script to split the load. If you haven't marketed that campaign yet, and there are no tracking files for that campaign, the tracking script will automatically create the tracking file.