Attaching pixels to pages
January 2, 2009 – 8:44 pm
For Networks and sales houses looking to join the user profiling phenomenon, placing pixels on publishers pages is beoming a very fustrating task.
These pixels are usually used to capture user behaviour as they travel around the wider world attaching surfing beahviour to the users cookie however, due to the amount of publishers on a network and the growing lack of resources in the industry this task is more and more being put on the back shelf.
These are the free most common ways of attching pixels on publishers pagessome better then others.
Hard coded on the page:
Probably the most easiets and practial way of attaching pixels, however this method could put time and constraint on the publishers web savvy team. Usually involves attaching the pixels to the footer of the page, much like a google analytics tag. If the profiling technology is likely to use genric profiling tags, meaning they are not predefined tags, there is usually just one tag to put on the site’s footer which hopefully will populate the tag across all areas where the footer is constant. If the profiling technology is using predefined tags, for example, one for the sports area, one for finance area, etc etc this task can get really complicated.
Through the Adserver:
Probably the most complex method of attaching pixels. Not because it’s time consuming, nor that a lot of inhouse resource is needed but because there is no standard. Each Adserver has a different method for delvering pixels. The end goal of this method is that when a user visits the site, aswell as a campaign being delivered to that user you also want the pixel to be delivered.
This method can get rather tricky as it is standard for an Adserver to have a priority list, if so what priority level is the pixel being deliverd on! This increases the chances of many users behaviour not being captured.
Using container tags:
When set up and running this is the most efficent way of attaching pixels to pages for publisher, networks, advertisers and agencies
A container tag is like a box which can be used to dump code on publishers pages without troubling the publisher. Once the container tags are set up the users can control and manage tags on pages without all the fuss.
Most of the common Adserves allow all users to implement container tags, however some of them are aimed towards the Adertiser/ agency. For example, Doublick click only allows users of it’s DFA system to implement their famous flood light tags which is an industry pain!!!! however, their are methods which can be used to get around this problem (using the rich media box and inserting the pixel, more to follow shortly)
