This document will cover the following:
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How to generate an Impression Pixel
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How to view Impressions in Reporting
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Impression Cookie Days
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View Thru Conversions and Impressions
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Attribution - First Touch / Last Touch
The Basics: What is an Impression and why would you track them in CAKE?
An Impression is when a consumer views the advertisement. This could be in the form of somebody opening an email or seeing a banner on a webpage.
There are several reasons why you may want to track impressions.
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You may want to pay your sources on a CPM model where they earn a commission for every 1000 impressions tracked.
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You want to see the click thru rate of an advertisement. Tracking an impression will allow you to see how many people saw the ad, and then how many people clicked on the ad.
The rest of this document will walk you through the implementation and tracking of Impressions within CAKE.
The Impression Pixel - Tracking "Views"
An impression pixel is an optional tracking device in CAKE that allows you to track how many people "viewed" your creative.
By default, CAKE does not track impressions without providing the source with an impression pixel.
There are two ways of providing a source with an impression pixel:
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Generate a standalone impression pixel
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Insert an impression pixel within an email type creative
Generate A Standalone Impression Pixel
To generate an impression pixel, hover over Channels > Pixels > Generate Impression Pixel.
You will want to do this if you have already provided your Affiliates with their Creative assets, and now you want them to implement a tag to track impressions.
Once you click on Generate Impression Pixel, the wizard will open that will allow you to generate the pixel.
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Select the channel the impression pixel is for
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Select the source
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Select the specific campaign
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Select the creative
Then, click Next.
Above is an example of an impression pixel within CAKE.
From here, you can simply copy the pixel for use.
Inserting An Impression Pixel In An Email Creative
Providing your sources with an email creative that already has the impression pixel included is simple.
Edit the HTM(L) file within your creative and check the "Insert Impression Pixel" box.
This will insert the #imp# token that will be dynamically replaced with each source's unique impression pixel.
Impressions In Reporting
By default, you can see how many impressions are tracked within the stats subtab in the "Views" column.
Impression Cookie Days
Every offer will allow you to adjust the cookie time frame for impressions tracked within the offer.
By default, the impression cookie days is 30 days.
This means that CAKE will track 1 unique view and/or impression per user for this offer.
If another source generates an impression from the same user, CAKE will track that as a duplicate impression.
If the same source generates another impression from the same user, CAKE will track that as a duplicate as well.
Once the cookie has expired, after the time frame defined, another view can be tracked.
View Thru Conversions
A view thru conversion is CAKE's ability to track a conversion when a click is not tracked.
In this unique situation, a consumer "views" the ad. At this point CAKE has tracked an impression.
Then, the consumer redirects to the landing page without redirecting through a CAKE tracking link and then converts.
The CAKE conversion pIxel fires, which triggers the conversion.
**This functionality is not enabled by default. To enable, check the box within the Attribution tab in the Offer Card.**
When tracking view thru conversions, there may be a situation where a consumer "views" a creative from one source, but then clicks on a creative from a different source.
By default, CAKE will give credit to the source that generated the click as the click is more meaningful from an attribution point of view.
Click trumps impressions, as seen above, is enabled by default.
Disabling this feature will give credit to the first source that generates an Impression UNLESS last touch is enabled.
Attribution - First Touch / Last Touch
Attribution allows you to change between first touch and last touch.
By default, CAKE tracks first touch. This means that CAKE will track a unique impression from the first source to generate the view. Another view tracked by a different source on the same offer will result in a duplicate impression.
Last touch, however, will change this model to track a unique impression and view from the most recent source. This means that the first impression will be tracked as unique. If the SAME source tracks another Impression, it will be a duplicate. If a DIFFERENT source tracks an Impression from the same user on the same offer, this will be tracked as unique.