Introducing improved click tracking

Posted by Jan on November 24, 2009

As of today, we’re moving from our own click tracking algorithms to using bit.ly, Twitter’s favorite link shortening and reporting service. Using bit.ly gives both you and us the opportunity to track clicks in a concise and correct way, and also provides some added bonus for users who have their own bit.ly account. More about this in a minute.

For you, this change means the following:

• If you have been using plain, regular, non-shortened links in your campaigns (i.e. no tinyurls, no budurls, no cli.gs, etc.), everything remains the same. Instead of the system automatically shortening your links with id.gd, it will now utilize bit.ly and you will see the same stats in your Magpie account as previously.

• If you have been using bit.ly (or j.mp) links with Magpie, click tracking has been temporarily disabled without disruption to your campaigns. If you would like to re-activate Magpie’s tracking, we kindly ask you to update your campaigns and replace your bit.ly links by the regular, plain long link your bit.ly is pointing to – don’t worry, we will convert them back into bit.ly links when we publish them on Twitter. Next, enter your bit.ly username and your bit.ly API key within your Settings in Magpie. This way, you will have both the analytics provided by Magpie and bit.ly, all fueled with the same data from your bit.ly account. You can find your API key in the Account section after logging in to bit.ly. If you’d rather use bit.ly only and are not interested in Magpie’s analytics, you need not do anything.

• If you have been using shortlinks from services other than bit.ly and j.mp (e.g. tinyurl, budurl, cli.gs, etc.), click tracking has been temporarily disabled without disruption to your campaigns. This provides you with the opportuntity to elect which reporting approach you prefer. Link shortening services consider the chaining of shortlinks (e.g. bit.ly to budurl to cli.gs to your site) as suspicious, because spammers are using this to disguise their links. Of course, we’re not falling into that category, but this means that you cannot use Magpie’s bit.ly-based tracking and other services together. But that isn’t a problem. If you’re using a link shortening service, that provides great statistics, you can of course continue doing so (and please let us know why you like it, so we can learn things, too!). However, you will not be able to obtain any reporting through your Magpie Account. On the other hand, if you prefer Magpie’s analytics, please use plain long links in your Magpie campaigns, and everything will work like it did before.

Why we made this change, and what’s in it for you, you might ask? Building Magpie and providing the best and most successful Twitter Advertising network out there is a very demanding job, and we take pride in delivering top notch innovations for you and responding quickly to all the great ideas and feedback we get. But being great at one thing also means to be able to focus, and not get distracted by other things. bit.ly are great (possibly the greatest) at click tracking, so we decided to let them excel at what they know best: the tracking. I believe, it’s a win-win for both our twitterers and our customers.

Here’s a screenshot of some of bit.ly’s statistics screens:

Of course and as always – we love to hear your feedback, your comments and ideas. I will make sure the good stuff gets into the next release of Magpie.

Comments

LindaThieman said on Tuesday, November 24, 2009:

It would be great if Twitterers could have access to our stats, too. It's like posting in the dark to not know how we are performing. According to my own stats that I follow elsewhere, my CPC averages $.19, my Klout score is in the top quartile, and my FAR is 8--highly desirable, and yet I go for long stretches of time with no paid ads.

Jan Schulz-Hofen said on Wednesday, November 25, 2009:

Thanks Linda, more info for Twitterers are on our list. We're also getting new advertisers on board every day, so please hang on a little longer and Magpie will propose matching campaigns.

Chris said on Tuesday, December 01, 2009:

I don't see the bit.ly option in my Magpie Settings page, will this be rolled on soon for all users?

Jan Schulz-Hofen said on Friday, December 04, 2009:

If you are an advertiser with us, Chris, you should see it already. We're working in improved stats for twitterers as well - stay tuned!

Robert Marison said on Saturday, December 12, 2009:

Excellent move - this feature was overdue! Thanks.