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Banner Ad Coding Help There are 5 components to the OWT Banner Ad Management System: To create your banner ads you must have a rudimentary knowledge of HTML - with at least enough knowledge to generate image statements (<IMG SRC=...). Beyond that, the system will do the rest. While the complex features of the system involve ad and group creating the real power of the system is the logging and statistics. Each ad is assigned a unique
number when it is created in the system. Groups are also
assigned unique numbers. Group management is as simple as
adding ads to the desired groups. All ads in a particular
group will rotate in selection randomly. It is possible to
set a group so that it selects all of your ads randomly as
well.
The Ad Creation screen looks something like this:  As with all Banner Ad Systems forms you must enter your ID number and Password. The Title field is simply for your reference - enter something here to help you remember what the ad is all about. For standard banner ads consisting of a single graphic or code snippet linked to a particular URL you just enter the URL (including http://) in the URL field. If you wish the ad code to direct the user directly (eg. when you use a form or image map in the ad) simply enter a * as the only entry in the URL field. This tells the system that all linking will come from the Code field. Entry into the code field will require some HTML skills. The example above shows the most common method in which a graphic is linked. Note that the graphic height and width are specified to avoid unsightly redraw jitter in some browsers. Also notice the recommended border=0 statement so that the ad will not be bordered. Any other code should work here but it must be coded virtually (i.e. it must be coded to work from anywhere within your site). We suggest you begin ever SRC or HREF with a / to code relative from the root of your domain. Once you have entered your ad information click on the Submit Ad button. You will then see your ad number and the code required to display just that ad individually. Note:
since most new browsers refuse to display HTML within form
fields, banner ads are not editable. You may,
however, delete ads quite easily. See the section on
Reviewing
and Editing.
Group management is really quite simple: you create groups and assign ads to them. The most common group will simply contain a * indicating that all of your ads (present and future) should be included in the random rotation.  After entering your ID and Password enter your ad rotation enter the ads you wish to include in your new group or a * if you wish all ads (present and future) to be included. After you have entered your group information click on the Create Group button. You will then see your new group number and the code necessary to display the group on your web pages. Unlike ads, you will be able to edit the group information later to add or delete ads from the group list. See the section on Reviewing and Editing.
Since it is possible to create a system of groups that can be accessed individually from different pages, it is important to be able to easily modify your group information. Once you have entered your ID and Password in the Review/Delete Banner Ad Info form you will see a screen something like:  The link from each Ad # will display that ad along with a link (View Code) that will display all of the information about that ad as well as the code so that you may copy it into your clipboard to use as a template for another ad or if the ad needs to be deleted and reentered with changes. The link from each Group # will display a sample of the group. Use the Edit Banner Ad Group form to actually edit the group (see below). Under the Delete ? heading are checkboxes for each ad. Checking any or all of the ads or groups and clicking on Delete Selected will delete all of the checked ads and/or groups. Editing a group is accomplished from the Edit Banner Ad Group form. Enter your ID, Password and the group number you wish to edit into the form and a screen similar to the one below will be displayed:  Enter your group changes in the form field and press Update Group to save your changes. Displaying Your Ads Ad display involves the use of Server-Side Includes which are parsed by our web server and processed before a page is sent to the client browser. CGI is available to display both individual ads or groups. Displaying an individual ad: where ID =
your ID number and Displaying a group: where ID =
your ID number and Ads within a group will rotate randomly based upon a time key, so if you hit the Refresh or Reload button immediately after load you may often see the same ad. If you are directing your own code (and have put an * in the URL field) your link statement should include: where URL =
the FULL URL of the link eg. <a href="/cgi-bin/clickthru?http://www.somedomain.com,555,3" target="_top"><img src="/ads/somesite.gif" height=72 width=425 border=0></a> Now that you have created ads and groups you, and your customers, will want to know how effective the ads are over time. Each ad is logged in your log file when it is viewed and also when it is clicked through to the linked site. Log files include the following information:
Utilities are included to support viewing, summarizing, Emailing and clearing log files. These utilities are intuitive and should not require any instruction. View Log File - this is really not a very useful utility as log files will typically be quite large. However the utility is included so that you can view log files using your browser if you wish. Request Tab Delimited Log File Via Email - it is much easier to deal with a log file offline. This utility will mail you your log file in a tab delimited format so that you may import the file into a spreadsheet or database for analysis. View Ad Statistics - the best way to see your results. This utility will display satistics for ads in any of your groups, by month, in an easy to read table. Included are: Ad #, Ad Title, Views, Click Thrus and Percent Click Thrus. Sample:
Clear Your Banner Ad Log - Periodically (we suggest monthly) you should extract the statistics you need from the system and clear your log files. At some point the Webmaster may require that you clear your log files due to size. |
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