Direct tracking pixel is an alternative tracking method that allows you to track visits to campaigns without being redirected from the tracker to the landing / offer. This speeds up the process of redirecting visitors from the traffic source to your landing page, since there is no unnecessary redirection - all users go directly to the page.
The direct tracking pixel consists of two parts: the direct tracking URL and the script.
The direct tracking script located on the lander / offer page sends the campaign ID to the tracker to report the visit by sending an HTTP request. The process takes place without redirection, which is why this method is called direct tracking.
When used on a landing page, a script for Landers (lander-to-offer URL) adds an encrypted parameter that is decoded on the PeerClick side to redirect to the correct offer.
Direct Tracking Pixel Benefits
The direct tracking pixel allows you to track visits in a completely new way that opens the door to many traffic sources where this type of tracking is highly recommended. In addition, you can find other reasons for using it:
Accelerating the process of redirecting visitors when switching to a landing page: there is no unnecessary redirection from the tracker to the landing page, as is the case with the redirect tracking method. Speed up mobile campaign funnels, especially on slow internet connections, without unnecessary redirects, visitors go straight to your page. This greatly affects LP CTR and conversion and increases these parameters at times.
If the source does not support links with redirects (Adwords, FB, MyTarget), then a pixel is the easiest option for integrating with a tracker.
Each landing page reload is recorded as a new visit, which means that every time your visitor can see a different set of offers in this campaign sequence.
Direct Tracking Limitations
With all the advantages of this method, there are some disadvantages to consider when choosing the correct tracking method. Direct Tracking has the following limitations:
Lander Settings: if you use a solution for semi-automatic design, this may not allow you to implement any external block of code.
Multiple Landers: the direct tracking ixel prevents you from using more than one lander per campaign due to this direct link between campaign and lander. Using multiple landers requires creating the same number of campaigns and submitting all of those direct tracking URLs to the traffic source platform.
Setting Up Direct Tracking Pixel
Select a campaign and click the Edit button.
Go to the Tracking section.
Copy the code from the Direct Tracking Pixel field.
If your campaign funnel uses a lander, paste the copied code to the lander HTML code, Head section.
If your campaign’s funnel doesn’t use landing and the direct link leads directly to the offer, paste the copied code into the offer HTML-code in the Head section. You need to be able to edit the offer HTML code.
Pay attention that this code will be different for each campaign. After adding the code, you can send traffic directly to the landing / offer. All clicks will be displayed in the tracker report as if they were passing through the campaign URL. Reports on all metrics and groupings will be available.
The connection protocol (http or https) of the pixel must match the connection protocol of the page where it is located. If you put a pixel with the http protocol on a landing / offer with the https protocol (or vice versa), tracking will not be performed.
The pixel connection protocol depends on the SSL of your domain. How to get SSL.