Whos clicking and When

Any tools out there to tell me more than overture does?

[evolutionary]

I may be asking for a lot, but I figure I'm paying enough for it...

Are there any tools available to find out whos clicking and when? I know this is a big .....hush hush 'security' issue, but I have to ask.

I also have an issue with 'repeat' clicks. Overture claims to have systems to guard against this, yet our tests show different.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

[SmallTime]

If you have referer logs available from your web site (see the tracking and logging forum or search) you can add a tracking url to see where page requests are coming from, and repeat visitors -like your competitor :). Pretty sure this topic has been discussed a few times, so a search (above left) will give you more info.

[raja4]

We track with HitsLink and when complained to Overture about some invalid clicks, they refunded us $876.23 ( we spend almost $6000 every month) for just one and half month period. So it is very important to keep track of the hits.

[tedster]

Yes, Overture takes competitive clicking very seriously and they will move mountains to satisfy you if you give them the data.

One other refreshing quality - they care about the little guy's input not just the big bucks stars. They know that the little guy may be able to take a closer look than the big spender, and therefore the input can be extremely useful to them.

The short story is they know that their entire business model falls apart if they can't keep the click charges clean.

[evolutionary]

Raja4- any info on Hitslink? Is that a service, software or other? Sounds like what we are looking for, thank you

Tedster- Wow, do you work for overture or connected? We have had terrible...terrible service with overture...from day one. I don't have time or the room to list the discrepancies. It is the poor customer service and conflicting information we have received from overture which instigated the need to monitor our hits. Like Raja4, we spend a lot of money and expect comparable service.....for overtures sake, i hope we are the minority.

[sudden]

We are using an online tracking service (mail me for url) for a few weeks now, no complaints so far. They offer nice visitor tracking (including a page refreshes report), which makes it easy to find the guy looking 500 times at your index page within an hour.. :(

From our experience so far, it seems that many of the fake clicks are being recognized by Overture - but by far not all of them. Espotting seems to be a lot worse in this context, their software filters out far less fake clicks.

I spoke to our account manager: Espotting only counts one click per affiliate per five minutes - so they say. However, we have our doubts wether this really works..

One other thing for the big budget.. :) I think overture has an "Ambassador Program" for clients spending more than US$ 3000,- per month. We never used it so far ;), but it sounds like a little more service (e.g. a personal account manager), you might want to give it a try.

[raja4]

This program create a small script that you have to copy on a page you want to track. Very easy to use software and works well. Their site is [hitslink.com...]