Analytics Overview
Bannerize includes a built-in analytics system that tracks how your banners perform. Every time a banner is displayed or clicked, Bannerize records the event along with contextual data, giving you a complete picture of your advertising effectiveness.
What Gets Tracked
Impressions
An impression is recorded each time a banner is rendered on a page for a visitor. Bannerize tracks:
- Banner ID — which banner was displayed
- Timestamp — when the impression occurred
- Referrer URL — the page where the banner was shown
- IP Address — the visitor’s IP address
- User Agent — the visitor’s browser and device information
Clicks
A click is recorded when a visitor clicks on a banner link. The same contextual data is captured as with impressions:
- Banner ID — which banner was clicked
- Timestamp — when the click occurred
- Referrer URL — the page where the click happened
- IP Address — the visitor’s IP address
- User Agent — the visitor’s browser and device information
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
CTR is calculated automatically as:
CTR = (Clicks / Impressions) x 100A banner with 1,000 impressions and 25 clicks has a CTR of 2.5%.
How Tracking Works
Bannerize uses a lightweight tracking mechanism that does not rely on external services or JavaScript tracking pixels:
- Impressions are recorded server-side when the banner HTML is rendered in the page response
- Clicks are recorded via an internal redirect — when a visitor clicks a banner, the request passes through a Bannerize endpoint that logs the click before redirecting to the destination URL
- No cookies or client-side tracking scripts are used
Because impressions are tracked server-side during page rendering, they are not affected by ad blockers. Click tracking uses a redirect mechanism that is also resistant to most ad blockers.
Enabling and Disabling Tracking
Tracking can be controlled at two levels:
Global Level
Navigate to Bannerize > Settings > General to enable or disable tracking for the entire plugin:
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Impressions Enabled | Enable or disable impression tracking for all banners |
| Clicks Enabled | Enable or disable click tracking for all banners |
Per-Banner Level
Each individual banner has its own tracking toggles in the banner editor:
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Impressions Enabled | Enable or disable impression tracking for this banner |
| Clicks Enabled | Enable or disable click tracking for this banner |
The per-banner settings only work when the corresponding global setting is enabled. If global impressions tracking is disabled, no banners will record impressions regardless of their individual settings.
Analytics Dashboard
Navigate to Bannerize > Analytics to access the dashboard. The analytics section provides:
- Trend Charts — Visual charts showing impressions, clicks, and CTR over time
- Top 5 Performers — Rankings of your best-performing banners and campaigns
- Detailed Tables — Full data tables with filtering and sorting
- Export — Download analytics data in CSV or SQL format
See Impressions & Clicks for details on the trend charts and performance rankings, and Reports for export and data retention options.
Performance Impact
Bannerize analytics are designed to have minimal impact on page load performance:
- Impression tracking adds a single database write during page rendering
- Click tracking uses a lightweight redirect that adds minimal latency (typically under 50ms)
- Analytics data is stored in dedicated database tables optimized for write performance
- Data retention settings let you control table size to prevent slow queries over time
For high-traffic sites, consider configuring the data retention settings to automatically clean up old analytics records and keep database tables lean.
Privacy Considerations
Bannerize records IP addresses and user agent strings as part of analytics tracking. Depending on your jurisdiction, this may be considered personal data under GDPR or similar privacy regulations. Consider the following:
- Inform visitors about analytics tracking in your privacy policy
- Provide a mechanism for data subject requests (access, deletion)
- Configure data retention to automatically remove old records
- If you do not need detailed analytics, you can disable tracking entirely in the global settings
