adrotator impressions property

[Zarcom]

Hey there guys and girls I was hoping that one of you had some experience with the adrotator control. It's pretty simple and straight forward except for the impressions property.

I would like to know what the number that you put into the impressions property actually does. I know that it somehow uses that property to decide which advertisment to display but I would like to know how that is decided.

If any of you have any idea or know where to look your input is greatly valued.

That'l do donkey, that'l do
Mark
If you are unsure of forum etiquette check here faq796-2540

 

[Zarcom]

Well I think I have managed to figure it out mineown self.

I set up a single ad rotator on a page and used the ad created event to record which ad was shown. Using the a stress tester I ran the page over and over (aprox. 2000 times) per session. With the numbers I have gathered I think I have the Impressions property figured out.

The numbers that you put into the Impressions property are completely relative to the other Impressions. For example if you put 100 as the impressions for the add tag it is meaningless until you compare it to the other tags.

Eg. <Ad>
<ImageUrl>AdImages/etol_logo_flag.gif</ImageUrl>
<Impressions>100</Impressions>
<Keyword>Small</Keyword>
</Ad>
<Ad>
<ImageUrl>AdImages/heavy-1.jpg</ImageUrl>
<Impressions>100</Impressions>
<Keyword>Small</Keyword>
</Ad>
<Ad>
<ImageUrl>AdImages/log_lpet.gif</ImageUrl>
<Impressions>115</Impressions>
<Keyword>Small</Keyword>
</Ad>
<Ad>
<ImageUrl>AdImages/peterbuilt.jpg</ImageUrl>
<Impressions>100</Impressions>
<Keyword>Small</Keyword>
</Ad>
<Ad>
<ImageUrl>AdImages/place-your-add.jpg</ImageUrl>
<Impressions>100</Impressions>
<Keyword>Small</Keyword>
</Ad>

In this case the ads are all displayed an equal amount of time except for the one in red. That advertisment will be displayed 15% more than the others. What I did was to take a base number in this case 100, any numbers that deviate from that base will be displayed more or less depending on if they are higher or lower than the base. If you changed one of the ads to 120 it would be displayed 20% more than the other advertisments and 4.3% more than the ad in red. The ad in red will still be displayed 15% more then the other 100 ads.

You just need to remember that everthing is comparative. If you have a base number that you can compare everything to it's a little easier to work with and your marketing people will be able to give out stats so that advertisers will know what they are paying for.

An excellent site that has a couple of ways to increase functionality of the control is

http://www.nakedvariables.com/showsubcat.aspx?id=28&head=ASP.NET+>+User+Controls

If anyone has questions on this subject feel free to post, I think I have a handle on it now.

That'l do donkey, that'l do
Mark
If you are unsure of forum etiquette check here faq796-2540