Reporting Delays Clarification

[TD Nick]

Hi all,

we would like to clarify the periods when you can expect delays to your TradeDoubler reporting, and, also the typical wait you can expect during all periods.

Invoicing - end of each month.

During this period you can expect delays running in to several hours. The reason for the delay is due to the database locking and allowing TradeDoubler to create an "instance" of our clients invoice. During this time transactions from our tracking servers can not be committed to the database.

Payment - middle of each month.

During this period you can expect delays running in to several hours. The reason for the delay is the processing power required by the database to create publisher payments, again, during his period we can not commit transactions to the database.

Unscheduled delays

During the periods when TradeDoubler have unplanned delays (perhaps due to server reboots), this will be announced on the publisher site where the delays are expected to be more than 1-2 hours.

Normal service

During periods of normal service sales and lead transactions can take up to 40 minutes as long as the advertiser reports transactions back to TradeDoubler in real time. To check if a specific advertiser batches transactions, visit the advertiser’s program page in TradeDoubler and look under "technical information".

Many of the more technically minded here will know the database is the bottleneck of any system - it's possibly the only system that cannot be scaled cost effectively. You can add 100's of web servers, application servers etc but they all need to report to one database only.

We hope this clears the reporting issue up for you and would like to apologise for the inconvenience this may cause you.

Kind regards,

Nick

[Lee_Owen]

I think most know about the above, we witness it, thanks for the clarification though. Just one thing, how's about putting a last update clock on the stats page, which can be updated when stats have last been updated? that way we know when we're in the middle of an invoicing delay period, a payment delay period, an unscheduled delay period or a normal service delay period.

[Lee_Owen]

PS: Despite invoice day being tomorrow, stats haven't been behind, I've just had the worst day in ages, three sales. 00:36 bleeding european time, 10:10 bleeding european time and 17:04 bleeding european time. You know I look at my PC clock sometimes and now say 4pm for 17:00 HRS - nightmare!

If you drop DGM an e-mail I'm sure they'll be able to pass on the script they use to show the last time stats were updated so that in future I won't feel as miserable as I am right now.

PPS: I don't trust TD stats on slowdowns and I doubt many others do either, for that reason alone you should address this.

I'm going to go and kick the dog and ride the horse, tomorrow is always better. Tomorrow is however delayed by several hours so please pack lunch!

Edit - No snout again, I knew today would end up with me having a barney!

[jrisby]

I've just had the worst day in ages

same here lee.

[spatny]

Hi,

Me too

[halford]

Same here. Only 3 sales ( 08:05, 14:17 and 17:30) not a single lead. Worst day since 1/1.

[a4uforummember]

It has been said many times that people simply dont trust the broken stats days.

On the odd day that stats are unaffected... I have great sales days, when stats are delayed I have my worst sales days. I do not believe that all sales are filtered through once stats start to catch up.

TD never used to be like this.

[steveallinson]

It certainly gives you a feeling of distrust on these slow days. Despite the repeated line of 'All sales are still tracked' it's starting to seem less and less believable of late. I do hope this general feeling of discontent is being reported back to the big boys at TD.

[businessguru]

Unscheduled delays During the periods when TradeDoubler have unplanned delays (perhaps due to server reboots), this will be announced on the publisher site where the delays are expected to be more than 1-2 hours.

Regarding TradeDoubler Unscheduled Delays of “more than 1-2 hours” yesterday we experienced reporting delays over 10 hours long, why was this? Didn’t see any announcement on the publisher site and this isn’t the first time it’s happened.

Normal service During periods of normal service sales and lead transactions can take up to 40 minutes as long as the advertiser reports transactions back to TradeDoubler in real time. To check if a specific advertiser batches transactions, visit the advertiser’s program page in TradeDoubler and look under "technical information".

Normal Service - our specific advertisers don’t batch so this still doesn’t explain reporting delays over 10 hours long. Would love some feedback Nick, still hasn’t cleared the reporting issue up for us.

[a4uforummember]

The major announcement from the TradeDoubler home page right now is still...

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TradeDoubler would like to wish you all a happy new year, and wish you all the best for 2005.
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I guess everything is delayed. It really is rubbish right now.

[TD Nick]

Hi businessguru,

the reason for the recent delay is due to head office preparing/sending Publisher Payments - this is not an unscheduled delay.

We appreciate that the delays are frustrating and we are looking at solutions to minimise the impact this has on your day-to-day operations with TradeDoubler. In the meantime there will continue to be delays at the periods stated in my first post on this thread.

Regarding the stat delays, and integrity of the reporting during these periods, I am not sure how I can reassure you that everything is tracked - a tour of the technical operations at Head Office in Sweden would be one way, but I doubt I can whisk everyone out there ;-)

Anyone can contact our publisher team in the UK where we are more than happy to speak to anyone (and investigate where required) who believes there is a problem with their reporting/tracking.

Once again, we apologise for the inconvenience.

Nick

nick.roveta@tradedoubler.com

[Qui Gon Jinn]

a tour of the technical operations at Head Office in Sweden would be one way, but I doubt I can whisk everyone out there ;-)

Actually not a bad idea