What should I know about Sequential rotators?

A sequential rotator will send incoming clicks to each individual rotator URL in order, and then when it reaches the bottom it will simply start over again at the top.

With the most basic setup, using a sequential rotator ensures that each individual rotator URL receives the same number of clicks, which is the primary reason to use one.

Keep in mind however that this is not always the case once you start using some of the optional rotator URL settings and options in a sequential rotator.

The way that rotators work, regardless of the type of rotator you choose, is that they always send each click to the next ELIGIBLE rotator URL – which is NOT always the “next” URL in the sequence.

Consider a sequential rotator with three individual rotator URLs:

URL #1 is added to the rotator with no other optional settings
URL #2 is added with a Max Daily Clicks setting of 20
URL #3 is added with geotargeting settings that only allow US traffic

As clicks come in to this rotator, the optional settings on URL #2 and URL #3 will cause these URLs to be skipped at times – so each URL will NOT receive the same number of clicks.

For example once URL #2 receives 20 clicks in a day it’s no longer eligible to receive any more clicks, so only URL #1 and URL #3 will be eligible to receive clicks for the rest of that day.

Or imagine that URL #3 is the “next” URL in line to receive a click, but the incoming click is from Canada. URL #3 only allows US traffic so it’s not eligible to receive the click from Canada, so it will be skipped over and the click from Canada will actually go to URL #1.

In short, if you don’t use any optional settings for your individual rotator URLs a sequential rotator will perfectly divide all of the incoming clicks between each rotator URL.

But once you start using some of the optional rotator URL settings this may not also be the case, so please keep this in mind as this will explain any “discrepancies” you see with sequential rotators.

If you want to use geotargeting with sequential rotators, here’s a “workaround” you might want to try. Just follow these steps:
 
1.    Create a “primary” rotator that receives all of your incoming traffic.
 
2.    Create a separate rotator for each “group” of URLs, based on their common settings. For example, the US only URLs should all be in one rotator. The Canada URLs should all be in their own rotator, etc.
 
3.    Place the rotators created in Step 2 above into the “primary” rotator created in Step 1.

Once you do something like this you’ll find that all of your US only URLs all receive the same number of clicks, all your Canada only URLs receive the same number of clicks, etc.