The first step is to get the proper tracking pixel from the ad network. The network will likely need certain pieces of information from the agency/advertiser to give you this tag, such as what metric(s) you want to optimize with, as well as the various pieces of data you want to pass along with this tag (i.e., order size, quantities, zip code of customer et cetera).

The network will then generate a tag that the advertiser will implement on the proper landing page(s) of their site. Typically, this is the confirmation page, so that they are able to see transactions produced from the campaign. But it could also be a thank-you page after a consumer registers for a sweepstakes or requests a brochure.

Whatever the goal of the campaign, the page that needs to be tagged is the one that appears once the user has done what you wanted them to do.

It depends on the advertiser's tech resources and timelines, but inserting lines of code on one (or a few) pages is not difficult and usually takes a short amount of time.

You may run into the challenge of technology pipeline bottlenecks.
While working at a couple large clients in the retail and travel space, it became clear that even an easy task still needs to get prioritized along with all of the other things being done to the site. So begin this process of getting the tags implemented as soon as possible to make sure that when your campaign is ready to launch, the proper tracking is in place.

Click here to see sample code.

Note: currently, if you're an advertiser working with multiple ad networks, you'll need to get tracking pixel(s) for each one.

Next: Ad network optimization