Programmer - What are the Best Practices For SQL Inserts on Large Scale in reference to ad impressions?

Programmer Question

I am working on a site where I will need to be able to track ad impressions. My environment is ASP.Net with IIS using a SQL Server DMBS and potentially Memcached so that there are not as many trips to the database. I must also think about scalability as I am hoping that this application becoming a global phenom (keeping my fingers crossed and working my ass off)! So here is the situation:

• My Customers will pay X amount for Y Ad impressions


• These ad impressions (right now, only text ads) will then be shown on a specific page.


• The page is served from Memcached, lessening the trips to the DB


• When the ad is shown, there needs to be a "+1" tick added to the impression count for the database

So the dilemma is this: I need to be able to add that "+1" tick mark to each ad impression counter BUT I cannot run that SQL statement every time that ad is loaded. I need to somehow store that "+1" impression count in the session (or elsewhere) and then run a batch every X minutes, hours, or day.

Please keep in mind that scalability is a huge factor here. Any advice that you all have would be greatly appreciated.