google analytics - event tracking without affecting bounce rate

Question

I'm studding a way of using Google Analytics to track Ad impressions/clicks.
Looks like event tracking is the way to go.
Tracking clicks it's easy to implement. My doubt resides on impressions:

• using event tracking on page load will cut down my bounce rate to 0
• using a second profile doesn't look elegant (leave it for last resource)

GOAL: John loads page A and leave. Count 1 for impressions and 1 for bounce rate as it should.

Is there a way of doing it with Google Analytics?

Answer 1

(Edited to reflect new non-interaction option)

Yes, it will absolutely reduce your bounce rate to somewhere near zero (if you do not explicitly set the new non-interaction flag).

For past data, the closest proxy to bounce rate for when every page sends multiple hits to Google Analytics is using 'Visit Depth'; the % of visitors who view exactly 1 page is a close proxy for bounce rate in the instance you're describing, since it doesn't take into account event tracking.

UPDATE Nov 2011

There is a new feature in Google Analytics event tracking called "non-interaction events", where you can designate an event as being a non-interaction by passing true as a fifth argument (or, six item in the array).

Example:

_gaq.push(["_trackEvent", "Category", "Action", "Label", 3, true]);

This will instruct Google Analytics to not count the event as an interaction for the sake of bounce tracking.