Affiliate Tracking

[johnbenjamin]

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Hey guys,

I'm hoping to get different views on this.

I am working on a project of overhauling our present affiliate system and one of the areas i'm stuck with is the affiliate tracking.

Presently we use a 1x1 pixel tracking for banners, text links, etc to display the impressions, clicks and downloads. To me this seems a bit outdated and also a bit of a hindrance when I want to post a link at some place but cannot track the impressions/clicks unless I use the tracking pixel.

I was wondering if there is anything such as a 'best practice' guide for affiliate tracking? Would a kind of tracking without the tracking pixel help?

Thanks.

[Chuck_Hamrick]

John,

The industry certainly needs to get off of the cookie based 1x1 pixel tracking method but there has yet to be an alternative. Studies predict that 30-50% of cookies are blocked or deleted. The best tracking I have seen is from Post Affiliate Pro as they use session cookies, standard third party cookies and flash cookies. They require that you add a javascript on every page which can be done conditionally so its not popping off unless for affiliate tracking. Its dirty cheap but not for very large programs.

One suggestion is to find out how Visa handles their transactions as to my knowledge they are flawless.

If anyone has a bullet proof solution I am all ears.

[Barry]

I assume that you are running you own affiliate program, therefore the tracking has fewer links to break in. ie no network in-between you and your system

If you have an independent program you can employ a range of the techniques used by major networks at the moment, you can have javascript tracking, session tracking or flash tracking to track clicks - impressions I am not sure of.

Ta

Baz

[Route_One]

Hi,

The 1x1 pixel tracking is not such a bad solution provided you are using a technology such as TradeDoubler's G2 tracking solution. The key element to G2 is that it gets round the cookie blockers out there by passing the information stored in the cookie direct to the merchant to be included in the pixel when it reports back to the network. The result is that the sale or lead is still tracked regardless of the presence of a cookie on the users machine.

It's important to get the most information out of the pixel code, it is capable of passing a wide variety of information in addition to the order value and order number. For reporting purposes you should include the product details including any size breaks, colour variations and anything information that will help you optimize.

There are a large number of merchants who are not able to use a pixel based solution due to restrictions placed on their website. If we look at the finance sector for example, banks in particular, you will find that a high percentage are using a batch solution where information is stored line by line in a database and then sent to the network at the end of an agreed period.

This is not a bad solution as it's highly robust, however affilites need to be aware that the stats are not up to date.

I have noticed that many third party providers are asking merchants to add tracking code to track their specific activity without giving consideration to other marketing activity currently being tracked. This can lead to duplication issues when it comes to allocating commission to sales so be careful either to use one provider to track all your activity or to have a de-duplication process in place to ensure you are not double counting.

The tracking of impressions is not related to the 1x1 pixel on the conformation page, banner code has it's own impression code built in.

Regards,

Ollie