Affiliate links - Do they all track??

[Affi Liate]

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I was just reading a recent post about Blah! tracking on Affiliate Future (posted by one of our affiliate comrades). He was identifying a lack of confidence in the tracking (after making a purchase himself that did not track).

Very good point this.

Does anyone have any hard facts on this subject? Reason I ask...

I called TD during December because I was concerned about stats relating to heavilly promoted ppc campaigns resulting in zero sales. The TD staff were very helpful and checked my links whilst we were on the phone and the explanation I got (from TD) was that if the link worked (ie the link ends up where it is supposed to) then any SALES* "must" be tracked. NOW that to me is a good answer if it IS actually the case (and I'm not suggesting this is true of other networks).

This is something I'm going to look into in depth over the next week as I'm about to go large on an array of ppc capmpaigns.

But the bottom line here is we need CONFIDENCE that the links are tracked.

Any thoughts anyone? Or any hard facts on this?

Another Great Post From: Affi Liate
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*Apparently if your links are not created "QUITE" correctly (but still work) SALES are tracked but clicks and other data may not be (hence the "traffic error" report in the TD account interface).

[renegade]

If you read or search the forum archives you'll see that sadly links not tracking is just one of many ways affiliate sales shrink. Sorry to shatter your rose-tinted specs

[drivetowin]

In any campaign it would be worth factoring in 10% of sales not tracking - in many cases it's not the network and/or the merchants fault, there are lots of reasons why a sale might not track.

[Supercod]

I wrote a post about 3 and half years ago on the subject of "not tracking, what could it be" see http://www.a4uforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=14873 almost all of them are as valid today as it was back then.

Problem is no network or merchant can claim perfect tracking, sadly some things will not track and you will see from the list of reasons on the other post just why no one can claim that.

[aaclapham]

It makes depressing reading. I think I lose about 2-3 in every 10 sales.

I work for a large organisation and I email a newsletter once a month and ask people to email me if they buy anything so I can monitor tracking.

All the pc's are the same make and all behind the same firewall etc.... however I am forever getting untracked sales. Some networks are fine but two are a miracle if anything tracks.

I now have to spend 15 minutes every night forwarding order confirmations on to the networks.

The worrying thing is these are the sales I know about - how much commission am I losing in my ppc campaigns

[Supercod]

Get them to save the thank you / order confirmation pages if they can (it's simply a matter of view source and save the text file). This will have the tracking call back code in it plus the details to find out what has gone on. Of course if it has no tracking code in it then that's the problem.

[Ryan Gilbert]

You are and you do lose sales all the time, there is no denying it. The only thing we can do it to provide a better tracking system to catch transactions where the user deletes their cookies or the cookies are blocked or overwritten. I'm sure Clarke would love to hear me going on about cookie-less again so I will... we think we have gained around 8% to 10% more transaction by using 'true cookie-less' tracking. (Not IP tracking, not database tracking.) Even though we make out that cookieless tracking is the best thing since sliced bread, it's still not perfect. However, it is a step in right direction. Don't take my word for it, if you want more sales tracked, you should use our tracking.

[futureweb]

I have brought 3 things from one network through my affliliate links and 100% failed to track and so I never do any ppc for their merchants. I have had sales but it makes you wonder if I would of had more.

[Supercod]

Ryan, you know I love hearing things that are steps towards to making tracking better for Affiliates. For example database tracking is one of the things Paid On Results has active on only a couple of Merchants and that has proven to capture a small but significant percentage of extra sales as unlike any cookie based tracking it can work for example if someone orders from home machine or from the office the sales can still track provided that have registered with the site be it signed up or previous customer at some point, so again not perfect but something no cookie can do not even the flash based cookie that you guys set on Webgains.

But as I am type of guy that can recognise advances in Affiliate Marketing and praise them I am happy to say how Webgains has used Flash based cookies to track sales is very nice (something like 98% according to Adobe of people online have the ability to view flash). However don't expect to be the only Network striving for new improvements in tracking, Paid On Results have set about reinvesting our own money and time into developing a system to restore cookies that are deleted, as yet we are not sure how well it will work but the demo system we put together managed it every time across a few different browsers, however I am still never going to be fool hardy to say there exists a bullet proof system as that simply is not true but more advances that can be done in this area will benefit all Affiliates and Merchants to ensure the correct information is measured and reported.

[Ryan Gilbert]

cool, sounds interesting! I'd be interested to know what other networks are investing in better tracking technologies to address the problem. I suspect POR and Webgains are the only networks investing time and money here... unless someone wants to prove me wrong? The more minds and money invested here will see us get closer to bridging the gap

[Brendon]

It's a bit "deep-future" and not really applicable now, but IPv6 will (or should) provide an answer. Given the vast number of IP addresses that will be available, it will be possible for every person on Earth to be assigned a personal IP number, and also for just about every electronic device to also have an individual IP address.

This will help solve one of the major problems, by virtually eliminating doubt as to the identity of customers (at least where that information is shared) by matching IPs from the affiliates site to IPs associated with orders.

Since I'm virtually certain that the banks will insist on credit cards having their own IPs when they eventually figure out what the Interweb is, and how it all works, that makes identification and verification of orders quite easy.

The "last-click" issue will remain, and will likely be forever insoluble : that's a function of human nature though

[aaclapham]

I suspect POR and Webgains are the only networks investing time and money here...

If thats the case then looking at AM as a whole then it is very disappointing..... however well done to both of your networks.