Sales declined "Not Last Referer"

[cashchampion]

Hi guys,

I have a merchant that I am working with, and am getting quite a few declined sales for the reason given "Not Last Referer".
The merchant has said this is because the ppc agency they use is typically the last referer. Now I could normally understand this.
However, I am offering a discount code that gives a better price than going direct. Plus, this reason results in 20% declines. (this is a high value retail/entertainment) product. I know of another affiliate promoting the same product(s) that has a 17% decline rate for the same reason.

Has anyone else had this issue before, or heard of it?

many thanks,
marc

[adamski]

Hi Marc

It could be that the merchant is de-duping against brand PPC so the customers are using your site to find the discount code then at a later date using Google to find the brand before making their purchase. Just a guess mind you.

Let me know the merchant in question and we'll look into it for you.

Adam

[confuscius]

... but if the sale was the result of a Google click then why is the cookie not overwritten?

This issue has been raised on SW Forum and the reason given for not last referrer was that the Merchant was on another network.

What would be really useful is a COMPREHENSIVE list of ALL of the circumstances which can lead to the 'Not Last Referrer' syndrome. Anyone fancy starting the ball rolling?

[cashchampion]

Hi Adam,

I have already emailed Claire and the account manager at this particular merchant and they have just said that this has been previously discussed and is a result of the ppc agency. It doesnt make much sense to me.

confuscius, thanks for ur comments. As far as I know the merchant is only on this one network. They have said it is the ppc agency. Could it really account for 20% of my sales?

cheers,
Marc

[adamski]

... but if the sale was the result of a Google click then why is the cookie not overwritten?

This issue has been raised on SW Forum and the reason given for not last referrer was that the Merchant was on another network.

What would be really useful is a COMPREHENSIVE list of ALL of the circumstances which can lead to the 'Not Last Referrer' syndrome. Anyone fancy starting the ball rolling?

Hi Confuscius

The situation can differ from client to client depending on the business rules they operate. Technically, if the merchant is using 3rd party software to de-dupe or are manually de-duping, the sales will still appear through the affiliate interface and have to be declined based on manually cross referencing data from other sources.

It is not always the case that the merchant is techincally set up to de-dupe their PPC activity with their affiliate programme at source. Likewise, the situation could be the same if the merchant operates on another network. They would need to use local cookies to make sure de-duping is automatic. In some cases, and I would stress that it's very few, the merchants do this manually.

Cashchampion:

We are contacting the merchant today to establish exactly what rules they're using to de-dupe and Claire will be in touch to let you know. We will also be discussing the implementation of automatic de-duplication to avoid further confusion in the future.

Adam

[confuscius]

Hi Adam

Thanks for the insight. It strikes me that a comprehensive list of what each Merchant's procedures are would be very helpful. i.e. which merchants are on other networks, which merchants do manual de-dduping, etc.

Are there any other circumstances under which 'not last referer' can arise?

I am sure that affiliates can collectively build a list of those merchants who use 'not last referer' as the reason for the decline and then seek individual clarification but it may be better if the Network helped the process along. Perhaps, all merchants should be required to disclose this information on their merchant information pages. Interested in other affiliates' views.

Paul

[adamski]

Hi Paul

I think your suggestion is an excellent one and something we are striving to achieve next year.

Information like this should be made available on all merchant information pages. It is incumbent on us to provide merchants with facilities to disclose it and affiliates with a means to view it quickly and efficiently.

Adam

[darrenb]

I had a 'not last referer' query last week whereby both myself and the merchant i was promoting were using ppc for a particular product. Having received declined transactions i queried the reason and was told that as the merchants ppc ad was clicked first and mine afterwards then the commission would be declined.

The reason 'not last referer' was used in the declined description which in my eyes does not describe the real reason. I think more detailed reasons for declined commission would be very helpful.

Also in other declined transactions the details are simply 'cancelled', again more detail would be useful as to which party cancelled or even a reason why, that way in the future i could try and reduce this happening if at all possible.

I understand to write descriptions for each declined transactions may take time but something a little more detailed and correct than the current reasons would be very useful.

[nim-b]

Also in other declined transactions the details are simply 'cancelled', again more detail would be useful as to which party cancelled or even a reason why, that way in the future i could try and reduce this happening if at all possible.

Surely is the 'order cancelled' or 'booking cancelled' reasons, which are self explanatory? I can't see a reason that just says 'cancelled' in the AWin merchant interface.

I think a fuller explanation of decline reasons for each merchant is an excellent idea, however I think this should be a list in the merchant details section, and not additions to the list of reasons merchants can give- its important to keep these simple.

So in the merchant details there would be a list of the different types of cancellation, and each merchant would explain fully how they occur on their programme.

So for example for Firebox we would say...

'Order not shipped, manual commission to be added'
This means it's a preorder. The customer has placed the order but not paid for it and we are waiting for stock before charging them. Once this has happened we will add the commission in manually. Please note that these orders can be cancelled by the customer just as with any other order.

I'm sure it would save some account management time- if affiliates had somewhere to look first for the explanation it would make things easier.

Cheers
Naomi

[8601cam]

Hi darrenb,

I agree the term 'not last referrer' is not relevant in the situation you outlined but that's because the merchant is doing something very odd.

The term last referrer is one known well in affiliate circles as it denotes the mechanism to identify where to attribute a reward when multiple referrers are involved. Putting 'multi-attribution' aside the affiliate channel generally regards rewarding the last referrer as common practice.

Please let me know the merchant in question so I can have it looked into. I think some education may be required.

Regarding your question on merchants supplying more in depth explanations rather than 'cancelled', I believe we already offer this. When a transaction is cancelled it will only be accepted by the system if the merchant either chooses one of several comprehensive reasons for the cancellation or includes a custom explanation themselves. This even works when using batch files.

We cannot control the options selected by merchants and I admit that in some instances there are those who will merely use the term cancelled. Many others however appreciate that the extra clarity will give the affiliates better guidance on why sales are not being confirmed enabling them to either acknowledge this fact or tweak campaigns.

Kind Regards

Mark

[darrenb]

I had a few declined transactions yesterday where the reason 'cancelled' was used and no further explanation given.

The merchant in question is not one i have promoted much in the past but when close to 50% of the commission (albeit on a small number of orders) are declined with the reason 'cancelled' it made me consider questioning the declines in more detail.

They may have been cancelled for various valid reasons but a little more explanation would have helped where possible.

Mark I will email you regarding the other query.

[Bud]

Hi guys,

I have a merchant that I am working with, and am getting quite a few declined sales for the reason given "Not Last Referer".

Adam - I'm also seriously concerned about one particular merchant.

Have PM'ed you.

Thanks
--<br>Posted via my Mobile Device

[OneDay]

Can anyone point me in the direction of where I see the reason for a declined sale please? I had my first on the 19th and can't see on any report where the reason is given.

[Bud]

How to see the reason for decline:

Go into your AW account:
In Reports (bottom right)
Select Merchant Performance and a period ie. Month
On that page tick the 'Declined' box (towards top right - Include columns in report)
Now select 'Generate Report' (towards top left) after choosing a date range.
In one of the colums generated you'll see the sales pending, confirmed and declined.
Click on the declined amount in the Comm. column.
You should now see all the declined sales for during the date period you selected.
On the very left hand side is a column, 'Status' - hover over the red dots and a title box will open giving the reason for decline.

[OneDay]

Thanks Bud, I'm pretty good at loitering but hadn't hovered

So it says "Not last referrer". Are we all talking about the same merchant or is this a normal decline reason? As mentioned, it's my first decline on Awin and I took time yesterday to follow the trail of the customer. Their search query was very relevant, they found exactly what they were looking for on my specific product page and after wandering around the category page came back to the product page and clicked the 'buy from merchant' button. The time of the sale on AWin's report coincides with the time they clicked from my page to the merchant's page so would another referer comes into the transaction?