Google Analytics Goals - is it possible to use with aff networks?

[cclapper]

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OK OK. I know you all know Google Analytics. I used it a lot and think its a great tool. However, in affiliate marketing it has one big flaw (correct me if I am wrong). One of the key metrics that I want to measure is how did the customers(not visitors) got to the purchase and I want to know everything about them.

Google Analytics offers Goal tracking, which is great but I think there is no way how to setup Goal tracking with affiliate networks like CJ,Buy.At,AffiliateWindow etc.. The reason for that is that there is no thank you page on your site where you could place the Google Analytics code. That limits the whole Google Analytics tracking to just visitor tracking and you need to find out from a separate system which e.g. keywords brought you the sale etc.

Every network I know has some kind of keyword tracking like EPI in Tradedoubler or SID in CJ. So what I use at the present is that I put the keyword that drove the person from search engine to the SID/EPI tracking and on the affiliate network reports I can see which keyword drove what sales. That's better but still not enough.

I want to see more - which pages the person saw, how long was on site, how long between person on the site and sale tracked in the affiliate network. Without lots of custom programming you can'd find out.

So..........

Is there any system that would do that for me? And if there isn't then I will build one and offer to the rest of you if you want

Sorry for a long post, I couldn't explain it shorter.

[123debtsolutions]

I don't know anything about network tracking etc.. But im thinking out loud could you not use a "0" pixel frame to install the code? Hope this helps.

Or speak to the network, thye may have a solution. Good Luck.

[cclapper]

I don't know anything about network tracking etc.. But im thinking out loud could you not use a "0" pixel frame to install the code? Hope this helps.

Or speak to the network, thye may have a solution. Good Luck.

Well..you could do that but then you would have to contact every merchant you are promoting through that network to put a pixel on their thank you page for every affiliate. I don't think any merchant or network would do that :/ Unless maybe for some very big affiliates?

[Deltrus]

Correct me if i'm wrong , but you're basically asking for are stats from the merchants website for visits you generated..yes?

One way this could work is if the merchant added you as a 'limited access user' (Google would have to make this possible if it doesn't already) to their Analytics account so that you could view data for only your referrals.

Whether or not merchants would be prepared to share this data though is another thing entirely.

[cclapper]

Correct me if i'm wrong , but you're basically asking for are stats from the merchants website for visits you generated..yes?

One way this could work is if the merchant added you as a 'limited access user' (Google would have to make this possible if it doesn't already) to their Analytics account so that you could view data for only your referrals.

Whether or not merchants would be prepared to share this data though is another thing entirely.

I don't think merchants would give access to the stats. I just want stats on my website combined with the sales information on the merchants website. I think AffiliateWindow has callback feature when sale happens on some merchants, but this would need to tie with Google Analytics or other stats package so you see the whole visit on your site + how much you have earned from that visit.

[keemo]

One thing you can do is track outbound links to the affiliate networks. This won't be the same as purchases made on the merchant sites but it's better than nothing.
PM me if you want some more details for your specific case.