Cross Program Tracking @ Webgains

[Sachin Thanki]

Hi Everyone,

We’re looking to launch cross program tracking. This will allow affiliates to receive commissions for sales that are made across multiple sites belonging to the same merchant. This has obvious benefits for all affiliates but it does create an issue which we need your help with. A possible scenario that could occur with the cross program tracking is as follows:

Customer clicks on Affiliate A’s link to Merchant A. Customer does not purchase anything and leaves the site. The customer then clicks on Affiliate B’s link to Merchant B. The customer then clicks on a link on Merchant B’s site to Merchant A and then goes on to make a purchase.

The question is who should receive the commission:

Affiliate A – as this was the initial referrer to Merchant A’s site.
Affiliate B – as this was the last click through.

We believe that there is an argument for each side so we'd thought we’d ask you. We would prefer to set this up the way affiliates want it rather than what we think you want.

[Rich]

First off, thanks for asking! It makes a change from networks deciding the rules for situations like this and it being a struggle for affiliates to find out how things are set up.

My initial thoughts are it depends on how similar the Merchant's sites are.
i.e. if the two sites contain quite different products then its likely that Affiliate A's referral has played a more important role in the decision to purchase than the referral from Affiliate B. But then there is the argument that, without Affiliate B, the user might not have got back to Site A.

If the sites are focused on a quite similar product then Affiliate B has provided a visitor when they were ready to purchase that type of product, which is what affiliate marketting is all about.

I think your use of Merchant A & B rather than Site A & B in a way highlights this. If the two sites are similar they are probably run internally as one system so the two sites could be thought of as just one merchant, in which case last referrer to either site wins. If the two sites are different then they are probably run totally separately, i.e as if they were two merchants, so the referrals should be kept separate.

Also what if you replaced affiliate B's referral by a referral from a PPC ad paid for by the merchant? Should that then stop affiliate A from getting a sale from site A.

The other side is, is cross program tracking actually good for the merchant? Other than allowing them to cross promote their sites, which doesn't seem a big plus, what benefits do they get? Do those benefits outweigh the extra commissions they will have to pay due to the linking of the programs?

E.g. Customer clicks on Affiliate A’s link to Merchant A. Customer does not purchase anything and leaves the site. The customer then clicks on free google result to Merchant B, or enters their URL. Does affiliate A get the commission for that sale? What is the merchant paying for?

[hero]

Originally Posted by Rich Customer clicks on Affiliate A’s link to Merchant A. Customer does not purchase anything and leaves the site. The customer then clicks on free google result to Merchant B, or enters their URL. Does affiliate A get the commission for that sale? What is the merchant paying for?

this is a completely different question, you're questioning about cross-platform tracking, to which there is a whole thread about

This is within the same platform, affiliate marketing. There are 2 ways of dealing with cross-site promotions in a program, you either remove the links for affiliate traffic or you reward for all sales.

[Supercod]

Without a doubt it has to be the last referrer, if you send someone to Merchant A site and it has a link to Merchants B and the person follows that link to buy something, then you as the person to last referrer that person should be getting the reward, to reward an Affiliate that sent someone to Merchant B that never bought anything is not going to work and will result in people playing the lets set loads of cookies game.

Look at it this way, if an Affiliate Deep linked to a product, the person viewed that product, then a week later the person goes via another Affiliates link and end up on a different page but then goes on to buy the product that they seen last week via the other Affiliate should the first who never made the sale get rewarded, no of course not as it was the 2nd Affiliate that got him back to the site to make a purchase. This is the same thing just it involves 2 sites from the same merchant.

[Rich]

Have you quoted the wrong section there? I can't see what cross-platform tracking has to do with free referrals (or atleast cross-platform tracking should have nothing to do with free referrals). Did you mean the bit where I mentioned merchant PPC?

In either case they are important cases that need to be looked at in relation to how cross program tracking is set up.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Supercod Without a doubt it has to be the last referrer, if you send someone to Merchant A site and it has a link to Merchants B and the person follows that link to buy something, then you as the person to last referrer that person should be getting the reward...

Its the "it has a link to Merchants B and the person follows that link to buy something" part that leads to the grey area. What if the user doesn't use that link or there is no link?

Customer clicks on Affiliate A’s link to Merchant A. Customer does not purchase anything and leaves the site.
The customer later clicks on Affiliate B’s link to Merchant B. Customer does not purchase anything and leaves the site.
The customer later returns to Merchant A by entering the URL and then goes on to make a purchase.
Who gets the commission?

[hero]

Originally Posted by Rich Customer clicks on Affiliate A’s link to Merchant A. Customer does not purchase anything and leaves the site. The customer later clicks on Affiliate B’s link to Merchant B. Customer does not purchase anything and leaves the site. The customer later returns to Merchant A by entering the URL and then goes on to make a purchase. Who gets the commission?

Affiliate A gets the commission - if the customer didn't click on any links on the merchant B's site after visiting affiliate B's site, then no other cookie has been collected.

The scenario we're investigating is:
Customer goes on Affiliate A site, clicks through to Merchant A site. Leaves
Same customer goes on Affiliate B site, clicks through to Merchant B, then clicks through from Merchant B to Merchant A site, where an order is placed.
Who should get commission on your opinion? Affiliate A as initial referrer or Affiliate B as last referrer?

NB: Merchant A and Merchant B belong to the same group of companies, not necessarily similar products, and they want to cross-advertise their sites.

[1BIZLIST]

Well I am still very new to AM but as far as I have understood the basic principals of AM, it seems that the last referer always gets the commission, in the case you state it would seem only fair that he does anyway, as without aff B I would guess the customer may never have got back to Merch A site at all.

FYI I really like the idea of cross advertising the sites, as I can only see this leading to a situation where more commission could be earned rather than less.


Mark.

[mateypeeps]

If affiliate A did not manage to convince the customer to buy using his link, then hard-cheese, the affiliate B managed to do it later (even if by a fluke, if you like).

It is a little too hypothetical to say affiliate A must have preconditioned the customer to buy the product, so deserves some or all of the commission. It might be theoretically true to some small extent, but if they had done a proper job in the first place and presold the product effectively enough, then the customer would have bought there and then during the visit using affiliate A's link.

Last cookie set counts.

Unless into the 180solutions scenaro of {scum spyware affiliate link hijackers}, when it is definitely not fair or ethical, or possibly even legal, for the last affiliate to be paid for the sale, if that is from link hijacking, replacing the affiliate A referral ID with the hijacker's ID for the clickthrough that results in a sale.

Trouble is, how to sort out the two scenarios and alter the payments to the right affiliate?

[Ryan Gilbert]

Thanks to all that have contributed so far!

We will be looking to set cross program tracking live early in the week at which time we will let you know which programs it effects.

If you feel strongly for first referrer, please get your votes and comments in soon.

[Ryan Gilbert]

Thank you!
Thanks to all the affiliates that have contributed to this Poll! The result is that the last referrer regardless of origin will get the sale commission.

Cross tracking programs
Cross program tracking is now in place and active with the following merchants. (click on the merchants you want to signup to):

Suttons Consumer:
Dobies
Sutton Seeds
Ferndale Lodge

& Dream Direct:
Dream Direct