How To Choose The Right Affiliate Tracking Software

Transcription

1 How To Choose The Right Affiliate Tracking Software Affiliate Software Ebook

2 Table of Contents About this guide Affiliate Marketing Main criteria Tracking reliability Integration methods Feature set Mobile Customer Service The Solutions Hosted Perpetual license How does affiliate marketing work? Shopping list Payout Types Tracking & Technical Capabilities Reporting Support Services Glossary

3 About this guide Overview The purpose of this guide is to help businesses and individuals research, compare and pick the right affiliate tracking software to create and manage their affiliate program. This guide will help you select software, which is the best fit for your business objectives and marketing goals. It includes a comprehensive overview of the most popular features offered by affiliate software providers and the differences between Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions and self-hosted (in-house/perpetual) solutions. Some software companies include only SaaS, some only Self-hosted and some offer a mixture. Affiliate Marketing Affiliate Marketing is one of the most effective and least expensive ways to achieve higher targeted traffic, and increase sales. Affiliate marketing can be a powerful source of new sales and customers. According to Forrester Research U.S. affiliate marketing spending will reach $4.1 billion in 2014, up from $1.6 billion in Affiliate marketing, often referred as performance marketing is based on cost-per-action rewarding. Tracking technology and software to manage partners is essential for the success of any performance priced referral program. Affiliate marketing relies on accurate tracking of impressions, clicks, transactions, signups made across various channels including web, social, , mobile or offline. Affiliate marketing has made businesses millions and ordinary people millionaires. Bo Bennett Performance marketing now combines both offline and online promotional methods. This trend have forced affiliate marketers to rethink the purpose and potential of the industry. Geno Prussakov, author of Affiliate Program management: An Hour a Day and contributor to multiple marketing blogs thinks that the main idea of performance marketing is mutual benefit between advertisers and their affiliates. 3

4 I personally do not believe affiliate marketing to be a marketing channel or even a type of advertising. It is more appropriate to understand it as a way of structuring your relationship with other marketers, getting them interested to promote you, and being paid on performance basis. It is, therefore more appropriate to understand affiliate marketing as a special marketing context, the undergirding principle of which is its performance-based remunerating model. Geno Prussakov, Affiliate marketing Strategy interview, 2012 In other words, the main criteria when picking the right affiliate management software is mutual benefit for you as a merchant and your affiliates as advertisers. 4

5 Main criteria what to focus on 1 Tracking reliability The market offers solutions with various tracking methods to ensure maximum reliability. When picking the right affiliate tracking software, you should consider whether the solution offers at least 3 complementary tracking methods. Flash cookie tracking, browser first and third party cookie tracking and IP address tracking are among the most popular. 2 Integration methods Check what kind of shopping cart and payment processor you use and see if the software has an available integration method. If not, check if the software provider offers an integration service or custom work. This could save you additional expenses with hiring a developer or freelancer to do the integration. 3 Feature set Do you only have one product and want to run one simple campaign or you have hundreds of products with multiple campaigns and plan to scale your affiliate program easily? Before buying, you should consider your strategy for future and look for the feature sets of available solutions that will be the right fit for your business. 4 Mobile Check if the solution offers multiple device support. With mobile applications, you can control traffic coming in your affiliate program in real-time, check the number of pending affiliates, direct links and transactions directly in your smartphone. Your affiliates can also use the application to check their real-time performance. Customer service To run a performing affiliate program, you have to constantly improve it. That often comes with questions about the software, that you might not have an answer to. Check if the solution offers customer service when they re available (24/7 or business hours), where ( , phone, chat) and at what cost (free/only with premium plans)

6 Solutions SaaS Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions that are installed on the software s servers. Downloadable Server-side software that you install and manage in-house. 6

7 The Solutions There are two basic affiliate management technology solution types: Hosted Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions that are installed on the software s servers. Your instance is installed immediately, usually license updates are available for free. The solution provider handles servers for an affiliate software. Affiliate programs managed on hosted affiliate management software (SaaS) eliminate the need to develop, support and maintain costly web hosting. The Pros: Lower Initial Costs - SaaS applications are subscription based. No license fees mean lower initial costs. No server/webspace is required. Painless Upgrades - Because the SaaS provider manages all updates and upgrades, there are no patches for customers to download or install. The SaaS provider also manages availability, so there s no need for customers to add hardware, software, or bandwidth as the user base grows. Accessibility - SaaS solutions reside in cloud. Comparing with the traditional model, users do not have to buy another server or software. Online, permanent accessibility from anywhere is ensured. Backups and Data Recovery all done for you - If you are familiar with traditional software, you will know that unless a costly automated solution has been implemented, the process of backing up your data on a weekly basis can be laborious at the best of times. SaaS solutions eradicate this painstaking task, instigating automatic backups without user intervention and thus ensuring the integrity of your data. You can start your own affiliate program in minutes - Since there is no complicated software installation, you can start your affiliate program immediately. You do not need to upload application files to your servers or install anything. The Cons: Security - The number-one concern for businesses considering SaaS is often security: if sensitive company data and business processes are to be entrusted to a third-party service provider, then issues such as identity and access management particularly from mobile devices need to be addressed. Latency Issue - Again as data is stored in cloud far away from end user, it may take more transactional time as compared to traditional approach. 7

8 Perpetual license Server-side software that you install and manage in-house. You only pay a one time fee and install an affiliate software on your servers (web hosting). You are responsible for server errors, breakdowns and server availability. The advantage is that you have all your data under your control. Pros and Cons: The software will be installed on your own server with your own database. No data or statistics are kept on servers of affiliate software provider, your affiliate program does not send any data to affiliate software provider. How does affiliate marketing work? In order to run your own affiliate program, you will need to reward your affiliates for referred sales, leads, and clicks. The flow chart below displays how Post Affiliate Pro - affiliate management software works. BANNER AD The Affiliate shows an ad for the Merchan s product on his website 1 The Potential customer clicks on the ad which is tracked by PAP 2 The visitor is then redirected to the Merchant s website 3 4 This results directly into a commission for the Affiliate Some of the visitors buy the Merchant s product or service click and sale are both tracked by PostAffiliatePro 8

9 Shopping list The following shopping list offers a comprehensive and categorized view of common features available from major affiliate management software solutions. Payout Types Solution A Solution B Post Affiliate Pro Cost per sale Cost per lead Cost per download Cost per call Cost per action Cost per click Cost per mile Cost per install Recurring commissions Commission groups Cost per in-app event Concluded actions / chained actions Performance rewards Coupons (Offline Marketing) Multi tier commissions Lifetime Commissions Split Commissions 9

10 Tracking & Technical Capabilities Solution A Solution B Post Affiliate Pro Cookie-based tracking Flash cookie tracking Fingerprint tracking Web tracking Mobile tracking Promo code tracking Call tracking Custom tracking parameters Web services / ping backs Rich media hosting / serving Custom creative requests Data feeds / product catalog management Custom referral windows (cookie duration) Duplicate conversion elimination Selective pixel firing (universal container tag) Direct linking View through 10

11 Tracking & Technical Capabilities Solution A Solution B Post Affiliate Pro Unlimited number of Affiliates Extendable with plugins High Performance Impression Tracker Multiple Currencies Hover Banner Page Peel Banner Text link banners Image banners Banner Rotator Multiple Merchants Forced Matrix Site Replication Auto-Registering Affiliates Branding Free option Private Campaigns Direct Link Tracking Fraud Protection Discount Coupons Peel Banners Themes 11

12 Reporting Solution A Solution B Post Affiliate Pro Real time transaction reporting Custom report configurations Scheduled report delivery Attribution reporting and visibility into conversion path Drill down multi-sku reporting Network metrics Web services Concluded actions / chained actions Granular data (ref domain, geo, device type, etc.) Custom Notifications Quick Report Top URLs Report Top Affiliates Online Users Trends report 12

13 Support Services Solution A Solution B Post Affiliate Pro Live chat Technical support Integration support Post integration support Business support Fully developed help center Fully developed documentation Forum Knowledge Base 13

14 Glossary Advertiser An advertiser (also called affiliate merchant) is a business that increases sales, traffic and brand awareness through online advertising via a network of affiliate websites. Affiliate merchants create ads such as text links, static banner ads, flash banner ads and now even video ads for placement on affiliate websites. Merchants will normally pay affiliates a commission for every visit to the website or every sales conversion meaning they only pay for results. Affiliate An affiliate is a commercial entity with a relationship with a peer or a larger entity. Affiliates earn commissions on purchases made by these consumers. Affiliate link A URL tracking link that identifies the affiliate and sends traffic to advertiser s website. Affiliate links are the most common way to track referrals. Affiliate manager An affiliate manager supports affiliates and manages the overall affiliate program. He makes sure that both the affiliate program and affiliates stay active and performing. Affiliate marketing Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate's own marketing efforts. Charge back An invalid sale that results in the affiliate s commission being forfeited. 14

15 Click The action when a user clicks on a link or banner and follows through to the advertiser s website. Click-through rate (CTR) A ratio showing how often people who see your ad end up clicking it. CTR can be used to gauge how well your keywords and ads are performing. Cookie A cookie, also known as an HTTP cookie, web cookie, Internet cookie, or browser cookie, is a small piece of data sent from a website and stored in a user's web browser while the user is browsing that website. Commission Income an affiliate earns for generating a sale, lead or click-through to an advertiser s website. Conversion Completion of a specific action defined by an advertiser. Cost-per-action Online advertising pricing model, where the advertiser pays for each specified action - for example, an impression, click, form submit (e.g., contact request, newsletter sign up, registration etc.), double opt-in or sale. Cost-per-lead Online advertising pricing model, where the advertiser pays for an explicit sign-up from a consumer interested in the advertiser's offer. Custom referral widow It s the maximum period of time that a conversion event can be attributed back to a referral source. 1

16 Event An event is a tracked action such as impression, click, visit, signup or sale. Media partner See: Affiliate Publisher See: Affiliate Performance-based marketing Performance-based advertising is a form of advertising in which the purchaser pays only when there are measurable results. Promo code A unique set of numbers or letters that a consumer presents to an advertiser to receive a discount or some other promotional offer. Recurring commissions The process of rewarding an affiliate on a recurring basis whenever the advertiser charges a customer a recurring fee. (Common in SaaS businesses.) ROI Return on investment (ROI) is the benefit to the investor resulting from an investment of some resource. In terms of advertising it s the difference between spendings and revenue generated by a campaign. Tracking code It s a hidden 1x1 pixel tracking code use for tracking actions on the thank you page. 16

17 Post Affiliate Pro is the leading affiliate management software with more than customers worldwide. Ready to take the next step? Do it before your competition does. Try out our demo for free! Try our demo Mailing Address United States territory Quality Unit, LLC 616 Corporate Way, Suite Valley Cottage, NY USA European Union & Worldwide Quality Unit, s.r.o. Tomanova 80/C SK Bratislava Slovakia (European Union) Stay in touch facebook.com Google+ Twitter copyright 2014 QualityUnit Ltd.