I need serious help

[awesomesauce]

I have been attempting to promote various CPI offers on Decisive for the past couple of weeks. Today I noticed that Decisive and Voluum and reporting around 10x more clicks than my affiliate network is reporting. I told my affiliate network about this and they said that I'm likely not sending them mobile traffic. How is this even possible using Decisive when targeting 3G?

Also on a slightly related note, sometimes when I click banners on my mobile that direct link to the app store, I'm not actually taken to the page with the app, but the homepage of the app store. Could this be what is happening to me? If so, how do I fix it?

 

[awesomesauce]

Here's a screenshot of one campaign. It's direct linking to the google play store, but there are no conversions on that many clicks? What's going on?

 

[internalsoul]

Try using a landing page instead of direct linking.
Stats do not match because, some part of the traffic do not abide by the rules set for that offer and they are being redirected.
Regarding your related note, may be its your ip and thats the reason you are being redirected to app store homepage rather than the page wth the app.

 

[Daniel Bernhardt]

What mobile network are you on?

 

[captain47]

Although 10x is a huge difference, click discrepancy is quite common. Ruck in his Mobi Manifesto says that 50% of the clicks on mobile (esp from Apps) are by mistake. We have all done that, we have all accidentally clicked ads.

So if someone click an add and hits the back button before the links can redirect, then the click will only be recorded on your traffic source and maybe your tracker, but not in your affiliate network.

The only thing you can do about it that could make any difference is to talk to Decisive about it and see if they can do something about it. Which they probably wont at this point. Still.

Also on a slightly related note, sometimes when I click banners on my mobile that direct link to the app store, I'm not actually taken to the page with the app, but the homepage of the app store. Could this be what is happening to me? If so, how do I fix it?

I dont think this is normal. Talk to your Aff Man about this. They should be redirecting you to a different offer or something, not the app store homepage.

 

[awesomesauce]

Thanks for all of the comments guys.

I am using the following:

Voluum = Tracking
Decisive = Traffic Source
PeerFly = Affiliate Network

Here is an example from just yesterday. I Skyped with my AM to find out what the restrictions were on a Mobile App download offer that pays $1.70 to download on open the app. The only restrictions on the offer are:

- New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Russian Federation, Singapore, Sweden
- Android OS 4.1 and higher

Pretty straight forward, right? I asked my affiliate manager (just to be sure because I knew I was having this issue) and he confirmed that were the only restrictions for that offer.

I then made a banner, and launched a campaign on Decisive. I targeted exactly what the offer required, but this is what the different networks are reporting:

- Decisive = 640 clicks
- Voluum = 629 clicks
- Peefly = 130 unique and 312 raw clicks

Now this example isn't nearly as drastic as the 10x more clicks that I experienced on a pervious campaign, but it's still off by quite a bit in my eyes.

I have already reached out to my affiliate manager and he had 2 different devs look at the issue and they claim that I'm not sending them the right traffic (they say I'm not even sending mobile traffic). They say everything is fine on their end.

I asked Decisive about it and they said they don't have fraud placements and they ONLY give mobile traffic.

Should I switch to a more mobile friendly Affiliate Network and see if that helps? Other than that I don't know what to do and I feel like this causing a big problem with all my campaigns.

 

[Mr.T]

Hey,

for me that all seems a little bit like a misconfiguration of your campaign, to loos 50-90% is a lot.

Maybe you can use a toll like this Redirect Detective - A Free Tool To Trace Where Redirects End Up to see if there is a problem with your redirect.

The next thing you can check in voluum under OS version, if you get the right kind of Traffic and check the countrys as well.

Maybe you target on Decisive not the right GEO and they get blocked by your Affiliate Network?

cheers

 

[awesomesauce]

Hi Mr. T,

I tried to use that tool, but I'm getting a HTTP error. Does anyone have a tool that I can select what country my IP is from AND shows me what comes on a mobile device?

I checked out Voluum and everything seems to check out. 98% of the traffic is what the offer is requesting. The other 2% are just random clicks that are out of the Geo (that has happened on every Decisive campaign).

The geos and everything that pertains to the offer are correct.

 

[Mr.T]

Hey,

you getting an HTTP error using this tool or if you enter your tracking URL, you getting an HTTP error if yes which one?

Not sure if this can help you, but should be checked.

 

[awesomesauce]

I get an HTTP error if I enter my tracking URL into that tool. I assume it's a Geo issue?

 

[Mr.T]

Did you setup Geo redirect in voluum, then maybe.

 

[awesomesauce]

I didn't ever do that and I actually don't know what or where to do it.

 

[Mr.T]

Then this isn't normal. Because voluum should redirect to to offer link.

If you want you can send me the link via PM and I have a look, don't think that this ping pong answer game will get you anywhere soon

cheers

 

[awesomesauce]

Sent!

 

[awesomesauce]

If anyone is located in the following locations and has a mobile device with Android 4.3+, please send me a PM. I need help testing my link on a real device.

United Kingdom, New Zealand, Austria, France, Germany, Singapore

 

[Leif W]

get GeoEdge, allows you to see what someone on any device in any market will see on your link.

Ad Verification & Global Visibility Solutions | GeoEdge

They offer a free trial, so you can test the links on all the above handsets/markets.

 

[captain47]

Thats a lot of loss. Can you find the same offer on another affiliate network? If so split test the offer and see what happens. If it checks out, take that data to Peerfly.

 

[awesomesauce]

I was able to have one of my friends on Germany test my link and sure enough, they were taken directly to the Google Play store (as they should).

I was just accepted to FurtherMobi, so I'm going to give them a try. Hopefully this click loss is fixed, otherwise I don't know what I'll do yet.

 

[Daniel Bernhardt]

If anyone is located in the following locations and has a mobile device with Android 4.3+, please send me a PM. I need help testing my link on a real device.

United Kingdom, New Zealand, Austria, France, Germany, Singapore

Out of curiosity, doesn't a proxy and emulator solve this?

 

[awesomesauce]

It would, though I have been having trouble getting the actual offer to show in an emulator so I thought it would be best to make sure it works on a real device.