Is there a "custom affiliate platform" that tracks traffic you send to a given company? I'd like to go find some niche companies and broker a deal with the traffic that I send to them. The platform/tool I am looking for must be flexible because these companies I want to approach may know very little about affiliate marketing. I get niche traffic to my website. I want to work with independent businesses that could benefit from me publishing their advertisements.
Is there a custom affiliate platform that tracks traffic to small, independent companies' websites?
- Thread starter JasonS8
- Start date
If you're working with companies who are not familiar with affiliate marketing, you are right to think that tracking will be your pain point.
There are plenty of tracking platforms out there and many of them share a common set of features. Because the functionality you're looking for is very standard in these platforms, your budget will probably determine which solution you choose. Most platforms will charge you a monthly subscription to use their service. If your business can sustain a $100/month payment, look at something like Voluum (yes, that is spelled correctly). It's a popular affiliate tracking platform and will easily accomplish what you need it to. But if you're budget is more like $17/mo, you might want to look at ClickMagick (yes, that is also spelled correctly). If you don't want to pay a monthly subscription, self-hosted tracking platforms have existed in the past. Most have fallen off the radar due to the subscription model being so much more profitable, so your best bet might be Wordpress with a tracking plugin.
Keep in mind that if you at some point plan on having other folks publishing for these companies also (since maximizing the relationship with these companies you're contacting will eventually cross your mind), the platforms I mentioned above will not easily grow with you. (That's not to say you can't creatively rig campaigns and links and assign them to external folks - it can be done, it will just be a lot of labor, organization, and communication to make that work). There aren't many affordable solutions that will scale with you, by the way. Once you hit this stage in your business, you'll need a Networking Tracking platform. These easily cost $1500-5000/month. I mention that just so you have an idea of where your earnings need to be before looping in other publishers.
Regardless of the platform you pick, be prepared to contact each of the companies to have them:
1. Place "pixels" on their Thank You / Receipt page
2. Place a cookie-setting script in a globally-included file (unless you plan on only driving traffic to the home page, in which case you can get away with just putting this on the home page. I don't recommend this by the way, but you'll quickly come across companies whose website infrastructure won't allow placing a script on every page to be easy)
3. Come to an agreement on "cookie duration". 30, 60, 90, and 180 days are all popular lengths. In case it's not obvious, the longest duration is in your best interest as a publisher.
4. Agree on a commission. This can be tricky, especially if the company isn't a direct response advertiser and has a regular ecommerce type website. They may have different margins on different products, so offering a flat commission on the order total may or may not be reasonable.
Also be prepared to get some push back on this integration process. These companies will realize they won't have "control" over your click tracking platform, and will be in a position where they have to rely on your honesty and the integrity of your data. If you're getting a lot of push back for this particular reason, you could suggest they register their website with an affiliate offer network / directory - something like ShareASale. This would ensure the tracking is managed by a third party and it would provide them a bit more peace of mind that the sales are legitimate.
Hopefully that helps you with your decision and sheds some light on the road that lies ahead. I'm happy to answer any other questions if you're curious to know more about a specific process.
There are plenty of tracking platforms out there and many of them share a common set of features. Because the functionality you're looking for is very standard in these platforms, your budget will probably determine which solution you choose. Most platforms will charge you a monthly subscription to use their service. If your business can sustain a $100/month payment, look at something like Voluum (yes, that is spelled correctly). It's a popular affiliate tracking platform and will easily accomplish what you need it to. But if you're budget is more like $17/mo, you might want to look at ClickMagick (yes, that is also spelled correctly). If you don't want to pay a monthly subscription, self-hosted tracking platforms have existed in the past. Most have fallen off the radar due to the subscription model being so much more profitable, so your best bet might be Wordpress with a tracking plugin.
Keep in mind that if you at some point plan on having other folks publishing for these companies also (since maximizing the relationship with these companies you're contacting will eventually cross your mind), the platforms I mentioned above will not easily grow with you. (That's not to say you can't creatively rig campaigns and links and assign them to external folks - it can be done, it will just be a lot of labor, organization, and communication to make that work). There aren't many affordable solutions that will scale with you, by the way. Once you hit this stage in your business, you'll need a Networking Tracking platform. These easily cost $1500-5000/month. I mention that just so you have an idea of where your earnings need to be before looping in other publishers.
Regardless of the platform you pick, be prepared to contact each of the companies to have them:
1. Place "pixels" on their Thank You / Receipt page
2. Place a cookie-setting script in a globally-included file (unless you plan on only driving traffic to the home page, in which case you can get away with just putting this on the home page. I don't recommend this by the way, but you'll quickly come across companies whose website infrastructure won't allow placing a script on every page to be easy)
3. Come to an agreement on "cookie duration". 30, 60, 90, and 180 days are all popular lengths. In case it's not obvious, the longest duration is in your best interest as a publisher.
4. Agree on a commission. This can be tricky, especially if the company isn't a direct response advertiser and has a regular ecommerce type website. They may have different margins on different products, so offering a flat commission on the order total may or may not be reasonable.
Also be prepared to get some push back on this integration process. These companies will realize they won't have "control" over your click tracking platform, and will be in a position where they have to rely on your honesty and the integrity of your data. If you're getting a lot of push back for this particular reason, you could suggest they register their website with an affiliate offer network / directory - something like ShareASale. This would ensure the tracking is managed by a third party and it would provide them a bit more peace of mind that the sales are legitimate.
Hopefully that helps you with your decision and sheds some light on the road that lies ahead. I'm happy to answer any other questions if you're curious to know more about a specific process.
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