What tracker for our specific situation? Hundreds of affilate links within informational articles

[lkramer]

I help manage a couple of websites where people seek advice on a specific kind of expensive, luxury purchase. We provide in-depth advice articles and affiliate links within those articles.

Our traffic comes organically from search and we don't do any paid drivers to our articles.

Right now we directly link to our partners and look at the various affiliate program report screens help us see what's working and what's not. Obviously this is not easy and we're pretty in the dark as to what's working what's not.

We want to know which links are working best and: What article do they appear in? Which position on the page are they? For example, if an article has a certain affiliate link in it 3 times -- one is a clickable image, one is at the top of the page, one is at the middle of the page -- what can we learn about which one is working best?

Another big requirement for us is that we easily be able to import hundreds of existing links and create tracking URLs automatically for them. And moving forward, that new affiliate links be very quick to setup.

I've played a bit with redtrack and I don't really like it for a bunch of reasons that I could get into but I'll try to keep this short. I'm also playing with clickmagick right now and it seems decent.

But before we take a plunge, I'd love to know if any of the link trackers seem perfect for our situation? Thanks so much if you have any advice!

 

[Graybeard]

1. Do you have the click/or unique in the 'sponsors' stats?
   Can you get that in a CSV format?
2. I am assuming that the sold referrals that are commissionable have your tracking parameter.
   Can you get that in a CSV format?
3. What sort of volume are we taking about? per day/week/month 100's /1000's (more)?

You will probably need to develop a real database. No postbacks will only track the clicks out. One alternative (a bit sloppy) is to use your own (or the tracker's) pixel (A JavaScript beacon) on the sponsor/seller's order acknowledgement page. This depends on the strength of your relationship with the sponsor/seller.

 

[lkramer]

Thanks for the replies @Graybeard . Whether we use redtrack, clickmagick, clickmeter, voluum, or whatever... we know we can send a unique clickid to our partners (many of them use post affiliate pro on their end) and they will store that along with any sales. We then will re-import the sale/clickid data whatever into tracker we choose. So that's not a problem.

And swapping all of our direct links with link tracker urls is not a problem for us either.

The most import question is what's the best tracker to help us from a reporting standpoint given the type of publisher that we are. Are they all pretty much the same?

 

[Graybeard]

We want to know which links are working best and: What article do they appear in? Which position on the page are they? For example, if an article has a certain affiliate link in it 3 times -- one is a clickable image, one is at the top of the page, one is at the middle of the page -- what can we learn about which one is working best?

Another big requirement for us is that we easily be able to import hundreds of existing links and create tracking URLs automatically for them. And moving forward, that new affiliate links be very quick to setup.

Sure, but what you want you will have to develop for your own use. Dynamic link creation is done all the time --but again what is your scale (money volume) or how much are you willing to spend on development?

You can create a script to map the referring URL (or ad click) to a code parameter and add a click ID and that users info in an encrypted format. In theory all of that data is returned to you from the other selling (sponsor) party.

**On a click out basis any tracker can be used really that can track the parameter value (your URL and parameter key codes)

 

[Aditya007]

The most import question is what's the best tracker to help us from a reporting standpoint given the type of publisher that we are. Are they all pretty much the same?

They all are pretty much the same tbh.

We want to know which links are working best

You can simply create a campaign in your tracking platform with a custom parameter that defines the position of the link on the page.

we easily be able to import hundreds of existing links and create tracking URLs automatically

For that purpose, you need to go for a tracking platform that provides API support to create campaigns so that you can automate the process of creating new links upon entering the old links. You may also need to hire a developer that can play with their API and ease the process creating new links for you otherwise you'll have to do it all manually yourself.

 

[Graybeard]

From what I have seen, yes. None will do all you want.
unique USER ID and log the data, pass the parameters and get them returned will require custom development.
Simple ad referral tracking all trackers will do.
3 or of 4 referrers will not post back so...

 

[Graybeard]

For that purpose, you need to go for a tracking platform that provides API support to create campaigns so that you can automate the process of creating new links upon entering the old links. You may also need to hire a developer that can play with their API and ease the process creating new links for you otherwise you'll have to do it all manually yourself.

That's not a developer tweaking some one else's API that is a cod3K1dde.

 

[Graybeard]

we know we can send a unique clickid to our partners (many of them use post affiliate pro on their end) and they will store that along with any sales. We then will re-import the sale/clickid data whatever into tracker we choose. So that's not a problem.

Find a tracker that will allow you to import that data --that may suffice in your use case.