As affiliate marketing is a performance based concept, its success largely depends upon the advertisers’ ability to assess the performance of their affiliate campaigns. The smooth allocation of transactions is critical to an effective affiliate program, and if an affiliate succeeds in generating leads, they need to be remunerated in a timely and efficient manner.
Affiliate marketing software such as Lead Dyno use technical measures, known as affiliate tracking, to ensure that whenever an affiliate achieves a desired action, it’s accounted for immediately and accurately. Check out Lead Dyno, one of the best affiliate marketing programs out there! It’s easy to use and affordable.
There are different types of affiliate tracking methods. The one you use depends upon your affiliate program and your resources. Here are some of the major affiliate tracking methods.
Cookies
Cookie tracking is perhaps the most popular tracking method in affiliate marketing. Whenever you access an affiliate’s website, your web application stores the affiliate’s ID in small files know as cookies. Cookies are used to identify internet users and recurring visitors. Generally, cookies can stay within a customer’s browser for two months and the affiliate will be remunerated for any purchases the customer makes during this period.
However, a serious drawback of cookie tracking is that any internet user can easily delete the cookies from the browser. Furthermore, cross device tracking is not possible with cookies.
Fingerprint Tracking
Fingerprint tracking is a relatively new innovation in affiliate marketing. In this tracking method, a digital signature is generated from the end device. This signature contains specific information of the end device such as the operating system, the language and the browser type/version. Using this information, each end device is assigned a unique signature which is later used to identify the user. Fingerprint tracking provides the ability to identify a user in different time sessions as long as they use the same device and the same browser. As with most tracking methods, cross device tracking is not possible with fingerprint tracking.
Postback URL Tracking
Also know as callback tracking, this is a very accurate method as it employs a server to server approach in tracking. In postback tracking, the information is stored on the merchant’s server which means there is no need to place any codes on the affiliate’s website. When a user clicks on the advertiser’s tracking link, the affiliate network tags the advertiser’s URL with an ID. The ID in the URL is updated automatically as soon as the visitor reaches the affiliate’s landing page. This method is best for those who are running offers on multiple affiliate networks. However, it’s a bit more complex than cookie tracking and requires a little extra technical expertise to set it up.
Lead Dyno is affiliate program software that will tell you exactly how much business you are generating from each website and social media campaigns you may be running. Contact us to find out more.
