Chapter 9. Step Six—Tracking Your Affiliate Program
Chapter Summary
An important component of any affiliate program is the ability to provide objective, reliable, and credible reports on a daily basis for both you and your affiliates. Without a proper tracking and reporting system in place, it is close to impossible to comprehend the performance of your affiliate network and the effectiveness of your offers.
As for your affiliates, they need to have a way to see how much they have earned in your programs, and you need a way to calculate their earnings to pay them. Any good affiliate will demand to see reports of his or her performance on a daily basis, so your reporting system must provide this capability. You can either build a tracking and reporting system in-house using your resources or outsource it to third-party affiliate solution providers. The Big Four solution providers (Commission Junction, Dynamic Trade, BeFree, and Linkshare) can help recruit affiliates, set-up and manage your tracking and reporting program—and in some cases—pay your affiliates the money they’ve earned. Finally, the numbers generated by the tracking and reporting program you use can help you manage and improve your program over time.
Every affiliate program, no matter the size or type, needs the ability to track and report activity across the network. You as a merchant need to know what traffic and/or sales are sent to you from your affiliates and, in turn, you need to report this activity back to them (see Figure 9.1).
Figure 9.1. Here is an example of an online affiliate tracking report from Amazon’s associates program.
If you can not provide affiliates with objective, reliable, and credible reports on a daily basis, good affiliates will neither sign up for your program nor stay in a program that gives the slightest hint of impropriety. It’s also very important to know affiliate by affiliate which ones are performing well and why. It’s crucial to decide upon a tracking and reporting system that meets both your and your affiliates’ needs.
There are many ways to track your program and provide reports for your affiliates. Either do it in-house using your own tracking software or use a third-party affiliate program solution provider. Whichever you choose, the method should contain a minimum set of tracking and reporting elements.
