Every affiliate needs to ensure that their tracking solutions are set up in the right way so they can monitor the performance and success of their brand. Affiliate tracking needs to be properly optimised and adjusted so you can gain as much value from it as possible.
How does affiliate tracking work?
Tracking allows brands to follow what their customers are doing, usually through the use of cookies. They are able to see where the vast majority of their clicks and traffic is concentrated, and this can provide some valuable insight into the brand.
For example, it would be clear to see whether or not an affiliate marketing campaign was successful as the tracking would indicate how many people are clicking through its links.
All about cookies
Cookies are a key part of affiliate tracking. This is a small piece of programming that lives in your browser and stores bits of information such as login details.
Many aspects of affiliate marketing rely on what are called first-party cookies. When a browser clicks an affiliate link, one of these first-party cookies will appear in their browser to track their journey. Useful data like your details as the affiliate and the brand you work for will be stored here, so you are able to earn commission on the click.
Data protection
With this sort of tracking, you need to be exceptionally careful. Tracking through cookies needs to be kept data light. You are simply monitoring for someone using your links, and not collecting any other information about their buying behaviour.
You always need to make sure that you are compliant with GDPR so you are not in breach of data protection laws through affiliate tracking.
Tracking multiple links
Joining a network or program means that you will be awarded a unique ID that will be embedded into all of your links. These IDs can also be different for the various offers you might run, allowing you to fully investigate which ones are working best for you.
For example, an iGaming affiliate might have one link that is for free spins on sign up, and one for a match bonus. By tracking the unique IDs of these two codes, the affiliate will be able to tell which deal is more popular with their audience, and they will then be able to adjust their marketing accordingly.
Why you need to optimise your tracking
Affiliate tracking is incredibly important, and you need to make sure that you are using it correctly with your affiliate links. The right tracking software will be able to watch your leads and sales, and will provide data that can give you a keen insight into the overall performance of your campaigns.
As an affiliate, you need to know what is working for you and what is not, so you can focus on creating the best possible campaigns that do generate leads and trace sales for you. Take a look at your current tracking parameters and see if there is a way you can improve them today.
