Thursday, September 20, 2007
Tell Me The Referring URL When I Get A Sale
When an affiliate sale goes through, there's one thing that I'd always like to know: what was the referring page that caused that sale.
With that simple piece of knowledge about the referring URL, I would be able to see what pages work, what ones don't, and make more of the pages that do. I could give more prominence to well converting pages and make sure more traffic goes there.
But why is it that most affiliate networks, as far as I can tell, don't tell you this? Why don't Amazon share this info with their Associates?
It's possible to see the referring URLs of your clicks in Buy.at's interface, but I can't then also see which of those clicks is linked to a sale.
Most networks do offer some form of link tracking which lets you add in an identifier so you can track the source of your sales. And if you want to get quite clever about it, you can dynamically generate those Link IDs on your site which enables you to fully track your users and see what they're up to. But I'd consider than quite an advanced method, and simply knowing the referring URL of a sale would be useful for newbies and experienced marketers alike.
So what possible reason could there be for networks not sharing this information with affiliates, or for not collecting it if they don't already.
But maybe I've been missing something obvious and some networks do tell you that. If you use a network which tells you the referring URL which led to your sales, please let me know in the comments section.
With that simple piece of knowledge about the referring URL, I would be able to see what pages work, what ones don't, and make more of the pages that do. I could give more prominence to well converting pages and make sure more traffic goes there.
But why is it that most affiliate networks, as far as I can tell, don't tell you this? Why don't Amazon share this info with their Associates?
It's possible to see the referring URLs of your clicks in Buy.at's interface, but I can't then also see which of those clicks is linked to a sale.
Most networks do offer some form of link tracking which lets you add in an identifier so you can track the source of your sales. And if you want to get quite clever about it, you can dynamically generate those Link IDs on your site which enables you to fully track your users and see what they're up to. But I'd consider than quite an advanced method, and simply knowing the referring URL of a sale would be useful for newbies and experienced marketers alike.
So what possible reason could there be for networks not sharing this information with affiliates, or for not collecting it if they don't already.
But maybe I've been missing something obvious and some networks do tell you that. If you use a network which tells you the referring URL which led to your sales, please let me know in the comments section.
Labels: affiliate network
Permalink // posted by Rob @ 12:34 PM 
Comments:
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Paid on Results display the referring URL which is very useful for determining what sites to focus on.
It would be good if all the major networks followed suit and introduced this facility.
It would be good if all the major networks followed suit and introduced this facility.
Totally agree about this, its something so simple, but would really make a BIG difference to a lot of affiliates. Where is the petition? I will sign...
Webgains not only show the referring url but also the search page/keywords that got visitors to that page in the first place. Double bonus.
I agree, the information would be very valuable, almost like a money making heatmap. It could help us affiliates concerntrate on the pages that DONT generate income, and leave those that do, to sit there on their own.
So we have POR and Webgains which I was aware of. Is that it?
So we have POR and Webgains which I was aware of. Is that it?
Mark - think of this as an ad hoc petition, and consider yourself signed!
Ray - thanks for the info re Webgains.
Chris - Thanks for the comment. Like you say, this could be so valuable for affiliates in helping them focus their activities. It would be win-win for all concerned.
If I was sitting down to design an affiliate control panel on a network site, this would be one of the first things I'd think of to include so I genuinely find it odd that so many networks just don't have it.
Ray - thanks for the info re Webgains.
Chris - Thanks for the comment. Like you say, this could be so valuable for affiliates in helping them focus their activities. It would be win-win for all concerned.
If I was sitting down to design an affiliate control panel on a network site, this would be one of the first things I'd think of to include so I genuinely find it odd that so many networks just don't have it.
Spot On
We are forgetting the referring url & search string for those clicks that DON'T generate a sale, for which I would like to know for every click where I don 't make a sale & have a simple spreadsheet I can download pertaining to each merchant, over whatever date range.
Shane left a nice little saying on my blog ... “Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.”
We are forgetting the referring url & search string for those clicks that DON'T generate a sale, for which I would like to know for every click where I don 't make a sale & have a simple spreadsheet I can download pertaining to each merchant, over whatever date range.
Shane left a nice little saying on my blog ... “Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.”
Hi
well done for that quote Moose :) an excellent analogy if I do say so!
As for the article rob, I agree with you totally, its not rocket science and I presume its more than likely that all networks collect this information anyway but only a few release it on the user interface for us to see.
On the networks that do reveal the referring url its an invaluable source of information at a first glance I agree.
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well done for that quote Moose :) an excellent analogy if I do say so!
As for the article rob, I agree with you totally, its not rocket science and I presume its more than likely that all networks collect this information anyway but only a few release it on the user interface for us to see.
On the networks that do reveal the referring url its an invaluable source of information at a first glance I agree.
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