'Net Features : affiliate software

Stay Informed About Affiliate Traffic Trends

Michael Garrity — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 18:30:00 GMT

It’s always nice to have an educated assumption about how well one’s investments are performing. This is why so many people take the time to follow the stock market and keep a keen eye on their money and how well (or not) their ventures are doing.

In the Web world, the same case can be made for affiliate marketing, and affiliate tracking and affiliate program software provider LinkTrust is addressing that very topic in the latest round of features released as a part of its Summer of Love updates.

Users will be able to access an affiliate trends report, allowing them to effortlessly determine which of their affiliate partners are seeing their traffic numbers grow and which of them are declining. These figures are determined using a proprietary algorithm and will forecast a LinkTrust customer’s affiliate trends for the current day, and informing them if they “should be concerned” about certain traffic levels.

Customers can now get mobile and email alerts that provide information about campaign requests, new task and task completed notifications, and tax document updates. Plus, the task manager has been updated to allow them to mass assign tasks, so that they can assign the same task to multiple users at once, and then monitor their progress as they all go about completing it.

Of, course, there is much more. LinkTrust is also releasing the User Agent Black & Grey list to help continue battling against fraud. This will let its customers block spider searches and screen scraper bots before they begin to affect their site statistics.

In addition, it’s offering a new custom sign up form that lets its customers automatically approve affiliate applications that let loyalty sites transform their users into affiliates, and then provide them with tracking links. This is meant to help loyalty, membership, and daily deals sites all maximize the potential of their suite of affiliate management features.

The third Summer of Love update also comes with an account traffic graph, an update of the external transaction modification API, the ability to search all of one’s affiliate partners by campaigns associated with a specific merchant, and other enhancements regarding user information, including merchant performance, merchant channels, new user rights, and response data.

Custom Affiliate Ads for Zen Cart & OSCommerce

Michael Garrity — Tue, 08 May 2012 02:34:00 GMT

Is your e-commerce store the next Amazon? Well, you can certainly try to be with new Euraffiliates software that gives Zen Cart and OSCommerce merchants Amazon-like affiliate widgets that they can use to display their products on affiliate websites.

Euraffiliates, the company responsible for the Next-G Affiliate software, created these widgets to help businesses skip the part of the affiliate marketing process where they’re required to get started with Web developers, graphic designers, copy writers, email marketers and all of the other individuals involved in the creation of an affiliate marketing campaign. Now, Zen Cart and OSCommerce store owners with knowledge of FTP uploads and copy pasting can be selling through affiliates in just hours, as the widgets will automate the early steps.

Users need only upload one zipped source file and some additional setups files and complete the setup wizard. After they’re situated, they’ll be able to upload a logo for use by affiliate marketers, change the “look-and-feel” of their marketing content and even customize the affiliate page content with online forms (the system will provide default content), including a customizable affiliate terms page.

Moreover, merchants can easily select desired products or categories and preview them, and then customize them, save the settings and copy a single line to code to publish these updated product banners to their websites. This new feature lets users easily generate customized product ads similar to those used by Amazon. All changes will be rendered automatically on the affiliate websites, as well.

OSCommerce and Zen Cart merchants can easily integrate the widgets into their stores by simply copying the integration code from the system and pasting it into the specified files in their websites.

Top-tier Solutions in Affiliate Program Software

Linc Wonham — Wed, 11 May 2011 20:00:00 GMT

Most businesses on the Web will go only as far as their software takes them, and affiliate programs are no exception to the rule. It’s been a while since we examined some of the top providers in the space, which has become more competitive and crowded with qualified vendors.

Below are some of the most popular solutions available today:

HasOffers
Popular for its ease of use and affordability, HasOffers has become one of the leading providers of affiliate tracking software since launching two years ago. More than 8,000 businesses now use the platform to track their affiliate programs, including Groupon, Tapjoy and Tippr. HasOffers provides its customers with one month of free service on any of their editions, which include the Basic ($99 per month) package for novices, the Pro ($279/mo.) package for growing advertisers and new networks, and the Enterprise ($799/mo.) package for established networks and large brands.

LinkTrust
LinkTrust is recognized by merchants and affiliates as one of the most reliable tracking and lead management software platforms available to the performance marketing industry. Exceptional customer service, world-class technology and hardware are some of the most notable features. LinkTrust customers use the white-labeled system to manage affiliates, access real-time reporting, enjoy first-class fraud prevention tools and optimize their programs as well as any other solution out there, but the pricing is steep. The Lite package starts at $200 per month after a$300 setup fee, and the next available edition is $500 per month with a $600 setup fee. Three more packages are available under a customized pricing structure.

iDevDirect
One of the affiliate industry’s first management and tracking software providers, iDevAffiliate has been around almost as long as the Web. Administrative features include two control panels for affiliates to sign up and manage their individual accounts while you manage the entire program, and security features include built-in commission fraud controls and an API for external code integration. Editions include the Standard for $99.99 per month, the Gold for $199.99 and the Platinum edition for $299.99 per month.

Post Affiliate Pro
Version 4 of the Post Affiliate Pro program software provides high-scope tracking reliability and limitless extendibility with plugins and search engine-friendly linking for higher rankings. The already flexible system is designed for elaborate customization and the folks behind it urge their customers to suggest new functionalities and solutions if they believe something is missing. Pricing starts at $199 per month for the Xpress service and runs all the way to $1,899 per month for the Network package.

DirectTrack
A product of the Digital River companies, DirectTrack’s affiliate program software includes cookie-based and cookie-less hybrid tracking, mobile ad delivery and next-generation APIs. Last year the company introduced post-impression view-through conversion tracking and the affiliate industry’s largest proprietary performance-based advertising/campaign distribution marketplace. Widely considered the most comprehensive performance marketing software provider, DirectTrack’s solutions also come with a higher price tag.

Analyzing Affiliate Software for Higher Profitability

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:24:00 GMT

Knowing what campaign will deliver the best ROI in the shortest time possible is the goal of any good marketer; it saves time, money and increases profitability. Marketers who can identify where their strengths are in the acquisition process can accurately anticipate how a campaign is going to perform and then optimize it accordingly. Affiliate marketing software can provide in-depth reporting (beyond mere conversions), help you gather such intelligence, then test and optimize campaigns on an ongoing basis as market trends evolve.

There are four types of affiliate reporting to optimize your affiliate program: traffic, earnings, creatives, and period comparisons. Together, these reports provide valuable metrics on acquisition and ROI of your affiliate program and other marketing efforts.

Traffic Report
A traffic report helps identify and focus your strengths in the acquisition process or the sales funnel by allowing you to compare relative success at the click, registration, and conversion levels. This depth of intelligence provides a view into the full cycle of customer acquisition and the two influences on your key performance indicators (KPI’s); creatives and landing pages.

By comparing click-through-rate (CTR) against conversions, a traffic report helps you understand where campaigns engage users the most. For example, if you are experiencing high CTR’s but low conversions, you know that affiliates and the creatives you provide them are working, but your landing pages need optimization. Conversely, if your conversion rate is high but you’re not getting much traffic (a low CTR), then you know that either your creatives and/or affiliate strategy requires more resources.

Earnings Reports
An earnings report provides intelligence on what affiliate promotions and commission structures deliver the greatest return. This type of report lets you determine how individuals and groups of affiliates are performing, what’s working for them, and what you can do to maximize their performance.

Through an earnings report, you can identify top-earning affiliates, as well as analyze the performance of special promotions. For example, if you want to reward your highest-earning affiliates by offering a special promotion, the earning reports will help identify who those affiliates are. Once those affiliates are running the promotion, you can run then additional earnings reports to determine how well the promotion is working, and see which affiliates are having success and, therefore, should be considered for future promotions.

The level of intelligence provided by an earnings report allows you to identify which affiliates, promotions, and commissions deliver the best results. This insight helps determine where to focus your energy, and how to optimize the distribution of your resources — e.g. which affiliates are suited for a special promotion or custom commission structure.

Marketing Creative Reports
The creative report can be used to gain insight into what creatives deliver the best return. This kind of intelligence can be used to both maximize the performance of your affiliate program and test creatives before deploying them across other acquisition channels.

By analyzing what creatives convert at the click and acquisition level, you can maximize the ROI of your marketing spend on three fronts. First, you gain insight into what banners to drop and keep, respectively. For example, if you notice that text links are converting well, you know to invest more resources into text links. Similarly, if a banner receives no impressions, you know it is not popular with affiliates.

Second, a creative report can help increase affiliate retention and cut recruitment costs. If affiliates begin to consistently experience higher conversions with the creatives you provide, they will be much more likely to remain active. Your affiliate program will also develop a reputation for better conversions, which should reduce affiliate recruiting costs.

Finally, your creative report can help test and optimize creatives before rolling them out to other channels. By identifying what creatives convert, you can determine what design elements resonate with your target market, and then incorporate those elements into the development of additional creatives. Consequently, when you roll out optimized creatives across other channels, you will be maximizing your chance of getting not just impressions and clicks, but actual conversions.

Essentially, the performance-based model of your affiliate program minimizes the risks associated with testing new creatives. Because you’re only paying for results, losses on any new campaigns are limited to the time it takes to set up and monitor them. Your affiliate marketing software can also help control the scope of that testing so that you can test what creatives work best for particular products and their respective markets.

Period Comparison
A period comparison overview can be used to identify effective promotions, determine their value and optimize them. By providing an overview of changes in your affiliate program performance over time, a period comparison allows you to identify what caused a change in program performance, and then capitalize on it to maximize your program’s ROI.

The period comparison overview is particularly useful for conducting quarterly or seasonal analysis of a program’s performance. It will show a ratio of change for your affiliate program, for example, by what percentage conversions increase or decrease from one month to the next. That ratio can then be compared against other market performance metrics to determine whether a change was spurious, seasonal, or a result from a change in your acquisition strategy (such as a change in promotions, banners, or landing pages).

For instance, if last month showed an increase conversions, but there was not a consumer holiday (such as Christmas), that increase might be due to something else; such as an affiliate or consumer promotion. Consequently, you know if a promotion was successful and, if so, by what factor sales increased as a result. Similarly, if you launched a promotion last month but performance stayed the same, then you know that promotion does not resonate with your target market. This kind of intelligence can then be applied to developing and optimizing promotions that have a proven, positive impact on your ROI.

Maximizing Results
Getting the most out of your marketing campaigns requires that you monitor, analyze, and optimize them on an ongoing basis. As markets fluctuate from season to season, so do consumer behaviors — and so must your acquisition strategy. Affiliate software can be a powerful tool for monitoring changes in market performance, testing new strategies, and optimizing campaigns ahead of market trends. Because affiliate software tracks the complete acquisition cycle, from impression to conversion, it’s ideal for monitoring campaign performance. The performance-based model of affiliate marketing also makes affiliate software a perfect tool for testing campaigns inspired by your observations. Finally, because affiliate software can help identify the cause of a change in performance from one campaign to the next, it is also a great resource for optimizing campaigns on an ongoing basis.

Maximizing the ROI of your marketing spend requires that you (1) possess intelligence on market performance, and (2) take informed risks associate with new campaigns. The right affiliate software is capable of serving both functions, in order to help you get the most out of your affiliate program and campaigns across channels.

About the Author: Nicky Senyard is the CEO of ShareResults.com, an affiliate marketing agency that provides comprehensive affiliate marketing solutions to both merchants and affiliates.

Comparison of Affiliate Software

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:49:00 GMT

:: DirectTrack vs iDevAffiliate vs. PostAffiliatePro vs HasOffer ::

Affiliate programs are the most cost effective way for merchants to generate more sales and traffic. But the investment in various solutions can be cost prohibitive, which is why looking at the various vendors in the market, their features and cost at the outset is so valuable. Let's do that by comparing some popular affiliate software solutions now. Read more...

There are clearly many other affiliate software solutions on the market. You are encouraged to let us know about any others you are familiar with and your impressions of their offerings.

DirectTrack
One of the top-tier of affiliate program software vendors, DirectTrack offers the most comprehensive solution on the market. The most popular features are the private label interface (fully customizable), powerful ad serving (day parting, geo-targeting, and access to the Speedera CDN for image hosting), a wide range of creative possibilities (including email), helpful management tools like automated notifications, custom payout structures), perhaps the best accounting tools (plus a check-cutting service through an escrow account), affiliate tracking and reporting that rivals the best independent networks (real-time tracking, blended tracking, cookie or API tracking) and other important campaign management tools like threshold notifications, suppression lists. You'll need to pay extra for the power of all those additional features, but for many the benefits far outweigh the cost.

Post Affiliate Pro
Affiliate system written in PHP which contains well thought out functionality. Based on PHP-Affiliate, the system accommodates unlimited affiliates and various commission structures (CPM, CPL and CPM), offers recurring commissions, supports multiple merchants and currencies and even one of those fancy Page Peel banners. Cost ranges from $219 for a leased license to $299 for an owned license.

iDevAffiliate
One of the most popular for start-up merchants interested in starting an affiliate program, iDevAffiliate is a robust solution. Appealing to many, it works with nearly all merchants accounts (also includes a cart integration wizard), shopping carts and billing systems. Additional features include several payout options (CPA - flat rate of percentage - CPC and CPL), and well designed reporting and statistics. Pricing ranges from $99 for the standard edition to $299 for the premium edition, which includes the ability for users to create custom file names and export data to Quickbooks.

hasoffers
The newbie among affiliate software vendors, hasoffers has one thing going for it in that it is completely free for networks with a click volume of less than one million per month. A white label affiliate offering, hasoffers users can choose among a variety of layouts and customize them through CSS, leverage their own URL and the solution's 3rd-party masking capabilities, access some decent network management and affiliate management tools, and employ good accounting tools (including advertiser invoicing, Quickbooks file export, and PayPal payments).

DirectTrack Mobile Stats for Affiliates

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:09:00 GMT

Users of the DirectTrack affiliate management software platform will now be able to provide their affiliates with real-time mobile-browser access to performance data and campaign communications.

Detailed sub-id stats (down to the impression, click, conversion, and EPC levels), revenue and statistical data by campaign or cumulative, and the latest campaign information including name, description, and payout data are some of the information sets that will be available.

While this may not sound like a big deal to some, for the mobile obsessed like me, it is an important and welcome feature. DirectTrack clients now have ubiquitous access to a fully branded mobile solution for their affiliates. The result might just be more productive affiliates and ultimately happier merchants - and who doesn't want that?