The ad tracker was originally developed to provide a record of all hits to a site resulting from ad placements. This article shows a host of different ways to utilise an ad tracker.

FOR AFFILIATES

#1. The Long Url Problem

Have you ever seen an ad where you are asked to click on an affiliate URL so long that it stretches over 2 lines, like this

http://www/anysite.com/cgi-bin/dir1/dir2/.cgi?code=123RT&type=102 35&subid=89715

Do you think your reader will bother to do necessary cut and paste to put it in a browser?

Probably not.

And that's probably one lost sale.

And even a one line affiliate link may exceed permissible length for some ad posting requirements.

The solution: use a short tracking URL.

#2. Losing Your Affiliate Code

As an affiliate you may have your affiliate code embedded in a link something like this:

http://www.abc.com/123

Some customers will bypass affiliate code and just type in home URL http://www.abc.com (possibly because they think that they will be paying extra for an agent's commission)

The solution: use a tracking URL - so that your affiliate code number is never seen.

#3. Make Your Ad Stand Out

You may have seen search engine results showing near identical listings for same product, differing only in an affiliate code appended to URL.

Your listing here will be just one of many unless you make it stand out. So bypass standard affiliate URL and use a tracking URL.

#4. How Effective Are The Links

You can measure and compare effectiveness of different banners or text links affiliate programs provide you by using a tracking URL.

#5. Changing Links

If an affiliate company change their links then your existing ads, wherever they are posted, become worthless. But if you use a tracking URL you simply revise affiliate URL at tracking control centre.

#6. Affiliate Program Discontinued

Similarly if an affiliate program is discontinued you just change your tracking URL to a new page where you explain circumstances and point your visitor to your other promotions.

#7. Better Affiliate Stats

Not all affiliate programs provide you with stats about visitors. And if they do are they adequate ?

Compare a basic monthly figure say - Jan: 39 hits

with a detailed analysis such as

- Jan 12: 10 hits - Jan 13: 2 hits - Jan 20: 21 hits - Jan 21: 6 hits

where you can relate those dates to particular ad campaigns.

Tracking URLs will give you these improved figures.

#8. Checking Affiliate Stats

Even if you do receive good stats from your affiliate program it still makes sense to use tracking URLs so that you can compare your figures with theirs.

A large discrepancy could mean errors in their software or (hopefully not) fraudulent activity on their part.

An alternative reason is that their measurement takes place when their page is fully loaded rather than at start, indicating that visitors are clicking away because it is taking too long to load.

FOR EZINE PUBLISHERS

#9. Win Advertisers With Tracking Reports

If you sell advertising space in your ezine you can offer to your advertisers to replace their URLs with your tracking URLs and Email them results.

Tell your advertisers about these benefits in your advertising guidelines

- They will know number of clickthroughs their ad has generated. They can then decide how to improve ads for better performance

- If they use a tracker program with your own domain name in tracking URL your ezine subscribers will be more inclined to click

- They can use your ezine as a test centre, modifying their ads until they are happy, before launching with other publishers

#10. Use Tracking Report Results

The tracking reports above will provide you with information on your subscribers' interests, influencing your editorial content and helping you select which potential advertisers to approach

Also, once your advertisers have seen for themselves benefits of an ad tracking program they will be inclined to purchase one. So set yourself up as an affiliate for a program and promote it to them.

#11. Measure Your Readership

You may know how many subscribers you have but how many actually open and read your ezine and which parts of it attract most attention ?

Since you have to pay cash for each and every click, you want to limit clicks to those people who are truly interested in what you're offering!

2 - Be creative with keywords but be precise in ad copy.

While you want ad copy to be very precise in describing your offer, you want as many people as possible to see ad in first place. Using several variations of wording in your key phrases and synonyms for your keywords you can ensure that your ad will be displayed for a wide variety of search terms. Then your laser-targeted ad copy will "weed out" those who just aren't interested in your particular offer.

3 - Link ad to EXACT landing page of offer described in ad, NEVER to your home page.