[Newbie Here] I cannot seem to understand why I need a tracker

[lcyew]

Hey, as per the title. I am very confused. Why do I need a tracker? Why can't I just see the data directly from the traffic source?

So I have been in the digital marketing space for a couple of years now. Mostly running paid traffic like Facebook, Google Search for clients. Working directly with businesses.

Typically, I am able to put the TRAFFIC SOURCE pixel code on the conversion page. This data will then be passed to the traffic source. So I could view the campaign analytics directly in the traffic source.

I have never used a tracker at all throughout all these years...

Now I understand I am not able to put the pixel code on the conversion page in affiliate marketing because I don't own those pages. But in some networks (Maxbounty, A4D), this is possible. There are places to paste the tracking code on the offers I am interested in. The AM is even willing to paste this code for me.

Questions:

• If I am already able to have this code on the offer pages, this means the conversion data will be push back into my traffic source (Facebook, Google Search, ect). Why then do I still need a tracker?
• I am not using traffic sources like pop, push or PPV. Would a tracker only be useful if I am using these other traffic sources; since the analytics dashboard in most of these traffic sources are not the best?
• What is the difference between "URL" vs "HTML IFrame Server Tracking" postback in the affiliate network?

I have been doing a lot of reading regarding trackers and how everyone is using them. I still cannot see the value in paying for one every month. I had free trialed a few of them, but still find the whole exercise extremely pointless.

Now...I know there are other features like link rotator, conversion cap and other new shiny objects. These are just icing on the cake.

At the end of the day, I just want conversion data to be pushed to my traffic source. The question is if I can already do this without a tracker. Why then do I still need a tracker?

Please advise. Any information will be greatly appreciated.

 

[dont.farm]

Hey mate!

Most of the affiliates working with different traffic sources and have a lot of campaigns, accounts, offers, etc. If you want to see your results in real-time about all your campaigns you need a tracker.

Just in one dashboard you can track all your campaigns and see the results. As you mentioned already there are a lot of functions in trackers that can help you boost your campaigns, you can try cloak with a tracker if you want to try some of the blackhat offers.

Also, they can help you to make a detailed report about your campaigns in just a few clicks.

If you're using only Facebook and Google as your main traffic sources do not use trackers at all, cuz they have a redirect for tracking data about clicks, devices etc. And GA and FB don't like redirect methods.

 

[PaidPoints]

Hey, as per the title. I am very confused. Why do I need a tracker? Why can't I just see the data directly from the traffic source?

So I have been in the digital marketing space for a couple of years now. Mostly running paid traffic like Facebook, Google Search for clients. Working directly with businesses.

Typically, I am able to put the TRAFFIC SOURCE pixel code on the conversion page. This data will then be passed to the traffic source. So I could view the campaign analytics directly in the traffic source.

I have never used a tracker at all throughout all these years...

Now I understand I am not able to put the pixel code on the conversion page in affiliate marketing because I don't own those pages. But in some networks (Maxbounty, A4D), this is possible. There are places to paste the tracking code on the offers I am interested in. The AM is even willing to paste this code for me.

Questions:

• If I am already able to have this code on the offer pages, this means the conversion data will be push back into my traffic source (Facebook, Google Search, ect). Why then do I still need a tracker?
• I am not using traffic sources like pop, push or PPV. Would a tracker only be useful if I am using these other traffic sources; since the analytics dashboard in most of these traffic sources are not the best?
• What is the difference between "URL" vs "HTML IFrame Server Tracking" postback in the affiliate network?

I have been doing a lot of reading regarding trackers and how everyone is using them. I still cannot see the value in paying for one every month. I had free trialed a few of them, but still find the whole exercise extremely pointless.

Now...I know there are other features like link rotator, conversion cap and other new shiny objects. These are just icing on the cake.

At the end of the day, I just want conversion data to be pushed to my traffic source. The question is if I can already do this without a tracker. Why then do I still need a tracker?

Please advise. Any information will be greatly appreciated.

If you don't like to use tracker, you can just join networks that have inbuilt trackers on their platform. I think ToroAdvertising has this and also Mobidea I think does too.

 

[Steve @ Voluum]

If you're using only Facebook and Google as your main traffic sources do not use trackers at all, cuz they have a redirect for tracking data about clicks, devices etc. And GA and FB don't like redirect methods.

Actually, that's no longer a case.
You can definitely use Voluum (Voluum is a tracker) with Facebook and Google Ads, in fact Facebook is one of the most popular traffic sources our users track and we have an integration with Google Ads. You're 100% right about one thing though - it's important to avoid redirects and go with a no-redirect script. In Voluum, it's called Direct Tracking Pixel and it's a direct tracking method that doesn't require the initial redirect (happening between clicking on an ad and being redirected to a landing page) to collect the data.

It works very well with Facebook and Google Ads because the link you paste to FB/GA is your landing page url + some parameters appended at the end and not a Voluum campaign url using completely different domain (tracking domain) than your landing page domain.

@lcyew
Trackers provide a ton of information (30+ data points) about your visitors like device, OS, carrier, language, etc. on every impression, visit, click and conversion. In AM, your audience is a limitless source of knowledge that you need to dig into to make data-driven decisions that are accurate ... they can also rotate LPs, offers ... you can create rules that will send particular traffic segments to specific offers ... you can use dynamic tokens to properly label your traffic to analyze what ad, traffic source, placement, etc. converted for you.
So a tracker allows you to control the traffic flow better and gives you a better idea about what kind of traffic works for you. Otherwise, on the traffic source side (so without tracking), it can be often limited and you might end up wasting impressions on irrelevant audiences.

And there are also @dont.farm's reasons, all on point.

If you're running on Facebook, it's not a must to use a tracker and it might be enough for you to go without one, at least at the beginning. But if you need additional campaign stats and redirecting, and optimization options, you should choose to use one.


Karolina

 

[Graybeard]

Anything that occurs on YOUR server can be tracked internally ... (If you know what you are doing [most do not])
s2s can be tracked by your server if you understand how to script the event [most people do not know how to do this].

So if you do not know how to do these things use some outsourced tracking.

 

[dont.farm]

Actually, that's no longer a case.
You can definitely use Voluum (Voluum is a tracker) with Facebook and Google Ads, in fact Facebook is one of the most popular traffic sources our users track and we have an integration with Google Ads. You're 100% right about one thing though - it's important to avoid redirects and go with a no-redirect script. In Voluum, it's called Direct Tracking Pixel and it's a direct tracking method that doesn't require the initial redirect (happening between clicking on an ad and being redirected to a landing page) to collect the data.

It works very well with Facebook and Google Ads because the link you paste to FB/GA is your landing page url + some parameters appended at the end and not a Voluum campaign url using completely different domain (tracking domain) than your landing page domain.

Sorry, Karolina.

I made some mistake. I want to say that if you run only one whitehat campaign you can do it without a tracker. Better to use only google analytics, if you know how to use it

For newbies, it can be hard to understand how to make tracker integration without redirects, but support always friendly and can help with any issue.

 

[Zura]

Hello everyone,

As a newbie, I am also puzzled by the tracker logic. I was stuck in 2 different understandings in terms of the operation of the process, maybe you can tell me which one is the correct understanding. My gut feeling tells me that my first understanding is correct yet I wanted to double check with you

1st understanding: I create a campaign in tracker then put URLs of my all landing pages, offer URLs (affliate links) to that campaign and got only one url from tracker for my campaign. And from adnetworks, I will be pulling traffic to the only one URL I got from tracker for my that campaign? I mean whole process is managed by tracker.

2nd understanding: When I create landing page, I put offer url (aff link) to landing page with html codes. Later then, when I purchase traffic, I pull that traffic directly to my landing page URL. Tracker won't be in any operational process, it will just collect data and give reports...

By the way, I have a second question about tracking domains;
I saw that we need to enter tracking domain to tracker campaigns. Do I need to purchase a new domain to use it in tracker? (just like the usual domain we know all the time?) And do I need to purchase new domains for each campaign seperately?

I am not sure if these questions are very very beginner questions or not, but I am very puzzled. It will be great for me if you can enlighten me

 

[Graybeard]

And how do you get a s2s postback from the remote site (the *offer/sponsor affiliate program)?
How to create tracking pixel with Google Analytics for 3rd party site?
this looks interesting, I have a situation where I have a subdomain to send traffic to on the sponsor's (affiliate program's) domain and not my own domain like a normal white label -- can I piggy-back onto their G-A ID? Rhetorical ...Have to try and see if I can get anything/something (regarding their remote site usage ...) *looks like it requires your pixel

 

[Adam80Johnson]

Hi, answering to the main question of this thread - you need a tracker to keep all statistics in one place and to optimize your campaign.

Based on the example with Facebook and AdWords, it's true that they have their own statistics, but tracker gives another kind of data, more detailed. Also, if you advertise the same product in both Facebook and AdWords you'll need to login in both platforms to check the performance. In tracker you can see them both in one place.

You can distribute your traffic among different offers when working with tracker. Some of them even have landing page builders and bot-filters.

 

[Adam80Johnson]

Hi @Zura ,

Your 1st understanding is correct. Speaking about 2nd - you can fulfill the same with tracker. You add your landing page, put click URL from your tracker's account on the CTA button, add both of them to the campaign and put a final link (campaign link) on your traffic source. In this case tracker shows you the performance of your landing page and offer.

You can even make tests and find out which landing+offer bundle is more profitable.

About tracking domains: in general you add a subdomain to the tracker. So, you create a new CNAME record for your domain and add it to the tracker.

Example: mydomain.com
You create CNAME: www
Add to tracker: www.mydomain.com

So, your primary domain still functioning as usual.

Some trackers offer domain purchase from the account.

You can have a separate domain for every camapigns or have just a couple of them. I don't recommend you to use only one domain because if enything goes wrong with it your camapigns stop working and you are loosing your traffic

 

[Zura]

Hi Adam, thank you very much for clarification, now most of the puzzle pieces settled

 

[Sufian Shahid]

Trackers can be useful for optimising your campaigns later on. Tracker provides all the data about the IP address, referrer, and you can also judge the quality of traffic from there. Some network have in-built tracker but you will no get enough information from that in-built tracker other then click, leads/sales. So, using a tracker is completely on to you whether you want to know about your traffic or not.