Sales Attribution

[John Donald]

Hello everyone.

Me and my team are very new in Affliate Marketing hence I would like to get help to clarify the following questions:

Sales Attribution
Situation: We are planning to use CPA model to generate more transaction in our website and in the middle of looking for affiliate network who are willing to promote our service.

1. If a user clicked an offer/ads from one of the affiliate/channel and made a purchase/transaction in my website, AdsBridge then can attribute the purchase/transaction to that specific affiliate/channel - Do correct me if I'm wrong?

2. However, if the same user went back to the website thru Google or directly typed the URL without clicking the URL generated thru AdsBridge, will this purchase/transaction still attributed to the original affiliate/channel?

3. And if purchase/transaction still attributed to the original affiliate/channel, to what extend (how many days?) - If this differ to one affiliate network to another, do let us know what is the average.

4. If it's attributed to the original affiliate/channel, do we still pay for the subsequent transaction/sales?

We thank you in advance for answering the above qustion. We are looking to invest in affiliate networks to generate more sales in our website and do recommend to us if any of you have any recommendations.

Thank you,
John and Team

 

[GriD]

Hello everyone.

Hello John,
It is always nice to introduce yourself (and in this case also your team). There is an introduction section to do just that.

1. If a user clicked an offer/ads from one of the affiliate/channel and made a purchase/transaction in my website, AdsBridge then can attribute the purchase/transaction to that specific affiliate/channel - Do correct me if I'm wrong?

What CPA offers are you considering? In essence, a 'user' would never purchase or perform an action resulting in compensation on your website... Your tracker (Adsbridge) will track the user from your site to the CPA offer website... Any conversion happening there should be allocated to you. When a conversion happens, this can be confirmed to the tracker using postback. If this is the case you will be able to see which 'user' triggered the conversion.

2. However, if the same user went back to the website thru Google or directly typed the URL without clicking the URL generated thru AdsBridge, will this purchase/transaction still attributed to the original affiliate/channel?

3. And if purchase/transaction still attributed to the original affiliate/channel, to what extend (how many days?) - If this differ to one affiliate network to another, do let us know what is the average.

4. If it's attributed to the original affiliate/channel, do we still pay for the subsequent transaction/sales?

All those questions can have variable responses depending on the offer. it is best to ask your affiliate manager about these...

 

[Graybeard]

That is a very valid question/issue
You are the end seller? Seems so ...
What is it you sell?

1. What is your return rate until the1st sale?
   *will your product be shopped often for other prices or offers?
   *is the offer an impulse buy --see and buy/convert on a first view basis?
2. Do people come back to buy that you would have to attribute CPA to an affiliate (or some other source)?
3. Do you maintain a cart or use a merchant account's pay page?

Tracking affiliates or sources is difficult to do now with cookies IMHO --the slippage is too large and will only get worse as time passes.
When I see the 90 day cookie tracking claim as an affiliate I may just move on.

If the CPA pay-out @50% makes sense with a cookie deal I may consider it.
I view cookie attribution very skeptically.

 

[SalemKring]

I used to do this kind of work. Sales attribution allows you to assess the contribution of each advertising channel used to the user's target action.

 

[Graybeard]

The cart or 'buy' form can only capture an attribution that is part of a URL query string, referral cookie (that exists or is now present) or a specific location (URI or White Label usually).

So what is your point exactly?

 

[Graybeard]

And what if a customer sees your ads and your 'content' over an omnichannel marketing campaign --that is the touted method today?

Like the accounting inventory term LIFO (last in first out) you are only picking up the last 'click' or 'action'. LIFO can be a useful tool for studying internet usage, but it is not the only tool that you should use.

It's possible to relate the 'steps' or 'touch points' into a hard database --but to scale this and comply with the PII (personally identifying information) legal standards is very complicated now. Despite these challenges, managing customer touch points is essential for any company that wants to provide a great customer experience and accurate statistical analysis. By understanding the customer journey, companies can identify opportunities to improve the customer experience and build customer loyalty.