Tracking Software Confusion - HELP?

[JonathanB]

Hi everyone!

I'm new to affiliate marketing and want to launch my first campaign this week. I have a very supportive AM and an offer that seems to be "newbie friendly".

Info about the campaign:
Offer: Simple Lead Gen (user must fill out a form)
Traffic source: Facebook, US-Only
Landing Page: Simple Click-through-page stating benefits etc.

Here’s what I have:
1x Facebook Campaign Desktop Only
1x Facebook Campaign Mobile Only
3x ads per campaign w/ 3 different images (Ad 1: Boy, Ad 2: Girl, Ad 3: Sofa)
And 3x landers (Lander 1: Boy, Lander 2: Girl, Lander 3: Sofa)
Each landing page has its own ad to keep the user experience from ad to lander consistent. So when user clicks the "boy"-ad they will get to the "boy"-lander. Makes no sense to send them from "boy" to "sofa".

All ads point to my custom domain right now. The landers-URLs look like this:

w w w . b l a b l a . c o m / b o y
w w w . b l a b l a . c o m / g i r l
w w w . b l a b l a . c o m / s o f a

The user-flow would be:
FB Boy ad --> Boy Lander
FB Girl ad --> Girl Lander
FB Sofa ad --> Sofa Lander

Makes sense? I think so, too!

In my opinion this is very straightforward and potentially successful, because the user-experience is consistent (I click sofa ad and I land on a lander including that sofa. I feel I'm at the right place).

The Hardcore Confusing Part:

And here is where my confusion sets in...

In order to send the "Boy"-ad to the "Boy"-lander I have to use the "blabla.com/boy" URL in my ad as the destination.

But then no tracker will register it, because that link doesn’t go through the tracker. It goes directly to my lander. I only could track the flow "lander to offer". So I'll never now which of my 3 "boy"-ads made the conversion. I will only know what lander did. But if I spend so much time and energy into this tracking, then I want to see the entire picture, right?

So here is what I "think" I must do:
1. Get a tracking link from each Ad TO Lander
2. Get a tracking link from each Lander TO Offer

This way I can see things like: "Boy Ad #2" and "Boy lander #3" made the most conversions. And from there optimize further...

These links can all be found within the trackers.

But what I don’t understand is:

If I set up a campaign in AdsBridge, Voluum or TrackingDesk:
1. I setup the network
2. I setup the traffic source (facebook)
3. I setup the landers (boy, girl, sofa)
4. I setup the offer (only one offer)

When I setup ONE campaign then things get messy. Because now I only get 1 campaign URL. Which means: My intended user-flow will be messed up. I throw 3 different landers into one campaign and only god knows if "boy"-ad will get redirected to "boy"-lander.

I KNOW that I must split test. BUT I also now that people will be confused when they click a "boy" ad and land on a "girl" lander. And confusion kills conversions (say that 10 times as fast as you can...)

I'd rather split test 3 different boys/girls/sofa ad-lander combinations.

So the only solution my newbie-me can think of is:
Create separate campaigns for each ad-lander combination within the tracker.

Which means:
Create a Boy Only campaign // Girl Only campaign // Sofa Only campaign

This way I'll manage 3 independent campaigns for the exact same offer. It feels overly complicated, but I have no other idea how to do it.

So all this being said; I hope you guys and girls (and sofas) here can help me out.

How would you set this all up? Looking forward to hear from you!

Cheers,
Jonathan

 

[awesomesauce]

read this: How To Track Facebook Ads? - Voluum Blog

Basically, you are going to want to redirect users with your tracker to the correct landing page based on the ad_id you pass in your URL.

 

[JonathanB]

read this: How To Track Facebook Ads? - Voluum Blog

Basically, you are going to want to redirect users with your tracker to the correct landing page based on the ad_id you pass in your URL.

Hi Awesomesauce,

thanks for your reply! So what you suggest is throwing everything together into one campaign and then setting up automation rules based on ad_id the traffic comes from. Correct?

I've read that article on the Voluum blog earlier today but unfortunately it only added more to my confusion. In the article they say I have to use the tracking link in my ads as the destination link. But a link that looks like "demo.track/bshdgzb/123443" looks spammy. Isn't there an option to use the clean offer-relevant-link I bought?

 

[VladZh]

Hi,

Well, with some of the trackers that allow you to track direct traffic (like the one we are working on) entry you can add additional line of code on your landing page instead of using a tracking URL to look "less spammy".

So the click would come from facebook ad to you landing, additional tracking code will step in and do the job. You campaign URLs would look very nice. But then you will have to operate 3 campaigns to properly distribute the traffic - something you was trying to avoid in the first place.

You can also opt in to use custom tracking domain. The link would still be long but will be "less spammy" like
t r a c k . b l a b l a . c o m?all_the_macros={and more}

 

[Stephen ThriveTracker]

The Hardcore Confusing Part:

And here is where my confusion sets in...

In order to send the "Boy"-ad to the "Boy"-lander I have to use the "blabla.com/boy" URL in my ad as the destination.

But then no tracker will register it, because that link doesn’t go through the tracker. It goes directly to my lander. I only could track the flow "lander to offer". So I'll never now which of my 3 "boy"-ads made the conversion. I will only know what lander did. But if I spend so much time and energy into this tracking, then I want to see the entire picture, right?

ThriveTracker has a ready-made solution for this. We've had it live for over two years now and it's performed extremely well for our users. You'll still be able to gather the same insight data you were looking for, but it will happen without the use of a redirect link in your traffic source (FB, in this case). Instead, you direct-link to your landing page and let the pixel fire.

Find out more info on it here! The 0ms Tracker "Redirect" is Here - Introducing the Landing Page Tracking Pixel