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Someone to help me with tracking please?

by chris casab
4 replies
Hi everybody. I need help on this please. I've being digging in it for some time without any concrete answer from google or clickbank.
I'm an affiliate, and I'm running Adwords to promote a third party's product. And what I want is to track the CONVERTING KEYWORDS,
which trigger sales. I want to know which keywords convert and which not. That simple.
But I am facing two obstacles, and here is where I need your help:
First, the merchant doesn't accept to put any extra CODE for me in any of his pages (purchase or thankyou page). So I can't use
adwords conversion tracking.
Second, I am using a landing page (of my own) and a framed redirect. This is the exact path from the visitor's click to the sale:

ADWORDS AD =====> LANDING PAGE (mine), with a link to ======>FRAME (mine), which redirects to the ======> Merchant's (clickbank) product page (making it look like it's hosted in My SITE) ======> merchant's purchase page =======> thankyou page.

I've being reading in many sites about conversion tracking, but didn't find a single word about how it works through a framed
redirect.
And also don't know how to enable tracking without needing any code added in the merchant's pages.
Anybody has this issues clear enough to tell me exactly what to do?
Thanks in advance guys! I will appreciate your help.
#conversion tracking #converting keywords #ppc keywords #tracking
  • Profile picture of the author Stangracer
    Hey Chris,

    There are several options available to you. Any ad tracking software that tracks using subids should work for you.

    There is a problem when trying to track with frames.

    They have a tendency to drop your tracking cookies so your results can be pretty inaccurate.

    I personally like using Prosper202 / Tracking 202 and Affiliate Prophet.

    Both Prosper202 (self hosted) and Tracking202 (service) are FREE.

    Affiliate Prophet is a paid ad tracking software, but it works pretty good and has some features I haven't seen on the others. It costs $97 for the base package and the Pro version is a one time offer that costs an additional $147 for a total price of $244 if you want the pro version.

    Either of these will work in your situation.

    Since Prosper202 and Tracking202 are FREE, you might want to start there. They do subid tracking, so they'll work with what your trying to do.

    In my testing I found that frames really messed up my tracking and the results were in the neighborhood 75% to 85% accurate.

    Since Big G doesn't like frames I abandon them and moved on to word press.

    Hope that helps out some...

    Thanks,

    Derek
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    • Profile picture of the author chris casab
      Thanks Derek. I Appreciate your help!. Look, I have prosper 202, but not using it because in the las step of the set up, they asked me to put some code on the sales page or something like that, (I don't remember now)or to put the thankyou page's URL. (???) I really don't know it, because I'm not selling thru my own site cuz I'm an affiliate. So I abandoned prosper 202. Also merchant won't put anything in his website. Anyways, if he accepted to do so, I prefer using adwords tracking in that case instead of prosper.... What's your oppinion? Am I messing up something with prosper?

      Second, I use a frame because I'm cloaking my aff. link and because want avoid people noticing I'm an affiliate, so with the frame everything looks to be in my site. You said you abandoned frames. So how are you doing it now? You are just showing your aff. link to the visitor?

      Thanks again buddy.
      Chris.
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      • Profile picture of the author Stangracer
        Hey Chris,

        You're welcome, glad I can help out some.

        Originally Posted by chris casab View Post

        Thanks Derek. I Appreciate your help!. Look, I have prosper 202, but not using it because in the las step of the set up, they asked me to put some code on the sales page or something like that, (I don't remember now)or to put the thankyou page's URL. (???) I really don't know it, because I'm not selling thru my own site cuz I'm an affiliate. So I abandoned prosper 202.

        Also merchant won't put anything in his website. Anyways, if he accepted to do so, I prefer using adwords tracking in that case instead of prosper.... What's your oppinion? Am I messing up something with prosper?
        With Prosper202 you don't have to use the tracking pixel, step #8. It's totally optional. They have subid tracking built in. For Clickbank that would be a TID.

        I did a blog post that walks through Prosper202 and describes each step a bit. You'll need to read the full article, because I explain a little more at the bottom. It's not exactly step by step... But I think it might clear a few things up. Check that out and see if it helps you.

        Ad Tracking with Prosper202

        Feel free to ask any questions after you take a look. That way I can make the post much better and more helpful for you and others.

        Second, I use a frame because I'm cloaking my aff. link and because want avoid people noticing I'm an affiliate, so with the frame everything looks to be in my site. You said you abandoned frames. So how are you doing it now? You are just showing your aff. link to the visitor?

        Thanks again buddy.
        Chris.
        Well, that all depends on what I'm doing. For instance when I just want to send someone to an affiliate offer I use a cloaking software to create the redirect link so I can clean it up, track how many clicks I get, and clean up the way the link looks in their browser when they get to the site.

        In the case of Clickbank, that means losing the ?hop=nickname at the end of the link in their browser.

        Now I can use these redirect links in my marketing material. I also use Prosper202 to track links using their direct linking capability if I just want to place a link in the context of articles or landing pages or track banners ads and stuff like that.

        If I'm testing affiliate programs I use Affiliate Prophet to create quick landing pages for me that work similar to a frame, but are better in my opinion. I've made a little blueprint up on how I do that.

        Affiliate Offer Testing Blueprint

        It's not fully finished yet, I want to add some more detail to the keyword part of it, but it may give you some ideas. I want to add a little more about picking keywords for testing.

        There is a video on the page, it's a little long, but has good info in it and shows a demo on how Affiliate Prophet speeds up the testing process.

        That's if I'm testing affiliate offers.

        Once I find an offer I like and want to promote, then I setup a website and go from there. I've been moving everything over to wordpress and using wordpress sales page templates for landing pages, that way I can use all my tracking stuff and clean up the pages too.

        Now I use both Prosper202 and Affiliate Prophet at the same time along with Piwik analytics, so I'm probably a little weird when it comes to tracking stuff. Affiliate Prophet was really designed for the Clickbank affiliate, but it does work for other things like CPA and Product Owners too...

        I would go ahead and start with Prosper202 cuz it's FREE.

        Learn how to make it work... Then make a decision on what you need and like for your ad tracking.

        Once you understand the basics of affiliate ad tracking and using subids, then you can make a better decision one what you want from an ad tracker.

        Prosper202 may just do everything you need and want.

        If not, there are plenty of options available.

        Sorry for the long post and the links to my blog... It just gets hard to explain everything in a short post.

        Hope this helps out some. Feel free to ask questions.

        Thanks,

        Derek
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        • Profile picture of the author chris casab
          Hi Derek!

          What a helpful post you've done man, million thanks again!
          Well look, I've being offline a couple of days so just finished reading it, and I'm now going from here to your blog article to check the prosper 202 stuff in more depth. (Obviously, you clarified I WAS missing something ). Anyways, I'll tell you that today, the very first thing I did after my absence was check my email. And (like if he were reading my mind) the merchant who's product I am promoting sent me some cool info about Clickbank tracking that I want to share with you and the whole forum. It is a total novelty for me, and maybe for you? or for many people here? So below is the copy of that email. Please read it and tell me your opinion and if you still think we should use Prosper 202 . Is it worth?

          bye bye, we keep in touch...
          Here's the email:


          Hey! Hey!

          Travis here...

          It's not often this ole lunkhead can give a 'technical tip'.

          So I'm pleased to dig up this 'buried' bone and bring it out in
          the open.

          Here WAS the problem...used to be the only way
          to track Clickbank sales as an affiliate in Adwords, Yahoo or
          MSN was to email your merchant and send him your conversion
          code.

          Lot's of problems with that because it skewed results
          for everyone...you had to get the merchant to DO it and
          more.

          But NOW...(YAY Clickbank!)

          You can add your conversion code right into your
          Clickbank account THAT WAY when you log into your Adwords, Yahoo
          or MSN ppc accounts you can see EXACTLY what keywords
          brought you in your sales...and which keywords hemorrhage cash.

          (Pure Bum Marketers can add Google Analytics)

          Here's how:

          (You have to have your conversion code handy.)

          1. Sign into Clickbank
          2. On the top click on Account Settings
          3. Scroll down to the box that says INTEGRATED SALES REPORTING.
          4. Click edit
          5. Click the green button that says...ADD TRACKING CODE.
          6. Follow the applicable diagram and just paste in your code.

          I'm using it on Adwords and Yahoo and will test MSN at some point.

          Now...if you already have your tracking code on sites...if you add this to your
          account it will probably double report.

          So...

          You'll have to either...

          1. Add the code in and factor that in on your old campaigns.
          2. Have all merchants remove your code.
          3. Get another Clickbank account. (Not too much of a sweat...I have 7 now for
          tracking purposes. )

          Hope that helps!

          Peace,
          Travis

          PS Was this a wee bit over your head? It's okay. This is about tracking
          where your traffic and sales come from. If you find yourself getting a sale here...and then
          a sale there from time to time...but frustrated because you can't seem to find any consistency.

          It's because you are literally working 'in the dark'.

          May I suggest?

          Come into the light! Tracking is a fairly easy tool to put
          in your mental toolbox and now that Clickbank let's us put
          the code right in our accounts...

          It's almost hard NOT to make sales because we KNOW
          where the sales are coming from...that way we can focus on what's
          working...and dump what's not.

          Come into the light:-)
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