Affiliates Need TIT
posted in Affiliate Marketing |
There is a necessity for Trend Graphs illustrating the conversion rate for a prescribed rolling number of clicks, i.e. 1000 for an individual affiliate or 1,000 to 5,000 network wide depending on merchant traffic volume, which all parties can visbly see & have access to. This would illustrate & flag potential downward spirals & problems within any program on any network with respect to tracking (sometimes it’s a case that the tracking works, but the reporting doesn’t).
With a baseline on the trend graphs, when the point drops below an accepted level it is flagged to both affiliate, merchant & network. I asked for this before years ago across networks but I don’t think any network has really done it properly, if at all.
This would assist in identifying in tracking has gone array, even if only for a short duration, so that affiliates can be alerted to wasted traffic & suitable remunueration whilst the network & merchant fix the issue.
Don’t networks realise that TIT (Trust In Tracking) is one of the most important concerns for affiliates. These trend graphs may go some way to instilling a bit more trust in those networks who develop it, as well as flag potential problems for all a parties for that peace of mind.
If we cannot trust the network with this simple solution, then we may as well abandon the CPA model & revert to primarily CPC.
Why hasn’t this been done? Well apart from networks allocating needless time to a batch of superfluous 468×60 & misfit, non-standard sized, non flexible banners & creatives … (whoopee blooming doo) … paranoia is possibly one of them by the fact that if tracking does go array, it is often undetected by a network / merchant & often firstly detected by an affiliate. Not just paranoia from the network, but also the merchant / agency.
Another excuse is that a network does not have enough time or has minimal resources to develop … yet superfluous 468×60 banners again take precedent.
Therefore giving affiliate TIT might win the hearts & minds of affiliates & could induce / instil a bit more faith.
There does seem to be a false assumption, that because a network (whoever it maybe) sees sales being reported, that all sales are being reported for all affiliates. I don’t know how networks work, I do remember a few years ago when publicly another network had different affiliates reports on different servers. It took some effort by me to persuade their CEO when this was reported by us to come clean to all affiliates and acknowledge there was a problem, which dissipates backlash.
I guess what I am saying, is just because another affiliate may not have the same problem re tracking or reporting, it doesn’t mean the problem doesn’t exist, and some parties / support staff have been known to be quite dismissive by adopting the alternate train of thought.
Come on networks, please develop Trend Graph Tools so affiliates can have TIT.
