Have you ever wondered how influencers and bloggers make money by promoting brands on their social media platforms and websites? The secret lies in affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing provides an easy way to monetize your audience and unlock commissions.
The concept is simple – you share special tracking links and if someone purchases through your link, you earn a percentage of that sale. However, taking your earnings to the next level requires digging deeper into granular analytics. This is where ad trackers come into play.
Read on!
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is when you promote products or services from a company, and if someone buys through your link, you earn a commission. Pretty cool, right? Think of it like getting paid for telling your friends about stuff you like.
For example, let’s say one of your favorite YouTubers has a merch line. You could become an “affiliate” for that merch, share your unique coupon code on social media or your own blog, and get a cut of the profits from anyone who makes a purchase using your link.
So in simple terms:
- You promote or shoutout a product
- Someone buys that product through your link
- You get a commission or percentage of that sale
It’s an awesome way to make some extra cash as a teenager by leveraging your audience and connections.
How to Track Affiliate Links
But how do you actually know if someone bought something using your affiliate link specifically? This is where ad trackers come in clutch!
Ad trackers (also called affiliate link trackers) allow you to create special tracked links to share. These links use cookies and other technology to follow readers across devices and accurately attribute sales to YOU.
Without a tracker, you’d just have to cross your fingers and hope people buy after clicking your plain old link. With an ad tracker, you can definitively see in real-time when your links result in sales.
Here are some examples of popular affiliate link tracker tools:
- ClickMagick: Simple and budget-friendly for beginners
- Voluum: Robust advanced tracking capabilities
- RedTrack: Specializes in tracking affiliate networks
- Refersion: Integrates tracking directly with Shopify
Most trackers have similar core features, like:
- Dashboard showing clicks, conversions, sales etc
- Click-through-rate (CTR) and conversion rate tracking
- Multi-channel tracking across social, display ads, email etc
- Attribution modeling to assign credit for conversions
- Fraud protection to filter fake clicks and bots
They integrate with all the major affiliate marketing networks like ShareASale, CJ Affiliate, Rakuten Marketing, Impact Radius and more.
Why You Need an Ad Tracker
You’re probably wondering…why go through the trouble of using an ad tracker?
The short answer—it makes you MUCH more successful as an affiliate marketer. With an ad tracker, you can:
See exactly which links drive sales: Know which promos or landing pages convert best.
Optimize your campaigns: Kill off underperforming links/posts and double down on what works.
Improve conversions: A/B test different posts and creatives to increase click and conversion rates.
Reduce fraud: Block fake traffic from bots to save money.
Profit more from your audience: Identify your highest earning partnerships and promos.
When you can accurately measure your results, you gain crucial insights to streamline your strategy. It’s like gearing up with powerups in a video game!
Let me give you a quick example…
Say you shared an affiliate link to an awesome pair of sneakers on Instagram and Twitter. With ad tracking, you’d immediately see which posts drive more purchases.
Perhaps your Instagram followers love the neon version, while Twitter likes classic white. This allows you to fine tune future promotions by platform.
Over time the data really compounds, so you can spot lucrative patterns in your audience’s interests. More sales = more commissions earned = bigger checks! 💰
Step-By-Step Guide to Setting Up Tracking
Ready to level up your affiliate links with tracking? Here’s a simple step-by-step process:
Choose Your Tracker
First, browse reviews to pick the ad tracker for your needs and budget.
I’d recommend ClickMagick or Voluum for beginners since they have the most user-friendly dashboards. Both offer free trial periods so you can test them out risk-free.
Create Your Account
Next, go to your chosen platform and create your account. The sign up process only takes a few minutes.
Make sure your username and password are unique and secure. Don’t share your login credentials with anyone else.
Set Up Tracking Links
Now, you can generate your first tracking link!
Simply enter the original URL you want to track before appending your affiliate ID code. This transforms it into a unique, trackable link.
Pro Tip: Always double check your tracking links actually work before sharing them publicly!
Share Tracked Affiliate Links
Now comes the fun part—sharing your links out into the world!
You can put your affiliate links in:
- Blog posts
- YouTube descriptions
- Instagram bios
- Tweets
- Facebook posts
- And anywhere else you have an audience!
Get creative and test different platforms to see where your viewers are most likely to click and purchase from.
Monitor Your Dashboard
As clicks start rolling in, your ad tracker dashboard will visualize all the data in simple charts and graphs. Stay on top of these metrics:
- Number of clicks
- Click-through-rate
- Number of conversions
- Conversion rate
- Earnings per conversion
Review weekly to identify top converting links and make optimizations. Remember, data is your friend! Leverage insights to boost future affiliate promotions.
Common Ad Tracker Mistakes
While ad trackers are extremely useful, there are a few newbie mistakes to avoid:
Using default affiliate links: Always add your own tracking codes rather than sending people directly to the brand’s URL.
Forgetting to track clicks across devices: Make sure your tracker accounts for users that click on mobile but purchase on desktop.
Not testing properly beforehand: Double check your links work before blasting them out on social media or sending to your email list.
Sharing passwords: Never provide your tracker login credentials to anyone else. Your account activity and data should remain private.
Ignoring the data: What gets measured gets improved! Analyze your tracker dashboard regularly and apply lessons learned.
As long as you dodge these common Here’s the continuation of the guide:
Getting More Advanced with Affiliate Tracking
Once you get the hang of the basics, there are a few advanced tactics that can further increase your earnings over time:
Retargeting Pixels
Retargeting pixels allow you to dynamically serve ads to people who have already clicked your affiliate link previously. This reminds them to complete the purchase and often leads to higher conversion rates.
For example, Eva could install the Printful Facebook Pixel on her website. Then if anyone clicks her tracked link but doesn’t buy, Eva can create custom Facebook ads to target those same users again later.
Multi-Channel Attribution
With multi-channel attribution, you can see which combinations of marketing channels drive conversions across the user journey.
For instance, a user might see one of Eva’s Pinterest pins first, then click her Instagram bio link, before finally purchasing through the affiliate link in her YouTube video description. This path would credit affiliate sales to both Pinterest AND Instagram.
Understanding attribution paints a fuller picture so you can optimize across channels holistically.
Automation Rules
Automation rules allow you to set up “if this, then that” logic to scale your efforts.
Eva could create a rule that if an Instagram post receives over 100 clicks, the system automatically duplicates that post to drive even more traffic. This saves time manually managing each affiliate link.
Analytics Integrations
Syncing your ad tracker with other analytics tools like Google Analytics provides additional layers of insight tied back to your website and overall marketing efforts.
Affiliate marketing doesn’t exist in a silo. Understanding how it fits into your broader funnel and conversion cycles is crucial.
Lifetime Value Tracking
Sometimes affiliates offer multi-tier payouts. For example, Printful pays:
- 15% commission on first-time purchases
- 25% on repeat purchases
This concept is called customer lifetime value (LTV).
By tracking LTV tied back to specific campaigns, you can better project future earnings as your audience continues repurchasing over the long-term.
Wrap Up
Phew, that was a lot of info! To recap, here are the key takeaways:
Affiliate marketing is when you earn commissions promoting other brands’ products.
Ad trackers help measure affiliate link performance to maximize sales.
Platforms like ClickMagick and Voluum provide robust tracking capabilities.
Implementing tracking improves conversions and lets you spot what content resonates best.
At the end of the day, data and analytics will be the rocket fuel for lifting your affiliate income to new heights!
