Online tracking applications
Today is Tools of the Trade Tuesday. To be honest, I actually started my journey with the topic of this particular article back in June. I have even written about a half a dozen article versions on this topic and I was unhappy with the results. Why? The main reason for this was because I quickly discovered that this is much larger and more encompassing than I first had thought.
What am I talking about? TRACKING! Specifically, online tracking applications and results…
The problem is that there is more than one element to tracking online activities. Basically, Tracking involves the process of gathering set criteria (data), to watch over a set period of time (tracking), then putting all the data together in an organized and readable format to see the effectiveness (results) of what it is you want to find out.
At first, it doesn’t sound all that complicated until you dig just a little further. For example, web analytics is a tracking method used to determine the effectiveness of the content and layout of a website or blog. You can even make it more sophisticated by placing heatmaps on pages to see the areas visitors are drawn to on you site.
The data gathered can be quite valuable if you find that most visitors like the upper right-hand corner of your site. From that data, you would most likely want to place an ad or call to action in that spot to make the best use of those results. Also how long visitors stay on your site, all relevant to anyone who has a site and wants to make sure that it is engaging customers or if changes are needed to be made.
But that is just one small part of tracking results!
Another element of tracking is the demographic part… who is visiting my website? where are they from? Are they old, young, mainly women or men? What is the purpose for their visit ?What got them to your site including what search terms were used or recommendations were made? All Tracking elements! And also, all different components within tracking results.
But as a small online business owner or manager, the main focus when tracking results is the effectiveness of an ad or marketing campaign. And that requires yet a different set of tracking criteria (data results). And that means a different form of tracking application (software or service)
But how does tracking help me make money?
Back in June ad link tracking was a hot topic that came up in an exclusive FB marketing group where I am a member. Mainly, the issue started as a question about what was the best tracking method or software she could use to track her (solo) ad results and know that those results are reliable and accurate? I answered the challenge, sort of…
Anyone who is an affiliate or Internet marketer knows that a major focus about tracking is with accurate link tracking. Whether it’s traffic or an advertising campaign’s effectiveness (sign-up results) from your ad link. And the ROI (return on investment, i.e. sale made to cost to run the ad) achieved.
It should be obvious that if you buy into some sort of advertising (banner ads, solo ads, etc), let’s say $100, and only make $50 or less after that campaign finishes, the return on investment is very poor. If you keep doing this over and over, you will become broke!!!
But if you tracked the results of the first $100 campaign, see that it only made $50 in sales, analyzed the different factors (banner ad graphics, sign-up page copy, quality of visitors, etc) and made changes for improvement; the next ad you run should become more effective, like getting $75 in sales on the second run. What helps you to do this? A trusted tracking application.
I want to be sure the results I get are reliable, how do I know they are?
This is where I became interested in finding out, off course. The application mentioned (Ad Trackz Gold) was questioned as to its accuracy and reliability. What it really boils down to is the trust factor. At the time, this particular application was not reliable because “cheats” could be implemented by others without knowing it and skew the tracking results.
The whole issue was fueled from a webinar at the time where the presenter, a solo ad vendor, made his own personal recommendations (and biases) about which tracking applications to use, and ones to avoid. Afterwards, I said that I would delve into it deeper and see which tracking application ‘‘brands’ were most reliable… that’s when I ran into issues.
I first started my investigation by making out a list of the top bloggers, affiliate and Internet marketers who are online today. Next I sent each one an email asking if they could help me by letting me know what ad tracking application they were using and would recommend.
Surprisingly, I got a whopping 95% response (19 out of 20). Unfortunately, those recommendations were all over the map. Still a pattern emerged and I realized that it was also dependent on the size of the site, the number of different ad media being run at the time along with the shear number of visitors that were coming and being tracked (some easily get over I million visitors each month just from ad traffic). Not all applications can handle that much.
In the meantime as I was researching what each brand name application offered, I also discovered just how multifaceted the whole issue of tracking applications had become and what they did or didn’t do for you. In the meantime an updated version of Ad Trackz Gold was released during this time.
What about tracking affiliate link results?
O boy, I knew that this would come up as an issue. Not only do we as marketers want to know the nitty-gritty details of our own ad campaigns, but we also want to know how well our efforts are going with our affiliate links directing visitors to those sites we promote.
If you belong to an affiliate directory like Clickbank, and promote products from vendors listed, you’re assigned an affiliate link. This link not only gives you credit when you make a sale, but also tracks results for you.
You can see how many clicks you received from your source (wherever you placed your link) to the vendor page, how many of those visitors clicked to the order page (or offer page), and how many actually placed a completed order. This is fairly reasonable but not complete, why?
With these tracking methods, you have no idea how many visitors saw your ad link! It doesn’t mater whether it’s a text link, banner ad, article post, social post, or website visit. So you only know that 10 clicks went through to the vendor from your link. But you don’t know if 100, 200 or more visitors saw it to begin with.
What’s the big deal how many saw it, I got 10 clicks!
If you got 10 clicks out of 1,000 visitors, you achieved a 1% click-through rate (terrible)! You then would know that you need to make improvements on your end if you want to make money!!!
If you got 10 clicks from 50 visitors, then you got a 20% click-through rate (much better) and realize that you are doing the job at your end.
But you say, hey I didn’t make any sales in either case, so what’s the big deal now? If you are only getting a 1% click-through rate, you would recognize there is a problem at your end and know its up to you to make it better.
If you are getting 20% click-through rate and no sales, then the problem is at the vendor end and you need to decide whether that product is worth promoting, or if you need to develop your own sales page and send sales directly to the vendor’s order page!
So what did we resolve about tracking applications today?
First, there are a number of tracking issues that need addressed. We need accurate information about how well our website is performing. How well our ad campaigns are doing. Even how our customers are interacting. And the performance of our affiliate links to vendor products.
Sadly, there is no universal application that you can buy to do it all on your own. There are online services that can handle all this, but be prepared to pay a pretty penny for it.
Otherwise, you will need to piecemeal together several applications. Applications like Google Analytics, Ad Trackz Gold, or other applications to get the information you need that can become time consuming.
Just be sure to define the most important parameters of your business, then find applications that help you keep track… good luck!
Did I miss anything? Is there an application or program you are aware of and would like to share? Do you have a question or have an observation about tracking? Please let me know in the comment section below! 🙂
