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Originally Posted by BigFurry
Let me chime in as an affiliate. I can second what John said.
I really dislike in-house affiliate software. I don't think I've seen one that gives me enough information, and ability to break down data multiple ways, like NATS. And those programs probably all think that they developed something really good. Well, maybe it's good for them, but not for the affiliates.
Mind you, this experience is more about paysites, we don't promote many CPA offers.
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I agree completely. Affiliates for the most part get familiar with certain systems and require more features and options than a 50 line script for example, can compare with over 1,000,000 lines of code. There can't be the level of reporting, accounting and management in 50 lines as compared to what I said above. Remember, affiliates just don't take banners and just guess what's working. They want statistics that show various metrics to help them make better business decisions as to what and how to promote.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BigFurry
Also, I was not aware that NATS for Networks was an SaaS-only product. Now I'll be really glad to promote such programs, as that guarantees that those affiliate programs won't be able to shave or manipulate data.
PS. John, does NATS give affiliates the option of adding their own tracking parameters to the links?
What I had in mind is something like this:
join.xxx.com/track/MTQ1ODIuMzUuFQuDFDF4dfdAuMC4wLjA/?affilparam1=XXXXXXXXX
NATS would save that 'affilparam1' value, and if the visitor joins, I as an affiliate would see the parameter value in the member join data. I'd generate unique affilparam1 IDs for each of our visitors, so I can see later see which ones converted to sales. It'd help to judge our traffic sources, study the behavior of users that are buying, etc etc.
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Hi BigFurry, yes you can accomplish your example with NATS. As an affiliate, you would add a Campaign Tag to the Linkcode you are looking to use, which is encoded into the tracking already, so you won't necessarily see
'affilparam1' in the linkcode, but when you check your Statistics/Reporting, any time that link is clicked, it will track that specific parameter(s) throughout the whole conversion flow. You can sort your Statistics by Campaign->"Traffic Tag" and see your conversions based on those specific tags and know what is working from what campaign or tracking tags applied.
(Screencaps below)
As for NATS for Networks, it is a phenomenal software platform and provides the power of NATS with additional features that allows networks to really harness their marketing information and provide affiliates/publishers with valuable data at the same time. It's a win-win for all involved.