How to Choose the Best Tracker for Affiliates

There are dozens of different elements that affiliates need to monitor while running their campaigns, but this wouldn’t be possible without the right tracker. Trackers for affiliate marketing are designed to not only monitor user behavior, but also support many of the tasks that these marketers have to perform. However, there are many different options and finding the best alternative can take a lot of research.

At ActiveRevenue, we focus on helping affiliates acquire top-notch traffic for their campaigns, so we understand the importance of having a great tracking tool. In this article, we’ll go over the importance of tracking, the features you need to look for in your next tracker, and give you an example of how to install a tracker on your affiliate site.

Why Is Tracking Important?

The right tracking tool can be the difference between building a successful set of ads and a poor-performing campaign. This is because, through tracking, you’re able to see what areas of your campaign are providing the best results and which elements need to be improved. With this information, you can then decide where to spend the bulk of your funds in order to get the best results.

Simply put, a reliable tracking app will help you manage and analyze your traffic in a simple way while still offering advanced features. At ActiveRevenue, we work with a wide range of tracking partners, so we know that every platform is different. For the purpose of this article, we will use Keitaro as an example whenever required.

Keitaro is one of our top tracking partners because the platform allows accurate tracking and comprehensive monitoring while offering a simple installation process.

What Advanced Features Should You Look for in an Affiliate Tracker?

As you can imagine, an affiliate tracker should allow you to analyze every visitor and see comprehensive information about all interactions. This includes information like the user’s location, device, internet connection type, browsing habits, and other demographic information.

But, the truth is that any tracking platform can do that. So, affiliates need to go a step further and look for a specialized tool that can help them develop better campaigns.

Keitaro is an awesome example because it provides a wide range of features and abilities designed specifically for affiliates. Some of these include:

Parking of Domains

One of Keitaro’s most appealing features is the ability to park secondary domains and use them as campaign links to help build better metrics for your pages.

Local Landing Page Upload

You should also try to find a tracker that allows local landing page upload, like Keitaro. In simple terms, this means that the landing page loading process won’t require a redirect, resulting in a much shorter loading time.

Postback Transmission from Order Forms

Although they are very valuable, order forms are usually hard to track because of the postback transmission process. But, with the right tracker, you can send postbacks directly from forms on websites to the monitoring tool or directly to your affiliate network.

Automatic Updating of Facebook Costs

Facebook costs play a huge role in any affiliate’s marketing mix, but this usually means adding yet another tool to your arsenal. By having a reliable tracking platform like Keitaro, you can have the automatic Facebook costs updating.  

The Ability to Edit Landing Page Code

Landing page code is usually accessed through the backend or CMS of a site. However, Keitaro gives you the ability to edit landing page code directly through the tracker, so you don’t have to leave this tool to edit the content.

API Postback Communication and Smart Links Feature

Affiliates can set up postback communication through API using a reliable tracker. Not only this, but users who opt for Keitaro will also have smart links available, which help redirect users to the right tracking URL based on their device and similar features.

Hassle-Free Website Integration

Integration can become a massive hurdle without the right team or tool functionality. Fortunately, you can opt for a variety of trackers that include PHP, JavaScript, and WordPress integrations in order to cover all the bases.

Comprehensive Reporting Features and the Creation of Users

Finally, make sure to find a tracking platform that provides a full set of reporting features that help you break down your performance in a clear way. Keitaro, for instance, allows you to create custom reports that can include more than 30 metrics.

Also, ensure that your platform of choice allows you to create users and grant them different access levels to encourage team collaboration.

How to Install a Tracker on Your Campaign

The installation process is different for all trackers, but it’s safe to assume you’ll need to invest time and resources into setting up your monitoring tool of choice.

Keitaro needs to be installed at a server level, but the platform developers have gone the extra mile to create an easy process that can be completed in two clicks.

Here, it’s important to understand that the installation process was not only revamped, but also upgraded. The new version of the installer gives Keitaro users the ability to be added to the hosting partners’ market places. Therefore, when you purchase a server and select Keitaro as the preinstalled software, all necessary platforms will be installed during the preparation process.

You can see in this image that the servers that include the default settings are tagged with the “APP” label:

That said, it’s worth noting that the easy installation process is only available through certain partners, so check out Keitaro’s documentation for more details.

Once you hire a server that has Keitaro as a preset, you have to:

• Choose the right tariff and location for your tracker
• Select your tariff and create an account or log in
• Select CentOS 8 Stream and Keitaro as the control panel. Here’s an example of the interface from one of Keitaro’s partners, but keep in mind that the appearance and functions may change depending on your requirements:

• Pay for the server and wait for the system to complete the installation. After that, you will receive your login credentials, which will come to your email
• Open the admin panel of the tracker and enter your license key

And voila! Your Keitaro tracker is installed. The process should only take a few minutes and follow a simple structure: select your plan, choose a location, create an account or log in, and select the CentOS 8 Stream option as well as Keitaro as the control panel. By following these simple steps you should be able to get everything ready without assistance.

And that is not all. Keitaro gives all new users a 20% discount on any plan! Just follow the link and use promocode ACTIVEREVENUE.

Ready to Create Your Next Affiliate Campaign? Contact ActiveRevenue Today

Ready to implement a reliable tracking system and launch your next affiliate campaign? Our team at ActiveRevenue will be glad to help.