The affiliate industry (and marketing industry in general) continues to grow and adopt new tracking technologies to meet the needs found on the market – especially for those whose income depends on performance marketing.
Affiliate tracking solutions have become increasingly sophisticated, helping affiliates and marketers boost ad spend effectiveness.
If you ever wondered why affiliate marketing is such a huge industry, this article will help you understand more.
But today, we want to share with you some tips on how to choose the right ad tracking software (or affiliate tracking tool if you are more into the affiliate business) that will help you gain powerful insights into your affiliate marketing campaigns: what’s working and what’s not working, who are your customers, and what you need to do to optimize your campaigns for more conversions?
For all of this and more, read on!
Most ad trackers offer a free trial. Try more options!
You don’t have to commit to purchasing a tracker without knowing what works best for you.
Most ad trackers offer a free trial option so you can experience more options before making a decision. You can get the CPV Lab Pro free trial by clicking here.
If you’re still not sure after the trial period, sign up for the affiliate tracker monthly payment so you can change your mind any time.
Cloud-Based or Self-Hosted. Which ad tracker is right for you?
Ad trackers usually come in 2 types: cloud-based or self-hosted.
Cloud-based
The Cloud-based trackers work like this: you go to the tracker website and log in, and then you can access your data.
If you’re considering a cloud-based affiliate ad tracker, there are some PROs and CONs to consider.
On the bright side, a cloud-based tracker is ready to use once you pay for it.
Also, cloud-based is a good option if you don’t want to take care of hosting and not worry about tracker downtime, but it will be more expensive and will keep your data stored for a limited amount of time.
When talking about cloud-based trackers, a problem is also that they offer a limited number of events tracked in the monthly package and all the rest have an extra cost… so if you run high traffic campaigns, that can be quite inconvenient.
Self-hosted
A self-hosted tracker is installed and stored on your server.
The best part is that you can save your data for as long as you wish, and you’re the only one who can access it. You have full control over the privacy of your data, making it more secure.
And you can track unlimited number of events, campaigns, etc.
The only downside is that you need to take care of your server.
Pricing. How much does an ad tracker cost?
When choosing the right affiliate tracker for you, note that some ad trackers charge by events (these can be the number of visitors, the clicks to your landing page or the number of conversions).
Other trackers charge just by the number of visitors. If you choose a tracker like that, your success might mean you have to pay more for the tracker.
At CPV LAB we don’t like limits and restrictions, so we have an Unlimited EVERYTHING Policy.
This means all of our plans are Unlimited.
You only pay once and use the tracker for as long as you wish.
You can define unlimited campaigns and ads, use unlimited landing pages and offers, track unlimited clicks, conversion, and actions, set up unlimited redirect profiles, and have unlimited data retention.
Features. What can your ad tracker do?
Every tracker comes with a lot of features, so you have to be careful to choose the one with the features that will help you more with your activity.
Compare aspects like user interface, how easy is it to use, campaign overview, what filters you have available, accessibility, and optimization – just to name the basics.
Don’t forget to compare reports, dashboard, and customization features, and if the tracker is integrated with most affiliate networks.
If you don’t know what to choose between CPV Lab PRO and another affiliate tracker, check out all of our features here.
For how long do you want to keep your data?
Data retention is an important aspect to think about when choosing an ad tracker. Most cloud-based trackers only store your data for a limited time.
Self-hosted trackers let you keep your data forever – as long as you have enough storage for it.
It’s your server, right?
Support. What type of support there is?
When getting a license for a new software, the support is crucial!
It is very important to get knowledgeable and fast answers to all your concerns.
This aspect is that more importnat when choosing a tracker, because your campaigns are the ones affected by a lack of support… and you don’t want to loose money, right?
So, when choosing your ad tracker, make sure you check if they offer human support or just bots who make you loose time and money.
At CPV Lab Pro we take the support for our customers very seriously! That is why our current average response rate is around 3 hours! And that is average, on a daily basis, the tickets are answered even faster! 🙂
Too long, didn’t read? Here’s a summary:
When choosing a tracker:
- Take your time to test more alternatives. Most trackers offer a free trial period.
- Decide if you want a self-hosted tracker or a cloud-based tracker.
- Get the best value for money – find a mix of good price, good features and flexibility.
Learn more tips and tricks about affiliate marketing, ad tracking, affiliate networks and traffic sources on our blog.