What is ad tracking?

Part of the digital marketing process is related to ads… and in order to have a performant ad campaign you need to be able to track the ad and the interaction with the possible customer. How else could you improve your campaign?

To track the ad journey, you need an ad tracker.

So, you have: the ad -> the ad tracker -> the customer.

An ad tracker is a must-have tool that will help you gather data about your ad journey and view it in a user-friendly form.

Why?

Data is the foundation of modern digital marketing, and it is essential for analyzing the performance of your ad campaigns. 

Long story short: Ad Tracking shows exactly if your campaigns are running smoothly and your money is spent wisely.

It offers you real-time information about your ad performance and enables you to improve and optimize campaigns fast.

Ad trackers are part of the campaign management software category; the kind of software developed to make advertisers’ and affiliates’ life easier through simplification and clarity. Their purpose is to help marketers make educated decisions and use their ad budgets in the most effective way possible.

Why should you care?

Ad tracking can and will provide valuable insights about your audience and its behaviors, which will allow you to anticipate trends and build smarter ad strategies.

While it can seem a bit complicated at first, with the right tracker, you can make ad tracking a key part of your marketing efforts and base your decisions on data.

What metrics can you track with an ad tracker?

The technology behind most ad trackers allows advertisers to measure click-through rates, page views, impressions, ROI for pay-per-click campaigns, conversions, and more.

This translates into more information available to inform you into making better decisions, and gaining the best value for your money. 

Even more so, ad tracking can reveal valuable insights about your audience’s behaviors and helps you understand them better. 

If you just started looking into what’s driving ROI for your business you might not know if it’s social media interactions, customer traffic, or conversions, and this is where the ad tracker steps in.

It makes all the answers available, so you can make an educated decisions about what should be done next.

PRO TIP:

Make sure you focus on measuring the metrics that are relevant to your business.

The best part about an ad tracker is that you can track all of your traffic sources into one platform. Just place a link and start tracking it! 

CPV Lab PRO allows you to track:

• PPC
• CPV
• CPM 
• Organic traffic
• Media buys
• Email marketing mobile ads
• Video ads
• Link placements
• Social ads
• Retargeting
• In-text ads
• Native ads and more.

Why ad tracking outperforms not tracking your campaigns?

1. Ad tracking reveals information about your customers

Who are your most frequent customers?

How do they find you?

What makes them click and what makes them bounce? All of these questions and more can be answered by tracking your ads.

2. Ad tracking helps you create better campaigns

If you know what’s working and what’s not working in your marketing efforts, you will easily identify the best strategies for your brand and create relevant content for your customers.

For example, if people spend time adding items to their shopping carts but they don’t convert, there might be something stopping them in the process, so your website might need some attention: UX, speed etc.

3. Improve conversions by being relevant

When you reach the right people with the right message in your ad campaign, you might’ve just found a gold pot. This is the sweet spot where conversions happen and you’ll see a big difference in your revenue than if you didn’t use a tracker. And you will know exactly what triggered that difference.

Types of ad tracking

There are more ways to track your ads. Most ad trackers will allow you to test different kinds of tracking.

• The simplest way to track ads is through link tracking – and this technique is often very useful because URL tracking will gather information about who clicks your link at any time. Link tracking is especially relevant in affiliate marketing for identifying the exact source of your traffic. When someone clicks on a link from your campaign, you can receive a report and compare the performance of various channels used in your campaign.

• Pixel tracking is also handy for sending information about customer actions on various platforms back to you. Pixels will reveal metrics like the number of people who clicked your ads, time spent on the page, demographics, and more. For example, an email tracking pixel will track when the recipient clicks to see the message and will let you know the email was opened. Over time, information like this lets you in deeper into your prospect’s customer journey and build relationships with them.
• Cookies are also used to track user behavior on websites, create audiences and build remarketing campaigns. However, you must gain your visitors’ consent to use cookies.
• Google ads tracking allows advertisers to run and monitor campaigns across various channels. If you see ads that are following you across the internet, this is most likely due to a Remarketing campaign created in Google Ads.
• Facebook CAPI: In order to maintain data privacy and still be able to deliver personalized ads to users, Facebook launched Conversions API (CAPI or previously Server-Side API). This interface allows advertisers or affiliates to send events from the server level directly to Facebook (while the Facebook Pixel works on the client/visitor level). The server events are used for accurate measurements, reporting, and optimization while maintaining data privacy.

Who can use an ad tracker?

1. Affiliates

Affiliates can use an ad tracker to quickly set up campaigns, validate and clone campaigns for new traffic sources, or segment traffic for massive scaling. An ad tracker will help affiliates improve targeting and grow sales.

Affiliate tracking software like CPV Lab PRO will allow you to track in detail every aspect of your campaign: links, devices, creatives, offers, organic vs. paid traffic, and many more.

2. Merchants

An ad tracker will be your right hand if you’re trying to sell physical or digital products. You can easily split test promotion pages, discounts, and sales to see which one performs best.

3. Advertisers

Advertisers will find that lead generation and direct response offers are just what they need. They can set up campaigns in just a few clicks and then optimize for conversion every step of the way

4. Marketing agencies and brand owners

Agencies can integrate ad tracking software into their business to increase performance, ROI, and use data to create better campaigns for their customers.

Also, the multi user access to an ad tracker allows you to setup accounts for your customers so they can see reports for their campaigns. No more excels reports, just real time reporting!

5. Media Buyers

Running ads for your clients, managing multiple accounts by doing that, can be overwhelming.

With an ad tracker, you have all your campaigns, all your reports in one place.

And you can use API to update the costs/conversions in Google, Bing, Facebook.

Start improving your marketing today!

If you fall into any of the above-mentioned categories, not tracking campaigns will limit your efforts and put you behind your competition. 

Don’t stay in a loop where you make decisions based on wild guesses! Start using the power of data to increase your marketing performance.

Trackless campaigns are ancient history. If you want to see what an amazing ad tracking tool can do for your business, get the CPV Lab PRO free trial and give it a try.

Do you want to start tracking your campaigns like a PRO? Check out this article to find out how to choose the best ad tracker for you.

Want to take your affiliate marketing to the next level? Along with ad tracking, understanding CPA network approvals is key. Dive into our comprehensive CPA Network Approval Guide for insights on navigating CPA networks effectively. This knowledge, combined with robust ad tracking, can significantly boost your marketing success.

If you have a question, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us or connect with us on Facebook. Our awesome support team is here to help you!