Affiliate conversion tracking is perhaps the most important aspect of being a successful affiliate marketer. However, the problem is, 95% of affiliates don't do it. Here's the truth: If you cannot identify where your sales are coming from, you will never be able to focus your time and money on making even more commissions. If you do not realize the importance of tracking, you definitely have not given enough attention to the affiliate marketing.
There are various tracking software in the market now, while how to track these leads? Should you use the postback URL or conversion pixel?
What is Postback URL?
Server postbacks allow for server-to-server communication. Once set up, this allows the network’s server to communicate with your tracking server by way of a postback url. The postback url acts as a vessel in which the advertiser can send to the converted subID back to your server resulting in a tracked conversion. However, your postback url (when placed into a network’s offer) needs to be properly appended with a dynamic token assigned by the network so that the network’s server knows what value to send back after a conversion. The purpose of a token is to dynamically insert the conversion subID from the network’s log into the url you provided back to your server. Without this token, the network doesn’t know where to place the conversion subID and cannot properly communicate with your server.
What is Conversion Pixel?
The conversion pixel is almost the same as postback URL, while they are a little different during work. Both pixels and Postback will notify your server when a conversion happens. However, the only difference is that pixel is usually in the form of iframe or image pixel. It means when the page loads your iframe or image, which usually places on conversion page, then a conversion is tracked.
How Tracking Helps You Make More Money?
· At the most basic level, tracking helps you find out your return on investment and where money is best spent.
· It helps you discover what keywords, ad groups and campaigns are most profitable.
· It allows you to test new ads and conversion pages more effectively and more quickly.
· It lets you find out how much each visitor is costing you.
· It helps you discover any leaks in your landing page or website.
How to Choose?
If you use the Global Postback URL, you can set up for all the offers on the network you have chosen by copying and pasting once only. So if you are running a lot of offers, you can choose the Postback URL. Generally speaking, the software of Postback URL is more expensive than the Pixel Tracking software. Therefore, if you are a fresh hand with limited budget and want to make more budget on tracking the traffic sources in various ways to check the reports in detail, we suggest that you can choose pixel tracking.
However, we always recommend using the postback URL option as opposed to the img or script pixel option as it's safer and far more accurate.
