How Do You Handle Different Time Zones? (3)
Hey guys,
I'm currently working really hard on streamlining all my processes and something that has been bugging me for a while is how to handle the issues that come with time zone differences between traffic sources, affiliate networks and tracking software.
These are the points that currently cause "friction" in my process:
- Daily P/L reports. My main traffic source stats are 6 hrs behind my main network stats. I currently just stomach the difference, figuring that it evens out since each day has the same discrepancy. Still, individual daily reports are not "correct" and I am basically comparing the wrong set of conversions to a given timeframe. You can change the time zone in Cake, but what if you have multiple traffic sources with different time zones?
- Daily P/L reports per campaign. Same as above, but makes it even more difficult if you want to group a given days P/L by campaign.
- CPVLab Setup: There is a global time zone setting plus individual time zones for each traffic source. The individual settings don't seem to have any effect on the stats though, so do you just manually substract / add the difference when looking at stuff like day / time parting?
- Any other tips / best practices on how to bring structure into this time zone mess? 
Figuring these are pretty common issues, I am really looking forward to hearing how you guys handle this stuff!
I can't talk about CPVLab since I use prosper but here's how I do it.
I must say I have employees preparing reports for me everyday , but here's the process.
Grab spent from traffic source using it's default time zone , upload subids to prosper , change timezone to match the one of the traffic source.
This way you have accurate P/L for that traffic source.
Rinse and repeat.
I use FB stats, P202 and my own Excel calculator. My biggest problem with P202 tracking (and this applies to CPVLab) is that Avg CPC isn't dynamic so your charts will most likely show up as -ROI. To combat this problem here's what I do (and this applies to the timezone issue):
1) Let P202 track all my ads/LPs but I leave the Avg CPC column blank.
2) Grab the Avg CPC cost from my FB Ad account and copy/paste into my Excel calculator which calculates profit/loss, income/expenditure, ROI etc.
The only thing that matters is ROI and EPC > CPC. As long as both conditions are met I will leave ads running irrespective of time differences.
Here's a copy of that Excel calculator. I only need to enter some fields and the rest is basic formulae:
Jay.
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