...Tracking Lifetime Value of a customer from the initial traffic source
Background
I am launching my own product I am currently setting up landers and tracking for it. The product is service related and most of the selling will be done via email after the initial opt-in.
...Two Problems I Face:
1. Tracking Lifetime Customer Value to the Traffic Source
How can I track a person from an ad campaign, to my landers, to email etc and if they converted a week (or a month) later from email, how do I know the original source of the traffic?
..This is my current theory on how to solve it, do you think this would work?
Lead source id in tracking url --> (using php) lead source id in email submit form --> (using autorespnder token) lead source id appended to email tracking links
2. What Tracking + Autoresponder combination would work best for this?
I am looking to find the best combination of a tracker and an autoresponder which would work best complimenting each other on this type of set up.
For Email
As I am only starting this product and don't have a list, i thought it would be best to go with an email service provider...
...So far I have tried:
Aweber - I decided not to go with it because of double opt-in
Getresponse - Looks good, but I feel like it is somewhat limited and I am worried it could be a problem later on.
..I am considering:
Infusionsoft - Seems that some big product sellers use it and it seems a more robust (but expensive solution) so i am considering trying it.
icontact - I have heard mixed reviews about this one.
..Do you have any other suggestions?
For Tracker
..I am using:
Funnel Flux - I am trying this at the moment and it looks very promising and it is very straightforward to use.
..I am considering:
Thrive - I meant to test this before, I even had it installed but I never really got around to it. I know affiliates who use it and they like it, but would it be a good solution for tracking your own product funnel?
..Is there a tracker you think I am missing here?
I really appreciate you taking the time to read this post...if you are a business owner with some knowledge of such a set-up, please chime in, I could really use some advice from someone who has done it all before!
Thanks STM!
-ManBearPig
@ManBearPig
Thrive would be able to do this.
You can either track the email submit as the landing page (there is a Thrive trigger to log an "LP Conversion" by adding a parameter &esub=1 to the landing page click through code), or you can track the email as the first primary offer. Then, the actual conversion/sale can be an upsell offer.
The easier way to get started would be to depend on cookies. Then, you'd just have to link out to the offer using Thrive's landing page code and then fire a Thrive global pixel upon conversion on the thank you page.
If you just track the email submit as a landing page, then you wouldn't even have to use Thrive's landing page code. Just load Thrive's pixel on the thank you page directly. This would be the simplest way.
If you want to get a little more accurate, then you can log Thrive's click ID somehow and insert it as part of the link out in the email. This might not be possible since I'm not sure of the possibilities of the auto-responders.
You can remove double opt-in on aweber. Create your signup form, go back into the settings and turn off the confirmed opt-in
Using an affiliate tracker to calculate customer lifetime value is a bit of an untyipical choice. The main reason is that this (CLV) is something that people are mostly concerned with that own the product, not the "run-of-the-mill affiliates".
You'll have a much easier time using Google Analytics, Mixpanel, kissmetrics or similar solutions to determine CLV and map it back to the traffic source.
A typical Google Analytics scenario looks like this:
1) You have some sort of signup / login that generates a stable customer ID. During the signup process you pass on a UserID (UID) to Google Analytics and use that UID in every subsequent call.
2) You store both the UID and the CID from Google Analytics in your backend/database. Storing the CID is required so that you can make potential serverside conversions (i.e. if you have a subscription model and the user gets rebilled, you can track this via Measurement protocal requests - sending the CID along will correctly map the revenue back to the original traffic source.
Here's an intro into the GA Lifetime value reports https://support.google.com/analytics.../6182550?hl=en - they will be enabled by default, but just rely on cookie data. The longer you plan to retain a customer, the more important it is to move beyond the cookie into a specific "UID" world that works across devices.
The first question is, do you know actually how to calculate your LTV?
Most people do not.
If you do, then if you are happy with last click attribution, then at least as far as the direct cost per acquisition is concerned, you can track the click with any major tracker and then use the data to map it against your media spend.