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Track ads? (9)

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Hi,

What are some good and cheap tools to help track conversions?
I can't get Google Analytics to work.

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There are quite a number of good tracking tools out there these days which can track clicks and conversions.

If you're looking for "free" or "very cheap", the only option is the venerable Prosper 202, which is open-source and supported by the heroic Mr Baffoe on these forums. You'll need a server to run it on, and you'll need to install it yourself. But it's a good, solid tracker - the interface isn't as slick as others but plenty of people on STM have made millions with it.

Otherwise, there are a plethora of options around the $99 per month mark. Voluum, Thrive, FunnelFlux, Adsbridge - lots of choice for great trackers right now. Of all of them, Voluum and Thrive both offer options where you don't need to install them on a server yourself, so they're the easiest options if you're not technically oriented. Personally, when I'm not using a homebrewed tracking solution these days I use FunnelFlux.

For more details on the options available and to hear opinions, check out this thread: stmforum.com/forum/showthread.php?28714-Best-Tracking-Software-2016

Hope that helps!

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Thanks caurmen!

I got a lot of domains, perhaps around 20. All running relatively low traffic. Seems unnecessary to spend $2000 a month just to track a few clicks.

I already have Optimizely for split testing and I have a separate ad server (Adspeed). Just want a simple URL and pixel so that I can keep track of conversions.
Very simple stuff. I was looking at CPVlab but seems like it only tracks landing pages and not actual ads?

Will Voluum and the other ones you mentioned also act as ad servers and tools for split testing (so I can cancel my Adspeed and Optimizely accounts)?

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You shouldn't need one install of a tracker per domain. One single install of a tracker should do the job - so that's $99 a month rather than $2k

They won't work as adservers (Revived is the usual low-cost suggestion for that, but sounds like you're on top of that issue already), and whilst they'll do lander split-tests, they won't do the kind of in-page split-testing that Optimizely does.

They also don't do Javascript tracking, although I believe FunnelFlux is working on it.

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Voluum and other trackers don't tell you the winner landing page and also don't allow you to create variations like Optimizely does. However, my tool LPOptimizer does exactly that using Voluum/Thrive integration. So you won't need Optimizely anymore, just the tracker + LPOptimizer and you achieve the same thing without the monthly costs of Optimizely.

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Oh ok so these trackers are basically just an Analytics-replacement to check how old your customers are, what geographical areas they come from etc. How are they better than Google Analytics?

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@Lord Charles - the most obvious differences are:

1) Affiliate tools are designed to allow you to track campaigns that don't end up on web properties you control. That's a necessity for the affiliate marketing approach. If you own your own product, it's less vital.
2) All the trackers listed above use a hybrid approach to tracking rather than being entirely Javascript-dependent like Analytics. That makes them somewhat more reliable. How big a deal this is depends on a wide variety of factors, but a lot of affiliates have reported issues with tracking accuracy in Analytics.
3) They're optimised for tracking PPC advertising campaigns rather than organic web traffic. For example, it's tricky in Analytics to track the mobile carrier of visitors. There are lots of other UI areas where Analytics is slightly more opaque than, say, Voluum.

Overall, the big one is that affiliate trackers are designed for affiliate marketing, rather than own-product marketing. If you're doing the latter, Analytics will probably be fine unless the dragon of tracking inaccuracy bites you or you need specific data it can't provide.

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Ive used both analytics and the more traditional tracking tools for tracking sales and the main difference I see is that google analytics is basically a tool for analyzing the traffic of a website, with the ability to set conversion points that you can track with "questionable" accuracy - there were always quite some conversions that I didnt know anything about when it comes to google analytics.

While analytics gives you plenty of data about the organic traffic and site demographics, tracking solutions like Voluum, thrie or funnelflux are all better for tracking every single purchased click - here you can setup plenty of tokens to help you identify every single click that resulted in a conversion and figure out where it came from, what banner the user clicked on etc ...

EDIT : I just re-read Caurmens post above me and seems like he already wrote everything I did So at least you have it confirmed twice now

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Hey, @lord charles. There were plenty of tools mentioned above. I represent one of them - Adsbridge.

I agree with caumen and matuloo, so I wouldn't repeate it. But I want to emphasize some Adsbridge features: TDS system for traffic distribution (geo targeting, rules and etc.), manual cloaker to detect all bot traffic by manually setting filters by IP and IP ranges, referrer, user agent, ISPs, and other 13 parameters. As well as lots of other features like automatic campaign optimization, multi -user access and real-time statistics. These feature are available in a single cloud-hosted platform.

Let me know if you need any help setting it up

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