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CAKE = Less profit than Custom-Built Tracking? (12)

03-26-2019 10:21 AM #1 -ticon- (Member)
CAKE = Less profit than Custom-Built Tracking?

Hey STMers

I am in the process of choosing a few new affiliate networks for lead gen offers.

In one of the iStack training videos, @imqueen mentions that she experiences quite a notable difference in conversions when comparing affiliate networks that run on CAKE vs custom built tracking - the latter being more preferable.

I would like to know if any you have also experienced this since this will affect my decision on which affiliate networks to work with.

Have a power day!

03-26-2019 10:57 AM #2 twinaxe (Senior Moderator)

You can't generalize it.
Easy said, Cake is Cake = one platform.
Custom is custom = many different platforms.
There can be better ones and there can be worse ones.
But I also run some networks with Cake that are doing very good and can't see a decrease in performance.
It would be too easy to say Cake = bad, Custom = good.
I wouldn't make my decision for new networks dependent on the platform.
Just test and check yourself if it works out for you or not.

03-26-2019 12:28 PM #3 -ticon- (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by twinaxe View Post
You can't generalize it.
Easy said, Cake is Cake = one platform.
Custom is custom = many different platforms.
There can be better ones and there can be worse ones.
But I also run some networks with Cake that are doing very good and can't see a decrease in performance.
It would be too easy to say Cake = bad, Custom = good.
I wouldn't make my decision for new networks dependent on the platform.
Just test and check yourself if it works out for you or not.
Makes sense since there is massive variability with custom platforms, thanks for the reply!


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03-26-2019 12:52 PM #4 roman binom (Member)

I have been active in affiliate marketing since 2013. And I have been fighting against this stupid CAKE since the same very moment. This glitchy thing exerts negative influence on your ROI as much as it wants, owing to its glitchy redirects. I tested a very similar offer with affiliate networks on other systems – and they gave me a better ROI.
I wrote to my favorite account manager, Lena from ClickDealer, on hundreds of occasions to tell her that this glitchy thing was bad for business and that was why any affiliate would choose an affiliate network with better conversions. And some time ago those guys did switch to their own system. So, yes, I understand that it is not the only thing that influences your conversion rates. But it does influence your conversion rates to a significant extent.
And what astonishes me is that Cake is still very popular.

03-26-2019 01:03 PM #5 gritaction (Member)

Hi, I am running CAKE with giddyup. This thread worries me. How does cake glitch and screw things up?

03-26-2019 01:24 PM #6 twinaxe (Senior Moderator)

And what astonishes me is that Cake is still very popular.
Probably the reason why it´s still that popular is that it´s basically a ready to use solution, similar to HasOffers, so that new networks can get an easy start and when they grow they just stick to it because it´s easier to keep it running instead of porting everything to a new platform.
Custom solutions make more sense when the network is established and knows that it can afford it.
When I worked with the first networks on Cake I also didn´t like it at all but with time I got used to it.
Still there are few things in the usability that I absolutely don´t like but it´s ok.
Maybe Cake can hurt the performance of the campaigns but I had/have very good campaigns on networks with Cake so I never really thought about it.
But I wouldn´t say that only Cake is responsible for a worse performance, can also be slow redirects, weak servers, additional redirects or whatever.
Gotzha, Advidi, ZinQ use Cake and are really good networks.
For me personally Cake is still way better to use than Everflow.

03-26-2019 07:09 PM #7 -ticon- (Member)
CAKE = Less profit than Custom-Built Tracking?

Quote Originally Posted by twinaxe View Post
Probably the reason why it´s still that popular is that it´s basically a ready to use solution, similar to HasOffers, so that new networks can get an easy start and when they grow they just stick to it because it´s easier to keep it running instead of porting everything to a new platform.
Custom solutions make more sense when the network is established and knows that it can afford it.
When I worked with the first networks on Cake I also didn´t like it at all but with time I got used to it.
Still there are few things in the usability that I absolutely don´t like but it´s ok.
Maybe Cake can hurt the performance of the campaigns but I had/have very good campaigns on networks with Cake so I never really thought about it.
But I wouldn´t say that only Cake is responsible for a worse performance, can also be slow redirects, weak servers, additional redirects or whatever.
Gotzha, Advidi, ZinQ use Cake and are really good networks.
For me personally Cake is still way better to use than Everflow.
Yeah for sure. Just got me thinking because @imqueen said she split tested the exact same offers multiple times on two different networks, ones running CAKE and others running custom and the customs ALWAYS outperform the CAKE networks, and quite considerably.

Think the best thing to do would be split test them ourselves too and see if we receive the same data, then just stick with the non-CAKE networks if this proves true.

We could also ask her to clarify and see if she is still getting the same results.


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03-26-2019 07:47 PM #8 twinaxe (Senior Moderator)

For sure an offer can perform completely different depending on the network you run.
But this is not only dependent on the tracking software.
It's only one out of several different possible reasons.
And saying custom platforms always outperform Cake is also not good.
Poorly coded custom platforms can suck completely.
Nontheless it's always good to test offers on different networks when available anyway.

03-27-2019 11:26 AM #9 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Quote Originally Posted by twinaxe View Post
For sure an offer can perform completely different depending on the network you run.
But this is not only dependent on the tracking software.
It's only one out of several different possible reasons.
And saying custom platforms always outperform Cake is also not good.
Poorly coded custom platforms can suck completely.
Nontheless it's always good to test offers on different networks when available anyway.
This is it ^^

There are more factors that influence performance, not just the tracking software alone. And there are definitely worse trackers than cake out there too.

One thing that people often bash cake for, is the fact that it has a scrubbing function built in... so it's easy for the networks to steal part of your leads. I've seen this used as an argument against cake many times. But then again, it's just a feature that they CAN use, it's not mandatory and on top of that, who knows what kinda feature all the custom scripts have.

When I look back at the campaigns I've ran over the years, I had solid ones on cake, hasoffers and custom platforms and I really didn't see some stand out. Actually, the standard networks I made the most money with were all using either cake of hasoffers. I also had a lot of success with custom trackers, when I was working with mobile networks that focused on carrier billing, but I couldn't compare this with a cake network since the ones I worked with, didn't have those offers. This being said, I would say that my success with particular networks was more tied to what kind of offers they had and not the tracking solution they used.

03-27-2019 03:18 PM #10 sam frost (Member)

CAKE managed to wrangle a reputation for being industry leading about 5-10 years ago... only because it's main competitor (HasOffers) offered a 30 day free trial so you ended up seeing a lot of scam affiliate networks using it. Affiliates tended to stay away from networks running HasOffers. In my opinion, HasOffers is the much better platform and has been updated constantly. Whereas CAKE is still the same and still buggy.

In the last two years a few big networks have moved from CAKE to HasOffers. Of course a custom built platform is still preferable, but you have to really trust the network on custom built as they have flexibility to fuck you over. An example of this is LeadCola... they had a custom built platform and built a default scrub feature (35%!!!): https://www.wickedfire.com/shooting-...nna-scrub.html

04-08-2019 12:41 PM #11 simputer (Member)

Guys, any self-hosted affiliate network software options out there?

06-24-2019 01:20 PM #12 alexbl88 (Member)

Hey Team,
Been hearing this coming up very often in talks with partners, where CAKE and AFFISE are under performing, to a point where some suggest foul play by the companies to piggy back on your offers and hijack conversions (with sending in the clicks instead of you) #conspiracyAdtech #googleOnMoon

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