Affiliate tracking software

Affiliate tracking software describes technology used to track or manage myriad affiliate marketing activities. Traditionally, affiliate tracking software provides the means to track performance based online marketing, or Cost Per Lead and Cost Per Action. There are many types of affiliate tracking software that can be utilized by a number of different business models, but it is perhaps most commonly associated with Affiliate Networks that use such a software platform to track and manage activities of affiliates who are promoting campaigns from within the affiliate network.

Many online businesses also create their own affiliate networks in which they manage their own affiliate relationships to promote their products and services. Affiliate tracking software enables them to track Conversion on their affiliates' sites.

The main core of Affiliate marketing software is tracking the various aspects of a given action. The action can be broadly categorized into four types.

1. CPC (Cost per click)
2. CPA (Cost per acquisition)
3. CPM (Cost per impression)
4. CPS (Cost per sale)
5. CPI (Cost per install)

Tracking various aspects refers to IP detection, browser detection, which affiliate brought lead.

The other major task of affiliate marketing software is to give dashboard area for admin to enter details of various campaigns like cost, type of action, allowed country.

This kind of software helps the advertiser to track performance of various channels and affiliates for a number of campaigns.

Affiliate network software has many features like:

• Generating Tracking Codes: Tracking of all clicks and leads require a special unique URL which contains the information of campaign number, affiliate id etc. These tracking URLs are also called as tracking codes. Generation of which is most important feature of affiliate tracking software.
• Tracking Time and Location: Tracking time and location of impression, click, lead and sale is the second most important feature of affiliate tracking software.
• Tracking Source: Affiliate industry highly depends on tracking source of the click, lead or sale. As that facilitates the advertisers to invest accordingly.
• Tracking Affiliate: Tracking of the affiliate helps the network admin and advertisers to visualize which affiliate is how much effective and which one is a low performer.
• Fraud Detection: With the expansion of affiliate marketing industry and availability of IP changing software. The need of fraud detection feature has increased a lot. This feature detects the possible fraud attempts by publishers. As publishers attempt to make money by giving fake leads to advertisers by changing IP each time to disguise their fraudulent activity as a genuine lead.