Conversion rate of an individual link

Can you get different links for the same product?

[RezaRob]

First, I really need to express my appreciation for webmasterworld, those who run it, and all the contributors. These forums are simply the best source of information, for webmasters, that I have found, after much research.

I am curious about how most, or typical, affiliate programs, handle this issue?

Do they let you get, with the same affiliate ID, different links, for the same product? Do they then give you tracking information, so you can see how each link is performing separately?

Thank you for your knowledge.

[Web Footed Newbie]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, RezaRob.
I guess no one is answering your question since the 25th (the day you posted your first message), so I'll give it a shot.

Your question should be targeted at the particular affiliate program. For instance, one that I use, offers different links and graphics, all different href's, and they do supply me with what worked for each of those links for the same affiliate ID number.

If you are interested in a particular affiliate, just sending them an email with your question about tracking should answer your question.
Good luck and again, welcome.
WFN :)

[ukgimp]

here is where a database comes in, if you ID the link and pass it through your DB and forward it on you will be able to get these types of breakdowns.

[MrSpeed]

To my knowledge there aren't too many affiliates that allow you the type of flexibility you're looking for.

ukgimp has the right idea. You need some sort of a click logger/tracker on your site if you want to analyze this type of thing. It doesn't have to be a fancy database, it can be just a log file.

You can find some more information at the Tracking and Logging forum.

If you only need to do it for a limited trial or want simplicity you can try this. Let's say you have two links and you want to see which on is clicked on more. You create a page called blast1.php The only things these pagedoes is redirect, so they don't have to be php. They can be asp, cgi or even html (with a javascript redirect)

You then point each link to blast.php with a query string which identifies the link.
blast.php?link=link1
blast.php?link=link2

You can then check your logs for the results.

[RezaRob]

Thank you so much for your thorough replies.

The redirect "traps" are very useful. However, they don't tell you the
actual conversion rate of clicks to sales. I'm not really sure how
useful such data would be though. Any suggestions about it's actual
usefulness would be welcome.

Here is the actual motive behind my question:

I was thinking of a "second tier" affiliate program, but implemented
on the affiliate's end, as opposed to the merchant's end. (So
you promote affiliate products, and still reward others for helping you.)
For this to work, the affiliate would need precise tracking of
distinct links.

Again, if you have thoughts on the practicality of such a system, they
would be much appreciated. I can think of things getting a bit
murky, when we start talking about product returns for instance.

I must say, that I do wish the mainstream affiliate program (merchant)
implemented such a system. I do believe such a system can be useful,
in certain situations. And it has to be the merchant who provides
this service (i.e. detailed link conversion tracking.)

Again, your help is much appreciated.

[RezaRob]

Sorry my last post is a bit "unformated." Some lines appear broken in the middle.

I'll get the hang of it soon enough.

[jomaxx]

Doesn't CJ allow you to do this?

<edit>
Yes, I remembered correctly. They did have a customizable SID field you could include in the referring URL, and they presumably still support that. I don't know where that is documented on the CJ site, but if you search Google for "commission junction" and "sid" you will find a bunch of references to this.
</edit>

[jcoronella]

Befree has a similar field that you can populate and get conversion reports on.

flextrack?

[bcc1234]

Not many programs offer multiple links along with other custom features. That's the reason I use an in-house solution to track affiliate sales.
It comes really handy for affiliates that promote the same products using different tactics or promote different products at the same time. That way they can see which products sell better for them and which promotion techniques work better.

I must say though, not many affiliates even ask about this feature. Mostly just the pros that make living promoting stuff and have worked with many different merchants in the past.