Did you get yesterday's memo sent by @manu and the Stacked Marketer's crew?
One of the main feature was the great piece written by @Nick regarding Clickloss. Explaining the ins and out of why traffic gets lost on the way from your traffic source to the actual offer / advertiser.
You might be wondering what Redirectless has to do with Clickloss.
In the past months, I've seen and heard some posts mentioning or claiming "Redirectless" as being a future proof concept. People have asked me about it, or more exactly, I've been asked to compare the anytrack "redirectless" feature with other trackers.
Redirectless or Simple Cloaking 
???
Because i am not very familiar with cloaking methods, it took me a bit of time to understand this "redirectless" tracking method, but eventually, it became quite clear.
A member of the forum sent me this quote from a tracker's knowledge base, so I could help decipher this enigma.
So if you are wondering why your accounts keep getting banned, you should pay attention to what you're buying.
Redirectless (as being advertised on some posts) means, that there is no redirect to reach the landing page, but there is still a Click URL redirect pointing to an offer link- which in most cases is also redirect URL.
These types of "redirectless" tracking have been around for years - just ask @T202Nana about it.
True Redirectless means that there is no redirect that brings the visitor to the landing page, and on top of that, there is no tracker Click URL (click/1 /click/2) pointing to an offer link. The offer link is published as is on your site.
What it means in terms of actions you have to perform and how will your campaign to work?
Before you learn about true redirectless , here is a short summary of what you need to do in order to setup your campaign, landers, Click URL's before you can start tracking.
Redirectless: (if you read official guidelines, it's like +20 steps, and any mistake will lead traffic to Lander not matched)
You need to create your traffic source,
You need to create your campaign,
Select the lander
Connect the call to actions to the offer
Add your Click URL to your landing page
Add your Tracking JS code to your lander
⚠ Once you've created your campaign, you can send traffic to this landing page or you'll get the "Lander not matched" error.
1. When visitors hit your landing page, the tracking JS sets a cookie on the browser.
2. If the cookie is set, upon click on the CTA, the visitor is redirected to the offer link.
3. If the cookie isn't set, then the visitor will either reach a blank page, or will be redirected to a default URL.
Note - I've seen other variations of this "tracking flow", but it's the general idea.
Create a property (like you would in Google Analytics)
Add your Tracking Code to your site's (like you would add Google Analytics)
Connect with Google Analytics and Facebook API (simple login authentication)
So you can sync your events and conversions with your pixels So you can create custom audiences for remarketing campaigns.
Offer links/ Click URL
If you already have your offer links on your site the Anytrack Tag will AutoTrack & AutoTag them (explanation below
).
Otherwise, you can simply add them, as provided by your affiliate network, and wherever you want across your site - no need to use any Click URL/redirects.
How true redirectless tracking works:
1. When visitors hit any of your site's pages, Anytrack will:
- Track the visits and any traffic attributes (google, fb, outbrainetc... )
- Set an identifier to the user (so it can be tracked in a next session)
2. Then, when the user decides to click on an offer:
- AutoTrack the event to Google Analytics, FAcebook pixels (and other pixels)
- AutoTag the offer link with the appropriate subid parameters (ex: cake s2=dlasdjfasdfasdf)
The result:
- No redirects (except the affiliate links)
- No latency
- Less click loss
- More data where you can use it (google, fb and co)
- less less less work.
Why is the distinction important:
First of all, because tracking is complex enough. Lets not add add unnecessary complications that can only lead to confusion, or worse frustrate users. Then, because redirects have implications across your traffic, funnels and daily work - so they need to be handled with cautious.
Finally, because of the way traditional trackers work: "As with any tracker, no active session means that the /out links will not work as the offer redirection is determined at the time of the click", the Click URL is an essential and needed touch point for some types of campaigns to run smoothly.
Last but not least, because your Click URLs are directly linked to your tracker server, they can be seen as cloakers. Therefore, they do not protect you from google/facebook eyes, but can rather "flag" you.
Want to see how redirecless tracking works? Have a look at what we do at Anytrack. You'll be surprised to see how simple tracking can be.
References:
@Nick Mega article about clickloss
One of the main feature was the great piece written by @Nick regarding Clickloss. Explaining the ins and out of why traffic gets lost on the way from your traffic source to the actual offer / advertiser.
You might be wondering what Redirectless has to do with Clickloss.
In the past months, I've seen and heard some posts mentioning or claiming "Redirectless" as being a future proof concept. People have asked me about it, or more exactly, I've been asked to compare the anytrack "redirectless" feature with other trackers.
Redirectless or Simple Cloaking ???Because i am not very familiar with cloaking methods, it took me a bit of time to understand this "redirectless" tracking method, but eventually, it became quite clear.
A member of the forum sent me this quote from a tracker's knowledge base, so I could help decipher this enigma.
Cloaking is probably the primary reason why ad accounts get banned. As a matter of fact, Facebook is even sueing advertisers and cloaking service providers."It works by directing a visitor to a landing page via a direct tracking URL. When a landing page loads, the direct tracking pixel makes a request to the Tracking Server with visit info and campaign ID. The difference comes when a visitor clicks a CTA button. The direct tracking pixel replaces a standard click URL with a direct click URL that leads straight to an offer. The direct tracking pixel then makes a second request to the tracking server with information about the click.
So if you are wondering why your accounts keep getting banned, you should pay attention to what you're buying.
Redirectless (as being advertised on some posts) means, that there is no redirect to reach the landing page, but there is still a Click URL redirect pointing to an offer link- which in most cases is also redirect URL.
These types of "redirectless" tracking have been around for years - just ask @T202Nana about it.
True Redirectless means that there is no redirect that brings the visitor to the landing page, and on top of that, there is no tracker Click URL (click/1 /click/2) pointing to an offer link. The offer link is published as is on your site.
Code:
https://affiliate-domain.com/aff_c?offer_id=1&aff_id=1234What it means in terms of actions you have to perform and how will your campaign to work?
Before you learn about true redirectless , here is a short summary of what you need to do in order to setup your campaign, landers, Click URL's before you can start tracking.
Redirectless: (if you read official guidelines, it's like +20 steps, and any mistake will lead traffic to Lander not matched)
You need to create your traffic source, You need to create your campaign, Select the lander Connect the call to actions to the offer Add your Click URL to your landing page Add your Tracking JS code to your lander⚠ Once you've created your campaign, you can send traffic to this landing page or you'll get the "Lander not matched" error.
How redirectless tracking works:
1. When visitors hit your landing page, the tracking JS sets a cookie on the browser.
2. If the cookie is set, upon click on the CTA, the visitor is redirected to the offer link.
3. If the cookie isn't set, then the visitor will either reach a blank page, or will be redirected to a default URL.
Note - I've seen other variations of this "tracking flow", but it's the general idea.
True redirectless tracking setup
Create a property (like you would in Google Analytics) Add your Tracking Code to your site's (like you would add Google Analytics) Connect with Google Analytics and Facebook API (simple login authentication) So you can sync your events and conversions with your pixels So you can create custom audiences for remarketing campaigns.Offer links
If you already have your offer links on your site the Anytrack Tag will AutoTrack & AutoTag them (explanation below
).Otherwise, you can simply add them, as provided by your affiliate network, and wherever you want across your site - no need to use any Click URL/redirects.
How true redirectless tracking works:
1. When visitors hit any of your site's pages, Anytrack will:
- Track the visits and any traffic attributes (google, fb, outbrainetc... )
- Set an identifier to the user (so it can be tracked in a next session)
2. Then, when the user decides to click on an offer:
- AutoTrack the event to Google Analytics, FAcebook pixels (and other pixels)
- AutoTag the offer link with the appropriate subid parameters (ex: cake s2=dlasdjfasdfasdf)
The result:
- No redirects (except the affiliate links)
- No latency
- Less click loss
- More data where you can use it (google, fb and co)
- less less less work.
Why is the distinction important:
First of all, because tracking is complex enough. Lets not add add unnecessary complications that can only lead to confusion, or worse frustrate users. Then, because redirects have implications across your traffic, funnels and daily work - so they need to be handled with cautious.
Finally, because of the way traditional trackers work: "As with any tracker, no active session means that the /out links will not work as the offer redirection is determined at the time of the click", the Click URL is an essential and needed touch point for some types of campaigns to run smoothly.
Last but not least, because your Click URLs are directly linked to your tracker server, they can be seen as cloakers. Therefore, they do not protect you from google/facebook eyes, but can rather "flag" you.
Want to see how redirecless tracking works? Have a look at what we do at Anytrack. You'll be surprised to see how simple tracking can be.
References:
@Nick Mega article about clickloss
