admitad tracking and the importance of high-quality technical integration

Since the beginning of 2017, the technical integration department under the direction of Aleksandr Blokhin has been working at the sophistication of admitad’s tracking to record a greater percentage of target actions irrespective of the effect of ad blockers, previous incorrect integration on the advertiser’s side (e.g., via Google Tag Manager), and other factors.

To facilitate and accelerate the process of the advertisers’ technical integration, we at admitad have developing specialized modules. For example:

•  WordPress WooCommerce
•  Opencart.com

A module for the OpenCart CMS has been developed as well, but is being moderated at the moment.

The developed modules allow for performing high-quality technical integration with admitad without involving programmers. High-quality integration provides the following via the solutions:

• sending data in the process of tracking cannot be blocked by AdBlock extensions
• it allows for setting up auto-comparison during integration to save the online store managers’ time
• different tariffs for different merchandise categories
• the types and names of target actions are imported from the settings of the advertiser’s personal cabinet on admitad

All the instructions necessary for connecting to admitad are available by clicking the links. Should the advertisers have any questions, admitad’s specialists will help solve them promptly.

The importance of high-quality technical integration of the advertiser

Based on Aleksandr Blokhin’s report on admitad-expert, we are publishing a text version about the importance of high-quality technical integration.

Why are we talking about technical integration of the advertiser at all?

Why do publishers stop pouring traffic to a particular offer? We regularly conduct sample surveys among publishers as to why they opt out of programs, and what can be done for them to return. The main problems causing publishers to stop pouring traffic are associated with the low conversion rate and “profitability” of a click, and also with the turnover and time rate of order confirmation by comparations. A publisher will always choose from several offers.

How to make your campaign more attractive for publishers using simple methods? Let’s consider it in more detail via examples.

Let’s look at two offers, which one of them is more preferable for a publisher with all other conditions being equal?

Let’s perform an easy calculation… making it obvious which campaign is more preferable.

The key aspects influencing the conversion and the mean time of order processing are the following:

• integration via containers (GTM and its analogs)
• transfer to a mobile application
• periodic enabling/disabling of the offer
• the tracking code’s triggering time
• the absence of automated comparison/delay of manual comparison

Some categories of advertisers work strictly on a budget basis and disable the campaign if the limits are exceeded. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon, which then has an adverse effect on the conversion, and also on webmasters’ loyalty to those offers.

What do you think, do many users look at the order confirmation page, which can take a long time to load for different reasons, longer than for 5-10 seconds? Here there is also the loss of the conversion for the webmaster due to “non-tracking” of target actions if the tracking pixel fails to load on time.

Recommendations for the advertisers’ technical department

• make sure you place the tracking code inside the HTML tag HEAD
• make sure you set up auto-comparison, as delays in case of manual comparations may last for months, and publishers don’t like waiting for target actions’ statuses for months
• start the additional loading of statistics on time (on the advertiser’s requests)
• it is especially important to observe this when working through agencies

Tracking of purchases in mobile applications

When following an affiliate (partner) link, users are offered to install an application and to get bonuses for the purchases made in it. This is usually done to promote the mobile application.

Upon this, in most cases, the order is considered to have come from the application and disregarded. The conversion is lost, and the statistics on attraction is related to the mobile application, though it was a usual affiliate link followed. We at admitad solve this problem with the aid of high-quality and profound integration with advertisers, including via the mobile application.

Let us consider the moments that will influence the figures, and what can be done about that

The types of integration at admitad can be divided into 2 parts: C2S and S2S integrations, each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages.

The types of technical integration at admitad

Integration via a tracking code

A tracking code is a script in the JavaScript language intended for keeping track of orders. The script code is placed on the page where the process of ordering is performed, or on the “Thank You for Your Purchase” page. It is triggered in those cases when the client performs a target action, e.g., makes a payment or confirms their order on the site.

Advantages of the tracking code

1. It is easy to install and set up.

Disadvantages of the tracking code

1. The user may close the page before the code gets triggered.
2. The tracking code may be blocked by AdBlock extensions. For example, in the Opera browser (its market share is more than 7%) an ad blocker is enabled by default. If the tracking code was installed in Google Tag Manager, it will be blocked together by the container. This can lead to losses of orders, discrepancies in the analytics, and subsequent problems during comparison.
3. When the site is updated, you have to make sure that the code has not been deleted and continues working.

Integration via postback

Unlike a tracking code that gets triggered on the website page, a postback request is sent to admitad directly from the server. The request can be sent either at the moment when the trigger action is performed by the client, or with some delay (e.g., sending the query pool via a scheduler).

Advantages of postback integration

1. The changes made on the website do not affect sending queries via postback.
2. It is a more secure solution, because there is a private authorization key in the query. In addition to that, queries are sent from IP addresses known to you beforehand, and the query source can be checked at any moment of time using the logs.
3. There are ready-made solutions for store integration based on popular CMSs (at the moment, these are 1С-Bitrix, WebAsyst, and WooCommerce)

Disadvantages of postback integration

1. To implement the solution, you need to have access to the server side of the website (backend).

Integration via the XML file with orders

The XML file containing data on the orders is located on the advertiser’s server. Admitad’s server takes information on the orders from it at predetermined intervals.

Advantages of integration via XML

1. Password-based access can be set up
2. With the relevant settings, information on the orders can be received in real time
3. In case of any operating failures, the orders can be restored easily.

Disadvantages of integration via XML

1. The data’s appearing in admitad’s statistics can be delayed if a data update period has been set up, e.g., once per day

Integration via API

We can develop individual integration for those advertisers who have a ready API for uploading of orders and their statuses.

Advantages

1. A flexible algorithm, any conditions for order collection can be set up
2. The API requires minimum fine-tuning from your side.

Disadvantages

1. It is the longest-taking type of integration, as the developers’ resource has to be employed to implement and test the code.

High-quality technical integration of the advertiser is the key to a high conversion rate, the quick update of the orders’ statuses, webmasters’ loyalty, and dynamic development of the affiliate program.