Accurately track orders without violating user privacy

More and more each year, browsers tighten rules surrounding the tracking of user actions on websites. Current SSL-trends focussed on GDPR and accurate data storage, together with third-party cookie bans, make the whole user tracking process a virtual minefield. 

To protect their users, partner networks are also increasing their security, taking full control of traffic quality to ensure high-quality traffic only, while developing tools to prevent fraud and rule violations. 

With this in mind, it becomes clear how important it is for all affiliate channels – brands, partners and the networks themselves – to have a clear overview of where their traffic is coming from and which channels are performing best. 

To boost traffic transparency for its advertisers, Admitad has developed a new solution for publishers to add a click referrer to an affiliate link manually – so that clients don’t operate blind, retaining full control of their website traffic sources.    

What is a click referrer? 

The “referer” (referring URL) of a click is the webpage that a user was on prior to clicking the link that led them to the current webpage. This is a very important parameter since it can provide insights into where traffic to a website is coming from. When a user clicks a link and is directed to a new webpage, that webpage can in turn track the referring URL.

Adding the click referrer is an important step in web analytics and tracking, one that can provide valuable insights into user behaviour, traffic sources and marketing channel performance. This referral parameter can help advertisers in the following ways: 

1. Identifying traffic sources and determining where and from which platforms the website traffic is coming from

This information is important for analysing your website’s performance and understanding which marketing channels or campaigns are driving the most traffic to your site. With the constantly increasing number of orders from mobile devices and mobile applications, together with the cross-device user journey, this parameter is essential for accurate tracking and fraud control. 

2. Gaining insights by tracking user behaviour from their previous URL

By learning about a user’s behaviour and interests, you can optimise your website content and user experience to better meet their needs, requests and preferences.

3. Adding an additional layer of security and fraud prevention

Protect yourself. Prevent the hotlinking of your images or files by checking the referer parameters and only allowing access to resources from your own site. Also, some referral spam traffic can be blocked by checking the validity of the referrer parameter before accepting the request.

4. Resolving disputes between publishers and advertisers

For both publishers and advertisers, referrer parameters are key to resolving the occasional disputes that can occur between each other. Advertisers need to clearly see where the traffic to their website is coming from so they can be sure partners are not violating the terms of their affiliate program. The referrer parameter acts as a proof of traffic quality and its legitimate sources. 

For publishers, adding a referrer parameter to affiliate links offers a tool to track and analyse the detailed performance of running campaigns. This information can be helpful in the optimisation of marketing efforts, thus partners can increase their affiliate commissions.

How to add the referrer parameter? 

In accordance with the terms and conditions publishers accept once they sign up with Admitad, the referrer parameter needs to be specified and passed on to the network. 

Unfortunately, these referrer parameters are not always registered by default. That’s why Admitad has created a special solution that enables publishers to embed the referrer parameter into affiliate links manually. 

Here’s a short guide how (for a more detailed version please follow this link):

1. Create an encoded value for the URL of your ad space

Ad space URL: https://example.com

Encoded URL: https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com

2. Add the ref. parameter with the encoded ad space URL to the affiliate link

Affiliate link: https://ad.admitad.com/g/<goto_code>
Final link with the ref. parameter and encoded ad space URL:
https://ad.admitad.com/g/<goto_code>/?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com

Following these steps, publishers can easily add the referrer parameter, while advertisers see the original click referral together with the one submitted by the publisher. Later they can store and analyse that data in their preferred analytics systems. 

With all privacy policies and data collection restrictions in mind, Admitad continues working on new solutions to enable advertisers to see their traffic sources in full view. Adding the referrer parameter makes collaborations more transparent for all parties involved – leading to sales growth and more affiliate commissions. It’s a win-win.