Enough Already!!!

Status
Not open for further replies.
Jon

Jon

Administrator
Staff member
Jun 21, 2006
9,837
107
63
117
New York City
Please someone here create an alternative to DirecTrack for the industry standard affiliate tools to be used. I mean yeah, I don't have to worry about this issue anymore since I stopped doing aff marketing, but holy shit, having to help people with their issues and then finding out the reason lays in DT's shitty pixels not firing properly so the guy loses out on 1/3 of the leads too? Come on!!!!

You network people reading this post, you know what I'm talking about, and I feel for you guys, because you have to deal with it every fuckin day! Every AM and network owner I know that uses DT has an issue with it AT LEAST once a week, if not more. I'm kinda shocked that more networks aren't going the route of Azoogle with their new system and zero reliance on crappy DT. Play follow the leader like you guys do with all of those ringtone offers, but instead, you can make a hell of a lot more because it will track everything safely and your affiliates will not hate you or blame you for the pixel issues you guys always go through.

I guarantee anyone who makes an alternative to it, I will back it 100% and you will make at least $1M in your first year alone. Pleeeeeeeease, someone do it already!!! Save the industry the hassle of dealing with DT!

Hell, if I can't find someone who wants to make one on their own, I will start scouting other programs out there to get involved in my crusade to end this DT software monopoly. Their prices are also retarded!

Ah well, I'm just glad to not be an ad network owner or AM, and if I ever were, I would neverrrrrrrrrrr use DT, I don't care what their selling pitch is. It blows, nuff said.

/vent
 


I hope Copeac isn't having a problem tonight 'cause I have a campaign that hasn't converted yet for me tonight which is very weird 'cause it usually does really good.
 
A pixel fuckup should really only affect the impression recording - not the recording of the lead/sale.

What happened exactly?
 
dicetomato said:
I wonder how much it would cost to complete a new software for aff marketing?
Click to expand...

It wouldn't be cheap.. but it would be worth it. If this were a year ago, I would find someone and fund it right away, but I don't care THAT much to be involved in any software biz so I don't want to get into it myself.
 
Im up to developing the product but will need someone who runs a network to come on board and work with me to make the product not only better that DT but the best platform anywhere. If anyone's up for it PM me
 
I can independently confirm Jon's assumption that 1/3 of sales do not get credited properly. And I can do it two different ways. The honest truth is that the only way to go is a white label where you control 100% of the conversion.

Not feasible for everyone, but if you are doing volume and going through any pixel based network you are losing out on lots of revenue.
 
Rob_TID said:
A pixel fuckup should really only affect the impression recording - not the recording of the lead/sale.

What happened exactly?
Click to expand...

A 1x1 tracking pixel is placed on the offer's thank you page. This pixel is loaded from the affiliate network, which checks to see if there's a cookie set and if so, which affiliate the lead belongs to. This is how leads are registered.

If the browser has cookies disabled or happens to disable cookies for a particular domain (i think IE does this sometimes), then the lead will not be accounted for. <- this is the legitimate reason.

I'm not sure why DT loses leads more than other software.
 
Every software loses leads/sales .... its not the software but rather how its implemented. Direct Track does have issues but tracking isnt something that is an issue if the system is worked and implemented properly.

A tracking pixel is a 1 X 1 Image. When the image loads the host site reads the cookie on the machine and credits the conversion to the proper affiliate.

The issue of tracking is with the pixel itself. The pixel regardless of if its from a DT software program or in-house program can have issues if the network who had it placed didnt properly set it up.

Since there are 100's of networks that means that offers have 100's of tracking pixels on their thank you page. The 100 tracking pixels dont all fire simultaneously they fire in order.

My advice is to test the same offer in various networks. Those networks who place the pixel in a way that will ultimately not fire know that they dont fire and fail to fix the issue. They claim to payout what they get or they only keep 5 cents a lead. Thats because 50% of your conversions didnt count in their software but guess what? They get paid for the 50% they dont show in your account and keep it for themselves. This is why the same offer in one network is better than the other, its because the other network isnt fixing their pixel issues because then they have to pay out more.

When we started with DT we saw 20% pixel misfires meaning 20% of all leads werent counted. We now see less than 5%. Pixel tracking will never be 100% since about 4% of users browse with cookies turned off. The only system i know of that doesnt use pixels is CJ and if the 4% is of concern to you, then go work with CJ.
 
Ewww CJ.. they may have a 4% misfire issue, but they will allow their merchants to refund leads/sales as fraud without question. So would you rather lose a ton of leads 30 days AFTER they are submitted, or lose 5% due to offer over saturation with DT?

Glad to be done with that!
 
mkrongel said:
Thats because 50% of your conversions didnt count in their software but guess what? They get paid for the 50% they dont show in your account and keep it for themselves. This is why the same offer in one network is better than the other, its because the other network isnt fixing their pixel issues because then they have to pay out more.
Click to expand...

This would imply that networks always bill the advertiser from the advertiser's numbers. In my experience, this is not the case. And because pixel fires are often directly tied to accounting, wouldn't this mess things up?

I've never worked for a real affiliate network, so please point me out if I'm wrong. I have, however, effectively used DirectTrack to manage a dozen or so affiliates for some private offers.
 
whitelabel is the only way to fly. then you get all the data and control the experience. You'll also NEVER lose a lead that you didn't fuck up yourself.
 
Why not just have the "pixel" be a server-side object (in code)? That's what we did when we were working with our old affiliate network (we were an advertiser obviously). Now we use actual pixels and there are a bunch of other issues that go into stuff with affiliates.
 
I've used Performics, Zedo, and MyAP in the past and all had similar issues. Performics performed a little better than the others, but we used it as a white label program so I don't know if it would be a fit for networks.

So perhaps the question is who uses in-house (or not DirectTrack) tracking? I'll add PW and Affnet to the list:

1- Azoogle
2- PartnerWeekly
3- AffNet
4- CJ
5- Clickbank

Anyone else?
 
Someone said:
This would imply that networks always bill the advertiser from the advertiser's numbers. In my experience, this is not the case. And because pixel fires are often directly tied to accounting, wouldn't this mess things up?

I've never worked for a real affiliate network, so please point me out if I'm wrong. I have, however, effectively used DirectTrack to manage a dozen or so affiliates for some private offers.
Click to expand...

Go get an advrtiser agreement from any network, billing is off the networks number or the advertisers number whichever is higher. this is in 99% of the agreements i have seen.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom