Best Reports for Analyzing Campaign Impact

Have you ever pondered these types of questions: Which coupons perform better with my Affiliates? Do certain creatives generate more activity than others? Which performance incentives will bring about the best response from my Affiliates?
 
When it comes to analyzing impact and striving for the highest results through your program, these are some of the types of questions that have probably crossed your mind. When managing an Affiliate Program, the opportunities to better optimize performance are never ending if there is a desire and willingness to dive into data to identify clues that can help uncover patterns of success and point you in the right direction for continued growth.

Example 1: Coupon Comparison

If you are using coupon creative, you might be curious to see which types of deals your Affiliates pick up and also dig into the data to see if certain deals perform better than other. If you are able to identify that there is a difference in activity based on the type of coupon, you will be better armed to continue to create the coupons that are most likely to generate the greatest results.
 
The first step is to create a record for the coupons you wish to compare. In the example below, I have three different coupons that illustrate a few of the types of coupons that a program might measure for differences in activity.

Example 2: Banner / Text Link Comparison

Another set of analytics that is useful to keep an eye on is the performance of banner and text link creative. Using the same theory as the coupon analytics, you can take a look at data to compare conversion rates for specific creative. Examples of creative comparison might include:

• Sizes: Take a look at a set of banners to determine if there is a specific size that tends to work best for your Affiliates. If you can identify that you will have a better understanding of what your Affiliates are looking for and what to provide to them going forward.
• Images: Using the exact same banner, you can swap out different creative designs or product images to compare if there are certain aesthetic qualities that make a bigger impact.
• Content/Language: Compare a set of banners to determine if ad copy has an effect on the creative activity.

A note about creative data: The default text link in a program is usually going to be the highest performing creative. The reason is that many Affiliates may choose to grab the first link available and embed it as needed for paid search ads or to display the company name. Just something to consider as you pull your data.

Once the coupons or creatives have been made available to Affiliates,  Merchants can then reference the Banner Performance Report to keep an eye on any significant patterns or variations in the data based on a specific coupon offer.

How to run the data:

1. Go to Reports > Banner Performance Report
2. Use the filters at the top to select desired date range and type of creative to pull
3. Check the “Create Downloadable Text File” box
4. Click the “Refresh Report” button to generate results
5. Locate the creatives to compare using the bannerID. If you are unsure of the ID number, you can click the box to the right of the ID number to see a preview.
6. If the report is downloaded, you are able to keep a running spreadsheet of data to reference over time.

Example 3: Affiliate Bonus Performance

At the end of the month or year you may be curious to see how effective your different Affiliate promotions were. Sales incentives can be a great way to activate your Affiliates, but without the proper data it can be difficult to know exactly what your Affiliate will best respond to or which types of promotions will lead to increased sales.
 
Let’s assume you ran the four promotions below. Now you would like to determine which promotion generated the most action from Affiliates. You can use both the Affiliate Timespan and Affiliate Comparison reports to uncover the effectiveness of your Affiliate bonus offers.

How to run the data:

1. Each month, use the Tagging system to identify which Affiliates qualified for each bonus.
2. Next, go to Reports > Affiliate Timespan
3. Run a report for desired time period and use the affiliate filters to view the activity of your specific tag.
4. Select the box to export your data, then click the “Refresh Report” button to generate your results.

With this data, you could compare a variety of variables including the number of qualified Affiliates per bonus. This would tell you if one promotion was more attractive or obtainable for Affiliates. You could also determine the amount of conversions and / or sales for a given time frame. This would give an indication whether or not a specific bonus generated an uptick in sales for a specific month.
 
You could also use the Affiliate Comparison Report  to look at two sets of time over an extended date range to see if an Affiliate’s overall performance increased pre-bonus versus post-bonus. This would help give you an indication on the value of an Affiliate that you engaged with a bonus.

1. Reports > More > Affiliate Comparison
2. Select the two periods of time you would like to compare
3. You may choose to export this data so you can record the data with your promotional calendar. This would provide easy reference as you build new promotions to see what the results were for all previous bonus incentives.

Knowing exactly how different marketing campaigns impact the numbers in your Affiliate Program will provide you with an arsenal of knowledge and ideas on how to continually create new campaigns that will provide a greater ROI for your Affiliate channel.