Tracking your customers with Voucher Codes
The growth of incentivised traffic within the affiliate channel has seen voucher codes play a pivotal role in online strategies. By utilising voucher code tracking, advertisers can monitor their effectiveness and plan their future activity accordingly.
Advertisers can capture the voucher code that’s been redeemed within the reporting interface of their affiliate network. This information can be passed back in the tracking tag that sits on the confirmation page of their site.
Advertisers can monitor how many codes have been redeemed, and therefore see how effective the distribution of codes has been. It also helps to monitor if customers purchasing through voucher code sites are not actually redeeming codes.
With voucher code tracking in place, any voucher code redemption will be present within the sales reports provided by networks. This enables advertisers to identify the code that was used and also which affiliate site generated the sale.
If an advertiser offers an ‘exclusive’ code to a select affiliate, voucher code tracking also allows them to effectively police the redemption of this code. If it’s evident a sale has been made by one affiliate with another affiliate’s exclusive code, this sale can be declined and the commission attributed to the correct affiliate.
Voucher code tracking also allows advertisers to monitor how much the redemption of the code has cost them. They can track the commission associated with the sale and also the discount that has been given by redeeming the voucher.
In addition, advertisers can see how much profit they have made on a sale where a voucher code has been redeemed. If the intention of offering money off codes was to increase basket values, the return on investment of the offer can be tracked.
Voucher code tracking is particularly beneficial to advertisers in providing the ability to monitor individual offers. There are a wide variety of voucher code opportunities that appeal to different customers. For instance, would an £x off offer (with a minimum spend) perform better than an x% off that amounts to the same monetary value? Would a voucher code offering free delivery increase the conversion rate?
It also allows advertisers to monitor which codes are performing well and across which sites. Voucher code sites should be looked at on an individual basis as what works best for one affiliate may differ from another with a different user base.
It is also important to determine the objective of working with voucher code affiliates, and monitor performance against these objectives. For example, if the objective is to increase basket values, is offering a percentage off a set minimum spend (above current average basket values) achieving the desired effect?
Similarly, if the objective is to clear over stocked items, are product specific voucher codes enabling you to do this?
By conducting split tests and monitoring the results, advertisers can understand the most effective codes for their brand.
Gaining an understanding of which codes work best with your customers and are most cost effective, will allow for a successful voucher code strategy to be executed.
Voucher code tracking is an extremely effective way for advertisers to monitor their activity. Incentivised traffic is rising, and with a robust strategy in place you’ll reap the rewards.
Matt Swan is a Client Strategist at Digital Window. He works with advertisers on both the Affiliate Windowand buy.at platforms, offering strategic advice to optimise campaigns. He also contributes to new business pitches and is a member of the IAB AMC research council. Matt is a regular guest blogger on E-Consultancy and the A4U amongst other titles.
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Comments
Good article, sometimes I think there's a risk of thinking that just supplying voucher codes to affiliates is enough in itself. Where, as with everything, there's always a lot more to it if it's to be done well.