MadPPC

Their was a notion I always had, couldn’t someone just run their own network off everyone else’s network?  I didn’t really want to be right.

However I know it’s true.  And it’s a huge fucking hazard to your bottom line.

The basic overall concept is pretty simple.  Network A has an exclusive offer, or maybe an offer Network B can’t get.  So how does Network B get that offer so you can run traffic through it and make them a cut of the pie – they technically can’t get?  Pretty simple, they sign up for Network A and use their afflink to direct your traffic through it.  Cut the payment or scrub to make a profit.

Hell you might even be OK with just being with the Network B even though they may only be taking a few %, because you like the network and do a lot of business with them.  However what happens when Network C starts running traffic through B, and Network D likewise through Network C?!

A total fucking cluster-fuck to the Nth degree!  The farther you go out, the harder it is to get a tracking pixel placed on the offer, and everyone is scrubbing everyone – including you. No wonder certain networks have tracking problems.

The good news it’s relatively easy to tell how many times your getting hit by a re-direct. Using Firefox, click History and then Show All History or simply Ctrl+Shift+H.  Then just click on your affiliate link and watch all the hops it takes.  A typical clue is if you jump more than a couple times, ie. The network you run -> Tracking for offer -> LP.

The hard part is knowing what servers everyone uses for tracking, ie. Advaliant uses valtrk.com.  So you can get as direct as possible to the offer.  If someone’s got a list, give me a shout out.

Thankfully I didn’t publish this last night, but a thread surfaced on WF [post] linking to a DP [post] thead about the network AdExhibit.  Now I’m not the type of person who wants to name-names, and wasn’t going to, but now that the cats out the bag, yes he does run his many offers through other networks and now it looks like he’s having trouble paying his affiliates.  Way to throw your rep down the drain.  As PPC people we need to stay a long fucking way-away from that kind of network.

Remember it really only takes a second to check out, I mean you spend hours doing keyword research, writing ads, and doing LP’s.  So take a few seconds to figure out who’s really running the offer, go find them and run it through them and you’ll have a hell of a lot less stress.