With so many affiliate programs available to choose from, it has become increasingly difficult to decide on one that is going to be best for you and your needs. There are several factors that make up a good affiliate program and one of them is transparency in tracking and reporting. This is just part of the message that we will be bringing with us to the Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas, which is being held from January 17-19, 2010.

In our last post on transparency, we explored the tools that Share Results provides to merchants and affiliates to expedite processes that lead to enhanced transparency. And in this post, we’re going to explore the processes whereby this is accomplished.

To keep track of creative, our software uses a simple pixel tracking system. Affiliate links contain two variables that track the traffic and transaction – their unique affiliate site ID, and the creative ID. When a visitor clicks on the affiliate link, a cookie is dropped on their computer, containing these two variables. Then, when the visitor completes a sale, an additional tracking pixel is fired on the merchant’s site, and the details of the sale, along with the affiliate’s site ID are automatically uploaded to the system reports.

And in the end, merchants and affiliates end up with a report that breaks the user interaction down from impression to eventual sale. Each side of the equation is able to see the results, creating a partnership of transparency between merchants and affiliates.

If visitors are not converting into sales or leads, then that is also tracked by the Share Results system. For example, if visitors are seeing the creative and then clicking on it, but are not purchasing the item, something is going wrong in the sales process. This information may encourage the merchant to revisit their sales funnel and landing pages, or look at the price of the item they are offering.

On the other hand, it may be that the affiliate is misrepresenting the saleable item, which causes people to lose interest once they come to the sales page. With the transparency on the sale journey, created in our system, merchants and affiliates can work together to achieve a solution to the situation.

To learn more about how our software works for you and can help you generate higher sales revenues, come and visit us at booth #413 at the Las Vegas Affiliate Summit, January 18th & 19th . We’re there to answer your questions about transparency in affiliate reporting as well as our affiliate management team that helps to facilitate this process.