Direct downloads of software products and tracking

jerdei · Joined: May 12th, 2009 Posts: 7

Hi there.

Many of my sites sell software. I use mostly "download it now" links. So when a customer clicks my affiliate link they directly start to download the software.

My question is how to track this in tracking 202. If I setup a redirect page then yes the use will start downloading the product but they will be on a blank screen because I am not forwarding them to the merchant site. They are simply downloading the product directly through my affiliate link.

Any ideas on how best to track this

T202Wes · Joined: Oct 20th, 2007 Posts: 4342

Tracking202 works through subid tracking. As long as your affiliate network provides you with a link that you can append a subid you should be fine.

It doesn't matter what the action is, the thing that matters, is your network must support subid tracking or else it won'twork.

jerdei · Joined: May 12th, 2009 Posts: 7

So when I setup my landing pages I do not need to use a re-direct page at all? Just have the download link with the sub ID and the java script provided by tracking 202 and I'm good to go.

Would I still need to include the section after subid= ( something about cookies and tracking202 keyword )

T202Wes · Joined: Oct 20th, 2007 Posts: 4342

jerdei wrote:

So when I setup my landing pages I do not need to use a re-direct page at all? Just have the download link with the sub ID and the java script provided by tracking 202 and I'm good to go.

Would I still need to include the section after subid= ( something about cookies and tracking202 keyword )

Yes, you need to append the subid.

Doesn't matter if they just load a page, or get popped up with a download button.

Just redirect to your affiliate url like you'd normally do in a regular setup.

-wes

rembrandt · Joined: Jan 19th, 2009 Posts: 26

Hey Wes

I have the same problem. I can track the subid of the download but I can't track landing page ctr.

The problem with the following code for digital downloads is it opens a blank page on the meta refresh. All I need for digital downloads is to open the download dialog box.

[code]

<?php

//Tracking202 Pro PHP Redirect Code

//Non-Cloaked Version

//this is where your affiliate link goes. Replace http://myaffiliate.com?subid= with your own affiliate link

$redirectUrl = "http://myaffiliateurl.com?subid={$_COOKIE['t202proSubid']}";

//this is our custom outbound php redirect

echo " <html>

<head>

</head>

<body>

</body>

</html>";

?>

[/code]

[code]

<?php

//this is where your affiliate link goes. Replace http://myaffiliate.com?subid= with your own affiliate link

$redirectUrl = "http://myaffiliatelink.com?subid={$_COOKIE['t202proSubid']}";

header('Location: ' . $redirectUrl);

?>[/code]

Problem with that is it doesn't track click through on the download link. How can I do that so it does?

rembrandt · Joined: Jan 19th, 2009 Posts: 26

Sorry to bump this but I'd really like to find out how to deal with this?

T202Wes · Joined: Oct 20th, 2007 Posts: 4342

can you pm me the landing page url, and note to me (check this for CTR issue)

let me take a look at it, you have the right code, I don't see why this wouldn't work.

mapcom · Joined: Dec 18th, 2008 Posts: 46

I too am doing direct download software. I was doing fine appending the subid on the redirect.php page until a few weeks ago. That's when IE decided to pop up the warning bar at the top of the browser when a download was initiated. IE does this because of the redirect.

To get around this I have to link directly to the affiliate program's download link which does provide functionality for Sub id's but I don't know how to append it to the outgoing link to the download without doing a redirect.

Is this possible?

T202Lex · Joined: Mar 30th, 2009 Posts: 265

Hi mapcom,

Unfortunately there is no other way to track in this instance, without subid tracking. I'm sorry I dont think this is possible. I wish I could be more help, but if the redirect is triggering an error, there is no way around it because the redirect is needed.

Thanks,

Alex