What is referral tracking?
Every customer that joins a referral program receives a unique referral link. Referrals that come from a single customer are tracked through this link. This allows you to see which customers sent referrals to your website and which of those referrals turned into sales.
What it means is that you collect data across the entire referral process, from a customer registering to your site/program and becoming a referrer, to them sharing a referral link/code with someone else. This person can then follow this link/code to become a customer or perform any other action, like downloading your app, for example.
Referral tracking by IP in Post Affiliate Pro
There are many ways how to track referrals. Cookies, voucher codes, Postback, and IP tracking, to name a few.
IP tracking works on the principle of searching for the last known click from the visitor´s IP. If it is found, the affiliate and campaign ID from this click can be used to create a sales commission.
Post Affiliate Pro uses IP tracking only when browser cookies can´t be found. For the best approach and the clearest result of your data collecting, it´s wise to use both methods as they fill in each other´s gaps.
Benefits of referral tracking by IP and why should you incorporate it into your business
With cookies likely to become obsolete in the near future, other means of tracking data are imperative for your online business. IP tracking can fill in the gaps left by no longer-useable cookies.
Proper tracking is necessary to control which referrals are legitimate, so you won´t become a victim of fraud. Looking at the data you collected can help you improve the wording, images, and incentives to encourage more customers to participate in your referral program.
And above all else, data collected by referral tracking will help you learn how many people coming through your referral program actually become customers.
All of this will help you increase the percentage of actual clients. IA well-functioning affiliate business machine depends on IP tracking to work efficiently and smoothly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I disable IP tracking?
IP Tracking can be turned off in Post Affiliate Pro. You can do this by going to Configuration > Tracking Settings and in the Tracking levels section uncheck the “Track referrals by User/Agent and Ip address” and/or “Track referrals by IP address” boxes.
Can I extend the time of IP tracking?
Post Affiliate Pro allows you to customize the time IP tracking will be valid based on your preferences. This can be done in the Tracking levels section of the Merchant Panel under Configuration > Tracking Settings.
