Advertisers, Want Faster Integration? Check Out These Solutions

For an advertiser to launch an affiliate program, it needs to integrate its website with the chosen network.

Really this is the only way the network can learn about how users interact with the brand’s website and keep statistics on the program’s success. But talk to any advertiser well-versed in the affiliate marketing world, and they might tell you that while integration is certainly necessary, it can be downright dreadful too.

Manual integration is a long, drawn-out process and, in between networks having to write the code from scratch and technical errors, it can take up to several weeks to complete. In the competitive e-commerce industry, that time period can be the difference between a company taking the market share, or falling behind a competitor completely.

But luckily for advertisers, manual integration isn’t the only way to go. In recent years, forward-thinking affiliate networks have developed integration solutions to help brands promote themselves faster – and in this, earn money quicker. Here are a few fast integration solutions to consider, which our own network Admitad has developed in-house:

Integration via plugins

If an advertiser is able to send requests back to the affiliate network server – and these can be sent from the advertiser’s backend – a ready-made plugin can be a good solution for quick integration. In fact, Admitad has developed a handful of plugins for fast integration with the network. With these, tracking is carried out through redirecting postback requests containing order data, from the advertiser’s server to that of Admitad. This data is kept secure, too – a private authorisation key is used to ensure no one else can gain access. However to use a plugin, keep in mind an advertiser’s store needs to be based on one of the following platforms: WooCommerce, OpenCart, Shopify, Magento 1 and Magento 2.

Mobile integration via Mobile SDK for СРА

According to Forrester’s 2018 Retail Best Practices: Mobile Web study, smartphones will be used to make more than one-third of total US retail sales in 2018 – equating to upward of $1 trillion USD. Considering the immense popularity of mobile, most larger e-shops have invested in smartphone apps to draw their customers in. However, when it comes to CPA marketing, apps have traditionally caused a major problem: advertisers can’t track a user’s actions inside of them.

That’s where Mobile SDK comes in. Admitad developed the integration tool to offer a tracking solution for e-commerce brands wanting to follow the customer journey inside an app. Once the tool is integrated into the advertiser’s application, they’re able to track user registration data, payments, and returning customers. Each time a user follows the referral link, the technology determines whether one, the device is mobile and two, whether the consumer has the brand’s app installed. If they do, the consumer gets taken to the correct page in the app to make the sale – and in this, the publisher gets paid. Mobile SDK for CPA is free and open-source. The GitHub information can be found here for iOS and here for Android.

Integration via API

For those advertisers that already have an API developed, you guessed it – this can also be used to integrate with an affiliate network. In the case of working with Admi tad, all an advertiser needs to do is provide our tracking department with the required documentation; the brand’s developers don’t need to write any code from scratch, but rather work with Admitad’s team to develop an integration process. That said, this integration method is more time consuming – developers need to go back and forth with Admitad to implement and test the code.

However, when that’s all said and done, the Admitad API does provide advertisers with a range of capabilities. For one, with the API advertisers can get a full view of how a publisher operates on the website – giving brands the opportunity to help improve their publisher’s processes. It also enables advertisers to create their own applications with Admitad to either sell or use on their own to delve deeper into metrics and statistics. Check out a full list of how the API can be used here.

Integration via the Admitad tracking-code

Admitad’s tracking code, called TagTag, can also be used to integrate with a network. The tracking code is a JavaScript code that advertisers place on their website and sends information out about orders in real time. It works like this: the code tracks data about user actions on an e-commerce platform, and when it is triggered, the Admitad server gets a request with information about the action or purchase – like the order amount, or order ID. This helps Admitad keep statistics. Better yet, integration via Admitad’s tracking code saves advertisers time when working with other affiliate networks, too, as the code is able to work in parallel with them. For developers, TagTag also enables them to set up features such as cross-device tracking, fingerprint tracking, and deduplication.

Thanks to innovations within the affiliate marketing industry, manual integration is no longer – and now, advertisers can get their programs up and running faster than ever. Between plugins, the API, a tracking code and Mobile SDK, Admitad’s tools, in particular, can provide advertisers with a great solution to either enter the market in the first place or expand their affiliate marketing reach.