This is how I envision the workflow for my campaigns working. Unfortunately, there are 3 hops before the visitor will see the actual offer page, but I consider these hops a necessary evil for adequate tracking of ad campaigns and conversion rates.

Facebook Ad > Landing Page > Tracking202 Site > Offer Page > Trackback (URL

Facebook Ad

This is the ad banner that the Facebook user sees and clicks. The destination URL points to my landing page and is provided by Tracking202.

LandingPage

My landing page will be doing a few things. The main purpose of my landing page is to up-sell my offer before forwarding my user to the actual offer page. But behind the scenes, a JavaScript is fired to my Tracking202 site to count a click. This JavaScript is provided by Tracking202.

I am going to be lazy and have one landing page per ad campaign. It is just easier that way.

Tracking202

If the visitor decides to proceed and sign up for the offer, he/she will click on my large call-to-action button. This button URL points to Tracking202 which tracks that the user clicked through to the offer page. Then Tracking202 will forward my user to the actual offer page. The URL for the call-to-action button is provided by Tracking202.

Offer Page

This is the page that I have no control over. The offer page is hosted by the advertiser and requires the user to perform a certain action (e.g. filling out a form) to complete the offer. Nothing for me to do there other than ensure that my landing page matches in look and feel to the offer page. We do not want to shock the user with something different.

Trackback (URL)

This is a script that is inserted on the advertiser’s page when the visitor successfully completes the offer. This will send a notice back to Tracking202 to record a successful lead. The script is provided by Tracking202.

I am certain that this is not the only way to accomplish ad tracking. In fact, I will not guarantee that this is the most efficient way. However, this is the best strategy I can think off without making it too complicated. In general, most of the magic is happening within the Tracking202 software. If you have not looked at Tracking202 yet, please do so. This little piece of software will do a lot for you.

My Pick

For my first campaign, I am using Facebook to advertise. Facebook has advantages over Google, Yahoo, and MSN for a person starting out in affiliate marketing.

1. Facebook uses demographic targeting alllowing me to restrict my scope of advertising to a smaller subset of audiences. This is especially useful when trying to test the offer and the ads. Once the sandbox proves to be profitable, then it can be expanded to a greater audience and should (in theory) scale the profits just as equally.
2. New Facebook advertisers are given free money to evaluate before committing your own money. So if I was going to lose money with a weak ad campaign, I would rather lose somebody else’s money than my own.
3. Facebook has been receiving a bit of a bad reputation lately for unprecedented ad rejections. There is a group of individuals that review ads that are placed on Facebook and even if the ads fall perfectly within the guidelines, they may be rejected without reason. This has caused many advertisers to leave Facebook, but that also means a lower saturation of advertisers. This is an ideal test bed for me.

So during the course of this week, I will be evaluating the ideal demographic for my offering and designate a few keywords to target for my ads. I will also try to keep the potential traffic to a minimum to see what the CTR looks like and the conversion rate. I can spend a lot less money this way before exhausting $1000 on a full-blown ad campaign with Facebook.