Conversion Lines: Where the Tracking Gap Ends

A tracking gap has always had a beginning, usually “30 or 60 days ago”, but now it will have an end … and possibly another beginning again!
Brian Littleton, Former President/CEO ShareASale

ShareASale Merchants just got a whole lot more flexibility in how they can commission different affiliates, and different segments of Affiliates.

Building on the foundation of “Clickstream Attribution”, Conversion lines are an advanced feature that expand the flexibility of your affiliate program. Each conversion line represents a path towards a commission for an affiliate. Conversion lines replace the “Tracking Gap” feature of your program, and their primary function is to determine which affiliate clicks are eligible for commission.

WHAT KIND OF EVENTS COULD “END” A TRACKING GAP

One of the key concepts in conversion lines is the idea of a “Closing Event”. A traditional “Tracking Gap” has an “Opening Event”, which is defined as a number of days from the transaction. With a traditional “Tracking Gap”, the “Closing Event” is the transaction itself, which we call the “Conversion Event”. Conversion lines allow you to shift this “Closing Event” in time, or to set it to a different event. Using our Analytics platform, you can key off events like “Add to Cart”, “Session Start” and “Coupon Added”.

Take a look at the graphic below to get an idea of the type of events you can work with using Conversion Lines.

CONVERSION LINES ALSO ALLOW YOU TO CREATE MULTIPLE AFFILIATE CHANNELS IN ONE

So many Retailers struggle with how to maintain a blogger group, a coupon channel, a loyalty channel – all within one Affiliate Program. Conversion Lines will help by allowing multiple channels to live within one program. Take a look at the graphic below:

The Top Conversion line is your “Blogger” Channel. Note that both Conversion Lines are given 30 day tracking gaps… But if the top Conversion Line is a “match”, the bottom Conversion Line never runs. This essentially means that the bottom Conversion Line can only receive credit if there is not previous Affiliate involved.

These choices can all be made via tags, groups, or other segmentation techniques so that you can effectively create a Blogger AND a Loyalty Channel that don’t interfere with each other but instead complement and rewards their specific benefits to your program.

NEW IDEAS: ADD-TO-CART, COMMISSIONING ON POST CART, COMMISSIONING ON POST COUPON

With technology this flexible, you can imagine any number of scenarios, but here are a few to get your mind thinking:

Traditional 30 Day tracking gap, excluding clicks within three minutes of the “Conversion” event.

Traditional 30 Day tracking gap, excluding affiliate clicks entering after the last add to cart event.

Segregate group of affiliates into a completely separate program.

Traditional 30 Day tracking gap, excluding clicks within two minutes of the conversion, with segregated 80/20 split for coupon affiliates.

Traditional 30 Day tracking gap, with segregated 80/20 split for affiliate clicks entering in the last two minutes prior to the conversion.

Traditional 30 Day tracking gap, excluding affiliate clicks entering after the session start. A additional 2% commission is set up if an affiliate click Post Session includes an “Add to Cart” event.

HERE’S AN EXAMPLE WHERE AN “INFLUENCER” CAN EARN ONLY ON WHAT IS ADDED TO THE CART FOLLOWING WHEN THEIR COUPON CODE WAS ADDED – TO INCREASE AOV

WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CONVERSION LINES?

Contact ShareASale through your account, or if you are new to ShareASale you can reach us at shareasale@shareasale.com