The post 7 Reasons Email Marketing Rocks for Affiliate Programs appeared first on CAKE.

The post Stopping User Consent from Eating Our Lunch at ASW25 appeared first on CAKE.

The post MARCC LA 2025: Are We Really in a Post-Arbitrage Era? appeared first on CAKE.

Don’t limit yourself to merely delivering affiliate traffic to advertisers. This decision significantly impacts profit potential, as networks miss out on the opportunity to sell high-quality leads to advertisers willing to pay top dollar.

Let’s explore why delivering affiliate traffic and selling leads across both transactional and service-based verticals can drive results for you and your advertisers, and how to get started. Fortunately, it’s simpler than you might think.

Transactional vs. service-based verticals – Understanding the core differences

Every vertical industry falls into one of two categories – Transactional or service-based. What sets the categories apart are the technologies used, the methods of consumer engagement, how tracking workflows are managed, the value delivered to advertisers, and most importantly the profit potential.

Here’s a breakdown ⬇️

Strengthen your network’s performance by selling leads

Selling leads in service-based verticals is a simple path for networks to level up their profitability by generating, validating, and delivering leads to their advertisers willing to pay the highest price per lead. This strategy also benefits advertisers, who receive qualified leads of real consumers demonstrating a higher intent to purchase their services versus a standard affiliate conversion.

The great news is that it’s not an either-or scenario. Delivering affiliate traffic and selling leads can seamlessly coexist within a network. Here’s an overview of how selling leads works:

What differentiates leads from traffic?

First, leads undergo an in-depth validation process to ensure quality before being sold to an advertiser. This process is called lead validation and prevents fraudulent leads from being sold, ensuring advertisers only receive qualified leads from real individuals.

For example, imagine an advertiser is interested in acquiring pre-qualified mortgage leads with strong credit scores, who are primed for loan applications. These premium leads can easily sell for $150 per lead. The pricing per lead can have a range. For instance, with a vertical industry such as legal, a highly qualified lead can go for a selling price in the range of $300–$400. Why the top-tier lead price? Each lead has been through formal lead-validation processes including credit score checks. Unlike the highly qualified lead that sold for a $300-$400 CPL, affiliate traffic sent straight to the same advertiser’s website skips all lead validation processes, resulting in a lower CPA (e.g., $20). For affiliate networks, automating the lead-selling process with technology enables them to earn the highest price per lead. The key is to only sell qualified leads. Advertisers won’t pay premium prices if the leads fail to result in sales.

Second, there are countless opportunities for a network to monetize leads after the initial sale has occurred.

The real value is the ownership of the lead data. Networks can choose to create and host landing pages that collect important lead data. The ownership of the data empowers networks to validate and sell the lead to an advertiser on a CPL basis. After the initial lead sale, the network can enlist its affiliates to launch targeted remarketing campaigns that drive the consumer to convert on additional advertisers’ offers. Remarketing campaigns utilize a CPA payment model. It’s important to note that consumers must opt in via the landing page form to receive marketing campaigns from the network. This crucial step ensures networks comply with consumer privacy and data collection regulations, and engage in privacy-friendly marketing processes.

Unlock more revenue – How to expand into service-based verticals and sell leads

Networks have already mastered the transactional verticals, and are well-versed in creating, nurturing, and leveraging affiliates to drive traffic to their advertisers’ offers and landing pages. The next step is to apply this expertise to broaden the vertical industries you operate in (e.g., finance, home services, legal, etc.) and expand how you engage with your advertisers, focusing on both affiliate traffic and leads.

Download “The Affiliate Network’s Ultimate Guide to Selling Leads–The Why, What, and How” and learn the step-by-step process to get started selling leads.

Download Guide

Don’t let technology hold you back

Can your current platform actually enable network diversification? If you’re using a pure-bred affiliate tracking platform, the reality is probably not. The great news? All it takes is the right solution to get started. CAKE’s all-in-one solution for affiliate marketing and lead distribution is your key to success.

If you’re ready to start selling leads and simplify your affiliate and lead workflows, connect with our team here.

Other content you might be interested in:

• Turbocharge Revenue and Partnerships With an Affiliate Referral Program
• Affiliate Marketing Revenue – Six Proven Revenue Boosters
• Lead Overflow – Two Strategies to Maximize Profitability

The post Beyond the Basics – The Other Side of Network Diversification appeared first on CAKE.

To remain competitive in 2024, the companies that adapt and evolve within a changing economy and digital landscape will come out on top.

We’re diving into two key trends influencing brands and networks and the marketing strategies they can leverage to stay one step ahead.

Google has reversed its decision to eliminate third-party tracking cookies

The reality: After a four-year initiative to remove third-party tracking cookies from Chrome, Google has officially revoked this decision.

Instead of Google calling the cookie shots, new plans aim to roll out a Chrome experience that empower users to “make an informed choice” regarding their web browsing. This includes the option to update their third-party cookie preferences at any moment. Third-party cookies are fundamental to tracking and building audiences for remarketing campaigns and streamlining the ability to deliver targeted ads.

Earlier this year, Google was on the brink of finally fulfilling its promise to phase-out third-party tracking cookies from Chrome users. The journey to a cookie-free Chrome has been anything but linear, though. Google originally announced its 2020 initiative to eliminate third-party cookies by Q2 2022. The cookie deprecation hit a delay and was pushed back an additional year, with a new date set for late 2023.

Since Chrome’s cookieless future had massive implications for digital marketers, Google released a Privacy Sandbox for developers in July 2023. This environment is available to developers to test and adopt Google’s “privacy-preserving APIs,” contribute feedback, and offer websites a preview of cookieless tracking.

“We developed the Privacy Sandbox with the goal of finding innovative solutions that meaningfully improve online privacy while preserving an ad-supported internet that supports a vibrant ecosystem of publishers, connects businesses with customers, and offers all of us free access to a wide range of content.”

Anthony Chavez, VP Privacy Sandbox, Google

 

Third-party tracking cookies were expected to be turned off for 100 percent of Chrome users by Q3 2024. Then came “the announcement.” So, what does Google’s latest news mean for the industry?

Failing to adapt to a cookieless world can still impact traffic, revenue, and brand reputation. Chrome is the most popular browser worldwide with more than six out of ten people using it during their internet searches. While Google will not enforce the deprecation of third-party cookies, their plans to enable users to remove third-party cookies still require advertisers and technology providers to adopt a privacy-forward approach.

The strategy:  Implement server-to-server tracking to protect your traffic and revenue. Brands running an affiliate marketing program need performance-based technology that delivers server-to-server tracking that both offers the most accurate approach to measurement and complies with consumer privacy requirements.

This is how server-to-server tracking works

An anonymous consumer’s interaction is assigned a unique ID (UID). In place of a cookie, a click ID or session ID can be stored server-side, or within the advertiser’s first-party cookie, until the point of conversion. When the conversion occurs, the consumer’s click is attributed to their conversion through the UID. Because server-to-server tracking does not depend on cookies that can be blocked by a browser or cleared by a consumer, this tracking method is the most accurate approach to measure affiliate marketing campaigns.

 

Due to browser restrictions and evolving consumer privacy regulations, the risk of consumer privacy violations can seriously impact a brand’s integrity and reputation. On the flip side, brands that invest in complying with consumer privacy regulations build confidence with their consumers and as a result, 84 percent of consumers are more likely to remain loyal to the brand.

Learn more about server-to-server tracking in our guide: Four Ways to Future-Proof your Affiliate Network.

Global consumer spending behaviors are changing

The reality: In the US and EU, consumers are approaching 2024 cautiously optimistic with their discretionary spending due to large-scale macroeconomic factors.

Broader economic drivers such as high-interest rates, inflation, and global conflicts are influencing consumer spending behavior in 2024, but to what extent?

US consumers might be tightening the reins on their extraneous spending in 2024, though not to the degree once anticipated. Forecasts estimate that US disposable household income growth will drop from four percent in 2023 to three percent in 2024, yet significant (or maybe even noticeable) declines in consumer spending aren’t on the horizon. Declining sentiments around a potential 2024 recession make for a promising outlook as well.

European consumers might also be following suit, though the projections are still somewhat mixed. Despite continuous price increases, European consumers currently maintain their most positive economic outlook in a year. Even with this optimism, European consumers are spending less across many nonessential categories in an effort to prioritize necessities. The total consumer spend however will likely remain the same when taking inflation into account.

Both Gen Z American and European consumers however, have shown the highest intent to splurge in 2024. In other words, the opportunity for brands is ripe, but so is the competition. Globally, brands are faced with the challenge of boosting profit margins while battling competitors to win over consumers in 2024.

The strategy: Attract price-conscious consumers with added value across the entire customer experience.

2024 isn’t an invitation for brands to get too comfortable. Consumers are making smarter discretionary spend choices. To stay competitive, brands must deliver value across the entire customer experience. Shifting to a holistic, customer-centric strategy that prioritizes the winning combination of discounts, flexible payment options, and exceptional return policies is the clear path forward for brands in 2024. Here are three strategies to set your brand apart:

1. Partner with affiliates to share discounts 

To attract savvy consumers, brands can leverage affiliate partners to bolster their reach by providing enticing discounts and even free trials. The affiliate channel’s measurable, pay-for-performance approach has historically offered one of the most resilient and adaptable channels available to brands. In 2024, this will continue to hold true.

With affiliate marketing, it’s a win-win situation. Consumers secure a sought-after deal. Brands gain greater campaign control, increased profit margins, and more clarity into their return on ad spend (ROAS). For example, customers acquired through affiliate marketing campaigns often drive $12 in ecommerce revenue for every one dollar spent to acquire them. This far surpasses the average ecommerce ROAS of $4 in revenue to every one advertising dollar spent.

2. Enable buy now, pay later financing services

In the era of fluctuating interest rates and ongoing inflation, providing flexible payment alternatives like buy now, pay later (BNPL) can distinguish your brand from the competition. BNPL short-term financing options serve as the catalyst for 30 percent of shoppers on whether or not they actually make a purchase.

By 2026, $995 billion in consumer spend is projected to funnel through BNPL services, a $769 billion increase from 2021. Brands that leverage BNPL services (e.g. Klarna, Affirm, Afterpay, etc.) typically see a 17 percent boost in incremental sales plus a 15 percent increase in average order value (AOV).

3. Provide favorable return experiences and policies

The influence of attractive return policies should not be overlooked by brands focused on increasing profitability. Great return policies generate more sales, reduce returns, and enhance brand perception.

What’s more, 95 percent of online consumers feel that a positive return experience also impacts their continued brand loyalty. Conversely, roughly 80 percent of US online shoppers feel that a subpar return experience decreases their likelihood of shopping with that brand in the future.

To differentiate your brand, implement these specific strategies:

• Go beyond the standard 15-30 day return policy and offer more enticing policies, for example returns up to a year or even lifetime returns if possible.
• Simplify the entire process by automating returns and eliminating return shipping and restocking fees.
• Ensure your return policy is transparent and accessible at the time of checkout to instill confidence in consumer purchasing decisions.

The post Navigating 2024 Trends: Winning Strategies for Success appeared first on CAKE.

That’s why we’re excited to introduce CAKE Insights.

The new solution provides more advanced, more insightful, and more user-friendly reporting, visualizations, and dashboards that meet the diverse needs of our users.

Customers are running billions of transactions through CAKE each month. By automating the process of aggregating and visualizing large amounts of data, CAKE Insights enables affiliate networks, as well as lead generators and aggregators, to quickly and easily understand trends, patterns, and key performance indicators (KPIs) that matter.

We’ve worked with thousands of affiliate marketers and recognize that no two customers are exactly the same, so data needs to be organized and visualized differently for the biggest impact.

Why visualizations matter

When reporting and visualizations are limited, marketers are prohibited from viewing and applying data insights that can be crucial for running successful performance marketing campaigns.

Because of these limitations, performance marketers have turned to resource- and time-consuming methods to access the insights they require. These range from exporting data from their tracking platform and manually manipulating it in spreadsheets; to utilizing APIs to export data and sync the changes with their BI platforms, such as Tableau and Power BI. Then on top of this, some marketers are paying a visualization expert to create KPI dashboards.

How CAKE Insights works

CAKE Insights empowers performance marketers with seamless access to powerful insights that drive revenue growth.

Here are more details about the value and capabilities available through CAKE Insights.

Boost efficiency

The benefits of automating the process of collecting and visualizing data increases efficiency, consistency, and accuracy, with the potential to reduce costs. By eliminating manual reporting processes, CAKE Insights enables you to optimize operations and quickly access valuable data within the platform.

Users get up-to-date reporting and price adjustments with automatic syncing across tracking and reporting, device, traffic caps, and fraud detection. For instance, reports from CAKE Insights can be used to detect fraud in an affiliate marketing program. By analyzing up-to-date data – such as click patterns and conversion rates – you can identify suspicious activity and take immediate action.

Unlock the power of data

CAKE Insights simplifies the process of filtering and grouping large data sets according to your preferences and gaining clarity with insights that drive campaign success.

For example, you can filter, search, use partial string matches, and multi-select entities such as vertical, advertiser, affiliate, offer, and Sub ID 1.

You can also organize and summarize data based on your preferences by dynamically grouping entities including advertisers, affiliates, campaigns, creatives, offer contracts, offers, Sub ID 1, and verticals. Furthermore, you can access reporting on click- and conversion-centric KPIs – such as CTR, CPC, CPA, and conversion rate – and group by any dimension.

Make intelligent marketing decisions

With CAKE Insights, your strategic oversight is enhanced with advanced dashboards and hundreds of variations of data visualizations. These include pie charts, line graphs, and tables to see your data how you want, all in one place, making it easy to identify the insights that facilitate data-driven decision making.

A few features to highlight are the “metric to draw” capability that allows users to select a metric and turn that one selection into various visualizations. Additionally, tabs provide multiple views of dashboards to easily visualize data by top performers, KPIs, etc. There is also “period-over-period” reporting, which enables users to choose the appropriate aggregation period based on their specific reporting and analysis goals. For example, when examining short-term fluctuations in traffic, using the day or week aggregation might work best. On the other hand, when analyzing annual revenue trends or long-term marketing performance, aggregating by month, quarter, or year may be more appropriate.

Elevating the data experience with advanced reporting and visualizations

Now we’re just getting started. CAKE Insights will continue to evolve, forwarding the potential of reporting, dashboards, and visualizations that enable you to discover new insights with ease.

Are you a customer interested in getting started with CAKE Insights? Reach out to our team here.

The post Unveiling CAKE Insights: Where Advanced Reporting Meets Powerful Visualizations appeared first on CAKE.

 

Is simply selling leads enough? If you’re aiming to maximize your earnings, the straightforward answer is no. While selling leads certainly offers networks a proven strategy to expand their existing affiliate operations and earn more revenue, what if we told you that a lead’s value extends beyond the initial lead sale? With lead monetization, networks incrementally boost revenue throughout the duration of the consumer’s buying journey.

Failing to capitalize on a lead’s full potential leaves considerable revenue on the table for networks and their affiliate partners. Networks already operating on razor thin margins, simply can’t afford to miss out on the benefits of monetizing leads.

Let’s uncover how networks can increase their revenue with lead monetization.

 

Monetize leads for more revenue: 3 key advantages

Lead monetization gives networks the opportunity to continually increase the profitability of a lead after it has been sold. The real value stems from the ownership of the lead data.

To take advantage of lead monetization, networks begin by generating, validating, and selling the lead to the highest paying advertiser or lead buyer. The initial lead sale typically occurs on a cost-per-lead (CPL) basis. From there, the network then enlists their affiliate partners to launch targeted remarketing campaigns that drive the consumer to convert on additional advertisers’ offers and their corresponding landing pages. These campaigns utilize a cost per acquisition (CPA) model. This process provides networks with three advantages:

 

Increase network earnings beyond the initial lead sale

By combining the original lead sale price with the revenue from additional campaign conversions, networks gain access to a profitable revenue stream. Here are two examples of lead monetization across different verticals:

---

 

Strengthen partnerships by offering additional revenue opportunities

With lead monetization, affiliates gain more too. Remarketing campaigns provide multiple opportunities for them to increase their revenue.

Affiliates are key participants and contributors to the success of a network’s lead monetization campaigns. By providing networks with niche audiences that can easily be leveraged for highly targeted CPA campaigns, affiliates solidify long-term, mutually profitable partnerships with networks. Let’s look at an example:

 

Diversify the network’s vertical portfolio for sustained profitability

Lead monetization makes it easy for networks to adopt a vertical-focused approach. The benefits of vertical diversification include long-term profitability, longevity, and resilience – especially when specific verticals are impacted by shifting economies.

Plus, if exclusive advertiser contracts are in place, networks legally cannot resell or remarket to the lead with a direct competitor of the original advertiser. Remarketing to the lead with a complementary or different vertical altogether is the best path forward. The new verticals might be complementary to the network’s core vertical(s) or entirely different.

 

 

For instance, a network can target a gambling lead with additional CPA campaigns featuring gaming offers (i.e., mobile app game installs, etc.) or alternatively, target them with a financial services offer (i.e., debt financing). This offer might appeal to consumers with gambling debt interested in reducing it.

 

Lead monetization: A step-by-step process to get started

 

Step 1 – Generate leads 

The key to successful lead monetization lies in owning the landing page that collects the initial lead capture. In a standard affiliate conversion, networks leverage their affiliates to drive traffic directly to an advertiser’s landing page, resulting in the lead data bypassing the network. This process eliminates all lead monetization possibilities. Simply put, you can’t monetize data that you don’t have.

Networks that host their own landing pages gain ownership of first-party data, which unlocks new capabilities for networks beyond what’s possible with affiliate conversions. For networks, the benefits far exceed the revenue from the first lead sale. Owning the lead data enables networks to continuously remarket to the consumer while engaging with different partners across new verticals.

It’s important to note that consumers must opt-in via the landing page form to receive marketing campaigns from the network. This crucial step ensures networks comply with consumer privacy and data collection regulations, and engage in privacy-friendly marketing processes.

Once the lead generation process begins, it’s time to move on to the next step.

 

Step 2 – Validate leads

Proactively preventing fraud from impacting lead quality and undermining buyer confidence is a significant component for a successful lead sale and subsequent remarketing campaigns. This is where lead validation plays a critical role.

Lead validation verifies the lead is an actual human and not a bot or fake form submission. This process is easily accomplished through native and integrated tools embedded within lead selling software. Typically, these integrations include Xverify, Neustar, or eHawk which specialize in filtering out fraudulent data.

 

Step 3 – Sell leads

After the lead has been validated, the network then sells the lead to the highest-paying advertiser on a CPL basis. This is achieved by creating a ping-tree of all available advertisers. A ping tree enables networks to set up a workflow of eligible buyers that match the buying criteria for the specific lead being sold.

With lead distribution software, networks have more flexibility. Leads can also be sold on a 1:1 basis with a single advertiser.

 

Step 4 – Segment leads

Once the initial lead sale has occurred, networks must determine how to segment their leads. This ensures the leads receive targeted remarketing campaigns that align with their initial interest. It’s important to avoid wasting ad spend by targeting the wrong audience.

For example, if a lead database includes individuals who completed form submissions on mortgage and education offers, networks should separate these leads out. Here’s why. In the mortgage vertical, these consumers are more likely to be interested in additional offers that advertise home improvement services such as a bathroom remodel or new windows. Whereas in the education vertical, consumers tend to be more interested in campaigns advertising student loan financing options. The two audiences are entirely different therefore requiring proper segmentation before initiating remarketing campaigns.

 

Step 5 – Monetize leads

Now the network can initiate targeted CPA campaigns according to their various lead audiences. For instance, using the previous mortgage lead scenario, the network might decide to send all of their mortgage leads to their email partners to remarket a solar panel offer. Typically, in remarketing campaigns, networks do not host the landing page. Instead, they employ the affiliate conversion model where the email partner sends users directly to the solar panel advertiser’s landing page to convert. For every conversion, the network receives a fixed CPA.

The network can then launch additional remarketing campaigns to the same leads, continuously increasing their revenue potential over time.

 

Monetize leads for additional revenue – We’re here to help you get started

CAKE provides affiliate tracking and lead distribution all in one platform. Begin selling and monetizing leads with just a click!

If you’re ready to embark on the journey, reach out to your account manager directly or message our team here.

 

The post Lead Monetization: The Art of Increasing Earnings from Your Leads appeared first on CAKE.

In the lead distribution process, high-quality leads have a positive impact across the board — from fewer lead returns and increased revenue to strengthening buyer relationships and your credibility.

Now, imagine the significant risks of selling subpar leads. This is a position you don’t want to find yourself in. The bottom line is buyers won’t purchase leads that fail to result in sales.

So, what is a lead seller to do? Below are the most pressing questions on how to deliver the leads that your buyers want.

What determines the quality of a lead?

High-quality leads that convert to customers are valuable assets for your buyers. At the same time, these leads are ones that get you, the seller, the highest possible price from your buyer.

For selling premium leads, there are two essentials you need to know about — validity and alignment.

A valid lead is a potential customer who has provided genuine and accurate information. The authenticity of a lead can be tainted by fraud, which impacts 25 percent of leads sold. With the potential to undermine the integrity of your efforts, fraudulent leads can damage your credibility, waste resources, as well as result in fines and penalties.

Another major factor for providing quality leads is alignment or in other words, just a matter of a good fit. These refer to legitimate leads with valid contact details but simply are not aligned with the needs and preferences of the target audience. Eventually, lead buyers will cease acquiring such leads that fail to convert into actual sales.

How can I prevent fraud from affecting the quality of my leads?

Ensuring that fraud does not impact the quality of your leads requires a proactive approach that includes lead validation.

Lead validation is a crucial process that verifies the authenticity of leads as actual individuals.

Ensuring the lead is a real person and swiftly identifying any false information can be achieved through native and integrated tools embedded within lead distribution software. It’s important to invest in lead distribution software that includes built-in validation features that utilize third-party tools such as Xverify, Neustar, or eHawk which specialize in lead validation. These solutions help to filter out fraudulent leads.

How can I provide relevant lead information that aligns with my buyer’s needs and maximizes the chance of a successful sale?

A best practice that encourages individuals to provide their information involves limiting forms to 3-5 fields. However, aiming for this range may often result in not capturing all of the pertinent information essential for securing the highest sale price of a lead.

This is where another best practice, lead enrichment, comes into play.

To secure more relevant lead details that align with your buyer’s needs, consider leveraging third-party enrichment tools or a lead enrichment process, such as utilizing a call center. For instance, in the lending sector, potential leads can be prompted to offer their credit ratings, ranging from poor to excellent. Through lead enrichment, the lead seller may opt to conduct credit checks to obtain precise credit score figures, enhancing the overall credibility of the leads and making them more attractive to potential buyers.

For more best practices on validating and enriching leads, check out this video.

After a lead has been sold, how do I track its performance?

You’ve invested time in acquiring leads through efforts such as optimizing traffic sources, landing pages, and form fills. Now it’s time to focus on what happens next. After a lead is sold, dive into how the lead is progressing once it’s in the hands of your buyer.

With lead distribution software, buyers can assign a status to each lead, which is then reflected in the lead status report, offering real-time insights into lead quality. Lead statuses can answer questions such as — Did the lead go dark? Was the consumer not as qualified as the form fill made it seem? Did they end up becoming a customer?

Typical lead statuses may encompass:

• Where/who the lead was acquired from
• Where/who the lead was sold to
• How much it was sold for
• If it was later returned for a certain reason
• If the lead buyer sent any additional information about the lead post-sale

This information is invaluable for lead sellers and generators to refine and optimize their campaigns. For instance, in the mortgage industry, when a lead, such as a first-time homebuyer, is sold to a mortgage lender, the buyer can provide immediate updates on the status of the loan application.

Armed with this information, you can figure out what’s working and what’s not, and optimize your strategy for increased lead quality and ultimately stronger ROI.

What’s the best way to leverage my buyer’s feedback to boost my lead quality?

Buyer feedback provides direct insights into the effectiveness of your lead from the perspective of those who are actually purchasing them. This can be critical for improving quality.

However, understanding how to leverage this information hinges on the lead distribution technologies used by both you and your buyers. You as the seller need flexible technology with automated capabilities to label and update each lead. With CAKE, for example, there is an Admin API if the network wants to do it or the buyer API if the buyer wants to do it.

On the buyer’s side, their solution should offer lead status capabilities with reporting to inform you of how the leads they’ve purchased are progressing through their sales funnel in real time. Ideally, the buyers should have an API that automatically sends lead status updates, which you can then connect via API to get those updates back into your lead distribution system.

What is a real-world example of how I can apply my buyer’s feedback to generate more high-quality leads?

To take advantage of lead status reporting and get detailed insights into lead quality, you can use CAKE’s Lead Status feature to create custom lead statuses specific to the vertical you are generating leads for.

Here’s a scenario from the mortgage sector of financial services. Let’s say you’ve sold a lead, such as a first-time homebuyer to a mortgage lender. Using CAKE’s Lead Update API, the buyer can provide you with real-time updates on leads, including the status of the loan application and when it’s moving through underwriting.

This data serves as a valuable way of assessing lead quality. Some leads may not meet the qualifications to purchase, depending on the type of loan they sought. Others may progress through the lead funnel more quickly, indicating a higher likelihood of being funded and thus representing more profitable leads. Additionally, you may discover that your high-volume traffic sources aren’t yielding the highest revenue for your lead buyers. Perhaps after further investigation, you find that it’s the niche affiliates and publishers with lower volumes that are proving to be more lucrative.

With first-hand insights directly from buyers, you can make profitable business decisions including, shutting off low-performing traffic sources or conversely incentivizing a high-performing traffic source with an increased payout to encourage more quality leads.

The lead selling process can be challenging. What lessons learned can be shared for when this occurs?

Though you follow best practices for selling leads, it’s common for the quality of leads to fluctuate or unexpected issues to come up. For example, you may encounter buyers acquiring leads that you wish they hadn’t or they experience a temporary dip in lead quality.

The key is to two-fold — remain committed to your buyers while keeping a proactive approach to identifying and preventing low-quality leads.

Working through challenges together, with mutual respect and consideration, is crucial. Successful partnerships thrive when lead buyers and sellers demonstrate commitment and readiness to address challenges that may come your way.

Ready to take your lead selling to the next level? Discover how to sell leads for the highest profit here.

Other content you might be interested in:

• The Cookieless Future – How to Maintain Accurate Measurement and Prioritize Consumer Privacy
• CAKE Security Settings to Protect Your Platform 
• Brand Integrity and Affiliate Marketing – Six Major Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

The post Q&A: How to Deliver High-Quality Leads to Your Buyers appeared first on CAKE.

This blindspot results in critical gaps in information required for identifying your affiliates’ impact on conversions and makes it difficult to properly reward affiliates for high-quality conversions.

CAKE Advertiser Sub IDs give customers the granular transaction-related information they need to optimize performance the way they want. Let’s explore what the CAKE Advertiser Sub IDs feature is, the advantages it offers customers, and how it works.

The Advertiser Sub IDs – What is it and the advantages

Customers use CAKE Advertiser Sub IDs to collect extensive data from advertisers that reveals powerful insights into user behavior surrounding conversions. This data is then leveraged to build high-performing campaigns, partner strategies, and payout optimizations that reward affiliates for delivering quality traffic.

CAKE Advertiser Sub IDs offer customers three key advantages:

Automated granular data collection
Simplify the process of gathering detailed conversion information, directly from your advertisers. This empowers users to make informed campaign optimizations.

Enhanced reporting insights
Access more comprehensive conversion reports, complete with detailed information on all conversion-related user actions.

Stronger partner relationships
Discover the value individual partners contribute to your business by tracking all conversion actions completed as a result of their marketing efforts. Then, refine marketing strategies to more effectively target the high-value audiences driven by your best affiliates while incentivizing them with higher payouts.

The Advertiser Sub IDs – How it works

To track conversions and receive additional advertiser sub IDs, customers must first place a pixel or a postback URL. CAKE permits a total of 10 dynamic data fields that can be pulled in from the advertiser. These are represented by the following fields: adv1, adv2, adv3, etc. When a conversion occurs, the advertiser fields appear in the conversion report for administrators and affiliates.

Here are a few examples of how customers across different verticals leverage CAKE’s adv1-adv10 fields to access additional conversion information from the advertiser:

Vertical: Travel

• Adv1: Date of flight
• Adv2: Origin of flight
• Adv3: Date of return flight
• Adv4: Destination of flight
• Adv5: Airline name

Vertical: Forex

• Adv1: Account type
• Adv2: Type of trade
• Adv3: Payment option used

Vertical: Ecommerce

• Adv1: Product line purchased
• Adv2: Payment on delivery or payment upfront

By automating the collection of all conversion data from the advertiser into CAKE, customers gain the flexibility to optimize performance in a variety of ways, including:

• Shutting off partners or changing the status of an existing campaign.
• Increasing payouts for partners all the way down to the sub ID level using Directed Campaigns.
• Bringing on new partners.

The conversion insights you need to succeed — Let’s get started

CAKE Advertiser Sub IDs underscore our commitment to providing users with the tools necessary to stand out in today’s competitive landscape.

We invite you to get started. Explore our advertiser sub IDs knowledge base article here, or connect with our team directly.

Other content you might be interested in:

• The Cookieless Future – How to Maintain Accurate Measurement and Prioritize Consumer Privacy
• CAKE Security Settings to Protect Your Platform 
• Brand Integrity and Affiliate Marketing – Six Major Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

The post Reveal Powerful Conversion Insights with Advertiser Sub IDs appeared first on CAKE.

CAKE is fully prepared to embrace these changes in Chromium, having already implemented solutions for you.

Our goal is simple, to guarantee business continuity for our customers while simultaneously future-proofing CAKE’s tracking.

Let’s dive into the impact of the User-Agent Reduction and three essential CAKE enhancements made to enable you to enjoy a seamless tracking experience.

The impact – The User-Agent Reduction’s effect on performance tracking

Chromium’s User-Agent Reduction poses a serious threat to effectively track and measure performance while protecting revenue. In affiliate marketing, User-Agent reporting is critical to identify and stop fraudulent traffic. It’s common for fraudsters to employ malicious tactics, such as writing bots with mismatched combinations of device, browser, and operating system in their User-Agent strings. In other words, combinations that would historically trigger red flags in a User-Agent report.

Additionally, Chromium’s User-Agent Reduction also had the potential to affect CAKE functionality. The impacted features included CAKE’s Rules Targeting (on device and operating system on clicks), Session Regeneration (on clicks and conversions), plus reporting functionality.

In response to this, we prioritized tracking upgrades that include the utilization of Chromium’s Client Hints.

The solution – How CAKE helps you to navigate Chromium’s User-Agent Reduction

We implemented the three measures below that harness the full power of Chromium’s Client Hints capabilities.

1 – Integrated with the WURFL Database

The powerful integration with WURFL’s rich database of device information unlocks even more information regarding users’ devices. WURFL is a JavaScript that identifies smartphone device models, tablets, smart TVs, and game consoles visiting a website. The integration enhances CAKE’s ability to provide you with accurate and actionable data customized to individual business needs.

2 – Adopted Client Hints

With the implementation of Chromium Client Hints, CAKE automatically parses out the browser, operating system, and device information to maintain the previous level of detail. This step incurs an additional click or conversion request sent and received by CAKE. Here’s how it works.

In the examples below, the “ch-redir=1” serves as the second click or conversion request that returns additional information, compared to the original click or conversion request. Once CAKE receives Client Hints from Chromium, our system automatically calls the WURFL database to extract and append additional information regarding the click or conversion.

All click and conversion requests from Chromium will automatically have the “ch-redir=1” appended to them since they require the User-Agent.

3 – Improved device lookup rules

Compatibility with Chromium’s Client Hints was validated by assessing our device lookup rules core functionality. The specific areas we examined and the actions we took include:

• Initiated a seamless integration with Client Hints to extract valuable insights into users’ device capabilities.
• Aligned CAKE’s device lookup rules with Chromium’s specifications, ensuring a smooth transition.
• Optimized CAKE’s device lookup rules to maximize accuracy and increase the depth of information extracted from the WURFL database.

By proactively implementing and testing these processes, CAKE users can feel confident they will continue to receive the same reliable insights that inform their Rules Targeting, Session Regeneration, and reporting functionality.

We’ve got tracking covered

Staying one step ahead in the evolving privacy-forward era is essential to the advancement of our tracking capabilities, and ultimately your success. The upgrades made to CAKE tracking equip our customers with a reliable and innovative platform to grow their business with confidence and ease.

Ready to explore the full potential of CAKE? Request a demo here.

The post We’ve Got You Covered: Privacy-Friendly Tracking With Chromium Client Hints appeared first on CAKE.