Do Cookies Really Pay Off?

Do you folks notice a significant amount of income coming from days or weeks after a click (from cookies) or are most of your conversions happening immediately?

I know that this is a little tough to track, but if an affiliate converts on a day it doesn't get any clicks I would think that would be an obvious indicator.

thoughts?

 

You can track the days the clicks happen by putting the date in the SID. And yes I do see residual income from transactions not directly related to the click.

-Jason

 

Dope,

I can see how that would work for a PPC campaign, but what about content pages where you launch the links and then they sit there. any ideas on that end?

Thanks for the response!

 

It's actually very easy to track click dates, without modifying SIDs. Run a Transaction Detail Report, and then export the report (Excel, CSV, or any of the other options). Those exported reports contain a column marked "Click Date".

It's a great tool, and long cookie durations have worked to my advantage... I've had sales come in 2 or 3 months after a click date (though most are within a few days, for my PPC campaigns).

 

I think it will depend on the type of products to some degree.

2 opposite ends of the spectrum:
Lead based programs typically happen on the spot.
Higher ticket price items and technology products tend to have a longer
research, shop and compare cycle so the click to buy time can be longer.

 

Nice.. I didn't realize that.. I can recover some of the SID space for other things I've been wanting to track.

Thanks..
-Jason

 

Thanks for the tip guys, I appreciate it. I've gotten more clicks in the last 4 days than I had in the 30 days previous, but no sales. I suppose there is still light at the end of the tunnel.

 

Great tip, rep given.

I actually asked CJ that question about three or four months ago and they said, no, unfortunately, there's no way to know when the leads are generated.

 

Just wanted to update:

I've gotten about 5x as many clicks this month as last but my earnings are down about 50% so far... But I have had a few links convert days after the click. This seems to be especially true after the weekend.

I imagine this is because some of the affiliates may manually approve the commisions (I could be way off base) but I suppose it could be coincidence...

Thanks for all the helpful advice everyone and I look forward to posting my Sept. earnings in a few days!