Affiliate marketing is a powerful strategy for monetising your WordPress site, and tracking affiliate links is crucial for evaluating their performance. Here’s a comprehensive guide on how to effectively track affiliate links within your WordPress website.
Use Affiliate Marketing Plugins
Easy Affiliate is an all-in-one WordPress affiliate plugin that helps you create an effective affiliate program for your online business. It provides a personalised Affiliate Dashboard, advanced security & fraud detection, intuitive email marketing, convenient 1-click payouts, and zero transaction fees.
ThirstyAffiliates is a popular affiliate marketing plugin for WordPress. It allows you to cloak, manage, and track affiliate links. After installing the plugin, you can access detailed reports to monitor link performance.
Pretty Links is another versatile plugin that enables link shortening, tracking, and management. It provides insights into click statistics, allowing you to assess the effectiveness of your affiliate links.
Google Analytics Event Tracking
Manually create unique UTM parameters for each affiliate link using Google’s Campaign URL Builder. This helps Google Analytics distinguish between different affiliate links and provides detailed insights. Add event tracking code to your affiliate links. Use the following code as a template, replacing “your_category” and “your_action” with relevant identifiers:
onClick="ga('send', 'event', 'your_category', 'your_action', 'your_label');"
Built-in WordPress Tools
If you’re using the Gutenberg editor, you can use the “Button” block to create affiliate links. While creating the button, add a custom CSS class and then utilise JavaScript or a plugin to track link clicks. In the classic editor, use shortcodes to create affiliate links. Similar to the Gutenberg approach, add a CSS class to your shortcode and implement tracking through JavaScript or a plugin.
Affiliate Dashboard Reports
Many affiliate programs provide their own dashboards with detailed reports. Log in to your affiliate network account to access information such as clicks, conversions, and earnings for each affiliate link. If you’re part of the Amazon Associates program, Amazon offers reporting tools within your account. Explore the “Reports” section to view link clicks, conversion rates, and other performance metrics.
Learn: Monitoring Affiliate Links In WordPress
Custom Scripts and Plugins
For advanced users, consider creating custom scripts to track affiliate links. This involves adding JavaScript functions to monitor clicks and sending data to analytics tools. If your needs are unique, you might want to develop a custom WordPress plugin tailored to your affiliate tracking requirements. This offers flexibility and ensures your tracking solution aligns perfectly with your goals.
Regularly Analyse Reports
Regularly analyse your chosen analytics tool or affiliate marketing plugin reports. Pay attention to click-through rates, conversion rates, and earnings. Use this data to optimise your content and promotional strategies. Conduct A/B testing by experimenting with different approaches, such as button placement, call-to-action text, or content context. Analyse the performance of variations to refine your affiliate marketing strategy.
Read: Designing Multi-Tier Navigation in WordPress
Conclusion
Effectively tracking affiliate links in WordPress is essential for maximising your affiliate marketing efforts. Whether you opt for dedicated plugins, Google Analytics, or a combination of methods, regular monitoring and analysis will empower you to make informed decisions and enhance your affiliate marketing strategy.