Good News for users who want to track results with their PPC marketing campaign. Wes Mahler and his team have produced a great tool for tracking CPC, Tracking202.com. I have bene talking with Wes for quite some time and he personally has invited me to be in a private beta testing on his new project. I first asked his business model and soon out of curiosity I joined his beta team.
When doing CPC campaigns with affiliate networks you want to see what is doing good and what is not. You want to make sure that you are spending money on good affiliate products and not on bad ones. Tracking is very important in any aspects of marketing. You just want to see what works and what doesn't.
With PPC it is hard to really track keywords and what search engines your traffic are coming from. With so many ways to really devised on creating a good way to track keywords, let a lone find good quality phrases. With Tracking202 you can find everything you need in one location. The best part is Tracking202 is FREE!
I was an early beta tester and used it with really high expectations to this project; I found it a great tool to have! Everything is tracked and easy to use. I did how ever stumble on some things and bugged Wes about them; he has helped me grasp the benefits of Tracking202.
Prior to their launch, Tracking 202 was going to be a monthly promotional tool for an affiliate marketer to use. Wes recently explained that they have decided not to add a monthly fee into this great tool.
That is the real reason that Tracking202 is free, I hope that explains it more clearly in-depth our reason for making a free product for the industry. Our product has had a lot of controversy about it now, and this is my answer to explain our reasons so there is no questions left unanswered to the affiliate marketing community. This is our reason, and it is the real reason why Tracking202 is free for you and anyone else to use.
The only issue I brought to Wes and Wes even points this out in his blog, the information I input is being stored on their server. They simply have access to all my data and campaign details, which they can use for themselves later on if needed. I was a little hesitant but curious on this super new tool for PPC marketing. I did not put up all my good campaigns just new ones; with the testing I did I found it to be useful and entertaining.
Though I was looking at his business model, this would have been a great tool for any affiliate marketer to have. Wes explains there are some controversial issues with this and handling data. I too was thinking about how they are handling data and I gained so much trust with Wes from just emails and chatting that I trust he will not reckon with any information he gathers.
My personal synopsis of Tracking202 is worthwhile. Though the interface is a little 'jumbled' there are videos and a forum to help fellow users of this new system. Sometimes there are just too many drop downs and detailed information. Overall the whole system is greatly beneficial.
What you get with Tracking202:
You get a great graphical interface with multiple options. Sometimes looking at numbers can bore a person or even put them to sleep. Having daily updates of graphical interface quickly tells you if you are making any ROI on your specific campaigns.
You can easily set preferences and see which campaigns are doing better than another or which network. This is why when setting up a tracker you are put through multiple drop downs and options; you get to track everything as close as possible.
Spy View/Live Feed:
Another great feature I enjoyed was the live feed. I get to see what users are clicking on and where they are coming from right before my eyes! There is so much information provided in just one click you do not even know if you should blink.
The live feed shows the specific keyword that a user use when searching either via Yahoo, Google, MSN, etc. You get to check the live IPs of where they are coming from. You even get to see what browser they are using and where they are clicking from (US/Canada/etc).
Real Time RSS Feed Warnings:
This is another feature I really enjoy. I can grab my OWN feed and see the status of my affiliate programs. I have 4 separate feeds base o:
- Account Summary
- Visitor Spy
- Keyword Spy
- Referrer Spy
As we approach the interne, everything seems to be fed into a RSS feed. It is easier to access than email and to log into the actual website.
Wes has a great tool which is super beneficial to all affiliate marketers. If you are still creating your own code or using PHP to track keywords or using excel, you may want to check this FREE tool which will definitely help you with your campaigns. I personally found the tool to be helpful and useful in every way. Tracking202 definitely has something no other affiliate marketer as, I bet they do have tools that does what Tracker202 does but not to the needle Wes and his team has put, I mean I was tracking keywords with SID PHP and now I have a simple way to do so with much more information that I did not think was useful.
