Growth Hacker

This morning I was a bit surprised to find that another company is offering a PPC conversion tracking solution for affiliates. Remember, that the big problem is knowing which keywords convert for affiliates since the conversion pixel resides on the merchant’s page, not the affiliate’s.

Tracking202 is a San Francisco based company that’s offering their PPC affiliate tracking solution for free. The solution offers many features similar to HLOLA which I described in an earlier post. Why is Tracking202 free? They claim they’ll offer complimentary paid services in the future. If I were them I would certainly be charging. Funny how the Web 2.0 craze has brainwashed companies into giving away really good stuff for free.
Like HLOLA, I have not tried this service, but it’s a very good idea.

Both Tracking202 and HLOLA are hosted solutions, so yes they can study your keyword list and conversion data if they really cared. I know some folks are paranoid that this information will get into the wrong hands. The keywords are only useful to someone in a similar business and more folks probably know your data than you realize anyway. Your agency knows, your former employee now working at the competitor knows, and of course Google knows everything. I’m not suggesting one be reckless, just not to worry so much.

Apparently people can’t stop worrying. I lifted this from Tracking202’s FAQs:

You say you do not look at our information, but how can we trust you?

Unforunately there is no way that we can 100% prove to you that we do not look at anyone’s data. If there was a way to prove it to you that we do not look at your data, we would happily do it, but unforunately we have no way of doing this. If you have an idea of how to achieve this, please let us know, we would be happy to comply.

They sound like decent guys. Don’t worry 🙂