With an average daily turnover of $3.98 trillion, it’s no wonder so many people are looking to take part in the foreign exchange market (Forex). While there is money to be made in the actual trading process, there are many other ways for financially savvy businesses and individuals to maximize their revenue earning potential in the Forex market. An affiliate marketing program offers valuable ways to ensure your opportunities are fully monetized.
How does affiliate marketing relate to Forex?
Affiliate marketing is a form of “pay-for-performance” marketing. Merchants (also referred to as advertisers) engage affiliates (also referred to as publishers) or affiliate networks to help them acquire new customers, extend offer distribution, and increase sales. This is accomplished through various online channels, including website advertisements, blogs, text messaging, social media, and more. The advertiser can create offers, determine what affiliates need to achieve to receive their commission, and specify the commission amount they are willing to pay. Then, their affiliates drive exposure to the merchant’s offers by referring business their way.
As it relates to Forex, the advertiser could be a broker looking to attract new traders or a merchant who has a product or service that appeals to traders. In the broker scenario, a cost-per-lead model (CPL) may be the right approach, where the action that they pay affiliates for is completion of a lead form or loan application on the broker’s website. In the merchant scenario, they might choose to pay affiliates for conducting a designated action, such as making a brokerage account deposit.
Performance Tracking: The Key to Affiliate Program Success
Questions around how the performance of an affiliate program is tracked and settled are significant. Tracking is one of the major factors in affiliate marketing success – for the advertiser and the affiliate alike. Some large merchants and affiliate networks choose to build their own tracking solution, but this is a complicated process that can’t scale at the rate of the rapid-growth Forex market. Most rely on third-party tracking solutions for the long-term advantages and security offered, but there are many decisions when selecting a tracking platform. Low-cost tracking tools may not provide a rich feature set or open architecture that allows Forex marketers to capitalize on emerging affiliate channels like social and mobile.
Whether you’re looking to enter affiliate marketing for the first time or you need to improve your existing program, decisions around tracking platforms should be made right away. Some of the most respected affiliate marketing leaders use DirectTrack, which is licensed and hosted by Direct Response Technologies. Widely considered one of the leading affiliate marketing and tracking platform, DirectTrack helps companies of all sizes drive advertising revenue, improve operational efficiency, and increase online distribution and brand visibility.
Maximize Program Performance across the Globe
Today’s successful Forex affiliate marketer must be able to quickly scale into emerging global markets. As a global affiliate marketing and tracking software solution, DirectTrack is utilized in 45 countries and the platform is translated into 13 languages.
The DirectTrack multi-currency functionality allows clients to support affiliate program tracking and payout in multiple currencies. This robust support is embedded into all layers of DirectTrack tracking, reporting (affiliate, administrative, and advertiser reporting), and billing scripts (payouts). Interfaces are customizable and can be translated into many languages, including double byte characters, such as Chinese or Hebrew.
In addition, DirectTrack allows you to build multiple affiliate interfaces and set access interfaces on a “per affiliate” or “affiliate group” level. With this, it is possible to create an interface for each language you work with as well as each affiliate business model you utilize (e.g. affiliate program, channel-partner program, display publishers, etc.) — all conveniently managed from the DirectTrack administrative interface.
EU Cookie Laws Require Knowledge and Technology
In 2009, the European Parliament amended a previously released directive to include guidelines regarding how information is gathered from Web users via the use of cookies. Although the deadline for compliance was May 26, 2011, only Denmark, Estonia, and the United Kingdom implemented the amended directive.
No one knows for sure how the European Union (EU) member states will implement, monitor, and administer fines, but everyone with a business interest in the EU should be prepared. Direct Response Technologies offers both cookie-based and cookie-less technology – a fact that’s of particular interest to anyone facing “cookie” laws.
- Cookie-Based or Cookie-Less Options: In addition to the traditional cookie-based option, DirectTrack offers a cookie-less option. This proprietary “hybrid” tracking methodology is designed to supplement cookie-based technology by enabling advertisers to take credit and receive commission from previously unaccounted for leads and sales.
- Server-Based Pixel Tracking: In addition to standard client-based pixel tracking, DirectTrack also supports server-based pixel tracking, where no data is required to be placed on a consumer’s machine. By passing in the necessary variables through the linking URL, a DirectTrack pixel captures the variables from the URL string when a transaction – such as a sale or lead – is processed. This session-dependent method of tracking is widely used in mobile affiliate marketing – including the top mobile marketers around the world, many of whom rely on DirectTrack.
- Manual Conversions: Often times, a pixel call will fail because of possible data discrepancies or invalid data. With DirectTrack’s manual conversion technology, a report is provided that contains all failed pixel call attempts along with additional information, which allows the client to manually credit a conversion to an affiliate.
Lifetime Affiliate Revenue Share Tracking
Ongoing affiliate revenue share payout is an important aspect in performance marketing. To establish long-term, effective affiliate relationships, the Forex provider must continue to pay an affiliate based on the activities of referred end users. Historically, Forex providers have been frustrated by the lack of tracking and reporting options, as well as the inability to “hook” into complex platforms.
With DirectTrack, providers can not only manage their user relationships, they can also continue to pay affiliates a revenue share over the course of the lifetime of the relationship. To properly credit the referring affiliate, DirectTrack marries a Forex platform generated user ID with the referring affiliate’s DirectTrack ID. The Forex operator can then control the revenue share business rules by defining the revenue share per affiliate amount and the relationship’s timeline. DirectTrack’s cutting-edge technology provides drill-down reporting by affiliate and by user ID – a feature that is unique within the current landscape of Forex solution providers.
Should I use DirectTrack?
Regardless of the size of your company or the amount of activity flowing through your affiliate marketing system, DirectTrack offers the scalability, infrastructure, and reliability you need to grow your business. Designed for companies of all sizes, DirectTrack accurately traces billions of impressions per year.
About Direct Response Technologies
Direct Response Technologies is a leading provider of affiliate technology and e-marketing solutions, including the DirectTrack affiliate marketing and tracking platform. The company provides services that enable clients to track, manage, and implement strategies for direct marketing through affiliate marketing, search engine pay-per-click (PPC) bid management, ad serving and email delivery.
For more information, visit our website (www.directresponse.com) contact Direct Response Technologies at (866) 773-4460.
