Merchant and Affiliate Reports

Reports play a vital role in affiliate marketing success. Most merchants view summary reports on a daily basis. However, there are other important reports that need to be generated on a monthly basis. 

Does your affiliate software provide separate periodical performance reports for sales, clicks, leads, and commissions?

In fact no venture can be successful without periodical performance audits. Affiliate marketing performance audits should be run monthly. They need to be analysed and criticised openly in order to make better business decisions and formulate new plans of action.

To generate efficient performance audits you need the following report types:

• Monthly performance reports for each affiliate and for each transaction type
• Monthly performance reports for each affiliate group and for each transaction type
• Monthly performance reports for each promo and for each transaction type
• Monthly performance reports for each promo group (functional group) and for each  transaction type
• Monthly performance reports for each promo type (text link/banner/page peel, etc.) and for each  transaction type
• Monthly performance reports for each product line and for each  transaction type

The performance reports should give a clear picture of sales, leads, clicks, and commissions for not only the past month but for previous months as well so you can spot trends. You should analyse what worked and what did not. Repeat what worked and avoid what did not work. It is important to remain objective and detached from any emotions concering decisions that need to be made. 

If your affiliate software does not provide specific periodical performance reports then you will never know what worked and what did not. You will never have the option to take corrective measures. 

Are there sufficient options to narrow your search criteria so you can list only the desired records?

It is very frustrating to see hundreds of irrelevent search results when you are looking for a specific record. This problem becomes acute when you have a huge amount of data in your affiliate database.

It is not only frustrating but it uses up  too much of an affiliate managers' time and has a negative impact on the affiliate.  If an affiliate has to sift through thousands of links while only wanting to find one or two, he made decide to depart the affiliate business.

It is mandatory to check for this feature when choosing the affiliate software for your web business.

Does your system remember your last search preferences?

It is not a critical factor but sometimes it saves a lot of time when the system defaults to your last search. It is a real timesaver for frequently used reports since you won't have to choose search options every time. If time is critical to you, check for this feature when choosing affiliate software for your business. 

Is there an option to export a report in CSV format so you can import or easily open data in third party software?

A CSV exported report is very important when you want to open data in MS-Excel format, or when you need to import data to third party software (like your billing or accounting software). Normally, all third party software supports imported CSV formatted data. If you need this feature, make sure the software you are considering has it.