A lot of our visitors and customers didn't realize yet, how important is Flash Cookie Tracking in affiliate software. Post Affiliate Pro is one of the very few affiliate softwares, which support this type of visitor tracking. Applications in the same price level as is Post Affiliate Pro ($49 - $299) often doesn't support this important feature. It is included just in applications, which cost few thousands dollars. We offer it already in Starter Edition, which cost just $49.
I would compare our strategy to Mercedes-Benz's strategy. MB started to use ESP system as first car manufacturer in all models of their cars, because they wanted to offer just highest quality and cared about safety of all their customers (not just for customers, which payed extra so important safety feature as ESP is).
In affiliate softwares is Flash Cookie tracking so important, as ESP in cars.
Why is flash cookie so important ?
Simply your affiliates need to rely on quality of tracking and they want to be sure, that even if visitor will delete his browser cookies, sale will be still correctly assigned to him. Confidence of merchant's affiliates is most important factor. No affiliate will invest money and time into promotion of your products, if he will not be sure, that his commissions will be always correctly assigned to him.
How Post Affiliate Pro tracks visitors ?
This tracking method is implemented in Post Affiliate Pro few years already. I think first time it was introduced together with Post Affiliate Pro 3 and improved version of this flash tracking method we implemented also into Post Affiliate Pro 4 (included in all editions).
Flash cookies tracking method has in Post Affiliate Pro highest priority.
Just after we will not be able to track visitor with flash cookie, we are using tracking by browser cookies (first party cookies - located on merchant's destination page, than third party cookies - saved on domain, where is installed PAP) and as last option we use IP tracking.
Session ID tracking we don't use at all, because it is the worst tracking method, which has in 99% no value and beginning from PAP4 we removed it from tracking methods even if it was in PAP3.
When will Flash cookie tracking not work ?
It is clear, that Flash cookie tracking will not work in case your visitors doesn't have flash player installed. Good news is, that 98,7% of all Internet users have Flash player installed in their browsers and Flash is Internet standard, which no one ignores.
If you are still deciding, which affiliate software you will buy, please compare not just fancy design of different applications, but also features like tracking methods, promotion materials like Rebranded PDF documents, site replication of dynamic web sites and performance of application (e.g. how much impressions per second can be tracked on average server).
Who is using Flash cookie tracking already ?
When I looked into folder on my computer, where are flash cookies stored, I see cookies of big Internet players as Microsoft (MSN), Google, Flickr, Skype, Twitter, Ikea, Paypal, Youtube and Quality Unit :-)
As you see, all big companies know, why tracking of visitors is important and they use all possible options of tracking as well as we do in Quality Unit.
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This whole PAP4 affiliate setup is very nice. It's inexpensive too. NOT cheap or low cost. Inexpensive is not low cost or cheap. Here's why inexpensive is different and what makes PAP4 inexpensive in a relative way. You can extensively customize this software into unrecognizable oblivion if you so desire. Now with Flash cookie tracking and the Site Replication it's awesomely great! It's even simple to customize all of that but it does take time and some planning to coordinate it. Everything fits together quite nicely if you know what you're doing. But what if you don't? Then you can hire someone or learn from doing it. It is easy enough to earn while you learn but that takes more time. Time turns the inexpensive (PAP4) into something of value depending on how much time you spend on it. Time, however, won't help cheap and low cost does not even exist. Low cost is nothing more than cheap in disguise. Low cost is a trap that costs both time and money with nothing much in return. Still looking for that low cost offer with the Biggest, Better Bonus (BBB)? Buyer Beware. But for the grace of God, there go you, with your plummeting bank account. (LOL) Oops, I guess that's not really funny. Sometimes it's not so easy to recognize potential sitting right in front of you when you get so many invitations to go follow all your new friends!! It's nice to finally find an inexpensive product with so much potential already built in, you just might find yourself politely declining those invitations in favor of following yourself!!
Flash Cookies defintely track some additional sales. But, we currently got a big discussion in germany about setting cookies and that the user should be asked before setting cookies... So in the future cookies, doesn't matter if flash or regular, will be useless for tracking sales. It's good that PAP supports IP-Tracking, but maybe you should develop IP-Tracking into a complex Fingerprint-Tracking in order to be super future-proof! Anyways PAP is just awesome! keep up the good development work!
If we will see any other option how to identify visitor, we will for sure implement it. Current browsers doesn't support more sophisticated tracking methods as we implemented.
We have started running our Affiliate program with the tracking of Post Affiliate Pro. Coming from the Online Marketing world I know how painful a not functioning tracking can be. Many programs loose 15% of all the sales which is very bad for the Affiliates and subsequently for the business. Good tracking is essential to good affiliate program and I am very happy that PAP offers a good solution here.