Affiliate Start Guide

3 December 2014
TradeTracker Affiliate Introduction
First of all we want to welcome you as a new affiliate to the TradeTracker network. This document provides you with
an overview of the TradeTracker platform to get you up and running as fast as possible. Along the way we will point
you to other detailed information, tips, tricks and best practices you can find throughout this document to optimise
your advertisement efforts for your site and as a TradeTracker publisher.

Our system provides you with a tool to search and find relevant advertisements in various formats to display on your
website and monitor their effectiveness and conversion by using extensive reporting on how well these
advertisements perform on your site. We wish you all the best in running interesting campaigns and trust you will have
a fruitful collaboration with us and our advertisers!

1 Quick selection list

Use the list quick selection list below to quickly navigate to the subject you want to know more about. If you are not
sure in which main section the information you are looking for is located we refer you to the content index on the next
page.

Login to the TradeTracker dashboard

Finding your first relevant advertisement

Campaign details

Implementing the creatives on your site

Other promotional materials

Campaign Management

[Link] main dashboard overview

Reports

Account

PageTools

Web Services

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Contents
1 Quick selection list.............................................................................................................................. 2

2 Login to the TradeTracker dashboard ............................................................................................... 5

2.1 Login and explore the TradeTracker software ............................................................................................................... 5

3 Finding your first relevant advertisement ......................................................................................... 6

3.1 Banner type and dimension ............................................................................................................................................... 7

4 Campaign details ................................................................................................................................ 9

4.1 Register for a campaign ..................................................................................................................................................... 9
4.2 Policies and how they affect you ...................................................................................................................................... 9
4.2.1 Create your own deep-links ........................................................................................................................................................................ 9
4.2.2 Reference tracking (also known as subid or custom tracking property)........................................................................................... 10
4.2.3 Search engine marketing/advertising....................................................................................................................................................... 11
4.2.4 Email marketing ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 11
4.2.5 Cashback sites .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 11
4.2.6 Voucher code sites ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 11
4.3 General information............................................................................................................................................................. 12
4.4 Description ............................................................................................................................................................................ 12
4.5 Remarks................................................................................................................................................................................. 12
4.6 Trade rules ............................................................................................................................................................................ 12
4.7 Fees ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 13
4.8 CPM (Cost Per Mille) ........................................................................................................................................................... 13
4.9 CPC (Cost per Click) ............................................................................................................................................................ 13
4.10 Lead ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 13
4.11 Sales ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 13

5 Implementing the creatives on your site .......................................................................................... 14

5.1 JavaScript ............................................................................................................................................................................. 14
5.2 I-Frame ................................................................................................................................................................................... 14
5.3 HTML, Pop-up, Pop-under and custom ........................................................................................................................... 14

6 Other promotional materials .............................................................................................................. 15

6.1 HTML Advertorials ............................................................................................................................................................... 15
6.2 Incentives .............................................................................................................................................................................. 16
6.2.1 Voucher codes............................................................................................................................................................................................... 16
6.2.2 Consumer offers ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 16
6.3 Link Generator ...................................................................................................................................................................... 16
6.4 Rotators ................................................................................................................................................................................. 16

7 Product Feeds ..................................................................................................................................... 17

7.1 Product browser (your custom feeds creator)............................................................................................................... 18

8 PageTools & Web Services ................................................................................................................ 19

9 Campaign Management ..................................................................................................................... 20

9.1 Campaign categories .......................................................................................................................................................... 20
9.2 Available campaigns ........................................................................................................................................................... 21
9.3 Stopped campaigns ............................................................................................................................................................ 21
9.4 Campaign news ................................................................................................................................................................... 21
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9.5 Sending tickets to merchants ........................................................................................................................................... 22

10 [Link] main dashboard overview .................................................................................. 23

10.1 Support .................................................................................................................................................................................. 23
10.2 Feedback ............................................................................................................................................................................... 23
10.3 Country selection ................................................................................................................................................................. 24
10.4 Change the information on the main dashboard .......................................................................................................... 25
10.5 Drag and drop panels .......................................................................................................................................................... 25

11 Reports ................................................................................................................................................ 26
11.1 Common options for report/overview lists ..................................................................................................................... 27
11.2 Date or period selection ...................................................................................................................................................... 27
11.3 Reporting output options ................................................................................................................................................... 27
11.4 Opening a report/list in a full window .............................................................................................................................. 27
11.5 Output an XML file of a generated list or report (to use in MS Excel) ....................................................................... 28
11.6 Output a CSV file of a generated list or report ............................................................................................................... 28
11.7 Output a PDF file of a generated list or report ............................................................................................................... 28
11.8 Customising a report........................................................................................................................................................... 29
11.9 Campaigns ............................................................................................................................................................................ 30
11.10 Promotion Material .............................................................................................................................................................. 30
11.11 References ............................................................................................................................................................................ 31
11.12 My Sites ................................................................................................................................................................................. 32
11.13 Transactions ......................................................................................................................................................................... 33
11.13.1 Sales Transactions ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 33
11.13.2 Lead Transactions ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 34
11.13.3 Click Transactions ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 35

12 Account................................................................................................................................................ 36
12.1 General ................................................................................................................................................................................... 36
12.2 Users ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 37
12.3 Financial ................................................................................................................................................................................ 37
12.3.1 Account balance ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 37
12.4 Invoice overview and specification .................................................................................................................................. 37
12.5 Payout Settings .................................................................................................................................................................... 38
12.6 My Sites ................................................................................................................................................................................. 39

13 PageTools ............................................................................................................................................ 40
13.1 Link replacer.......................................................................................................................................................................... 40
13.2 CleanLinking.......................................................................................................................................................................... 40
13.3 EU cookie directive compliance ........................................................................................................................................ 40

14 Web Services ....................................................................................................................................... 41

14.1 How it works ......................................................................................................................................................................... 41
14.2 Support .................................................................................................................................................................................. 41
14.3 Available methods ............................................................................................................................................................... 42

15 General terms glossary ...................................................................................................................... 43

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2 Login to the TradeTracker dashboard
Since you are reading this document you probably know about the existence of [Link].

Let’s take a closer look at the elements displayed on the website. First of all you can select your country on the right
top corner of the site (1).

In this document we will use the international (English/United Kingdom) site as a reference and demo purposes. To
login look for the link entitled: “For registered users” (2). At (3) you will find the site’s main navigation.

2.1 Login and explore the TradeTracker software

After clicking on the “For registered users” link a login field appears beneath it.

Select the Affiliate tab and enter your login credentials.

Feel free to click around to get a general impression of the available options within your TradeTracker account.

If you forget your password you can use the “Forgot your login data?” link and request a password reset mail by
providing your username.
3 Finding your first relevant advertisement
Quick selection list

The more relevant your displayed ads are, the likelier it is your visitors will check them out. This applies to all available
types of advertisements you can choose from. In this chapter all possibilities are presented. Just read on and choose
the best method that suits your need. Of course you can choose to use multiple methods to apply on your site to
maximise your potential.

If you click on the Creatives & Tools page you will first see the Standard banners for the campaigns you are subscribed
to. There are two ways to subscribe to a campaign. You can search for available promotional material. Or go to the
Campaign Management section and search for a campaign based on the campaign categories that you are interested
in. This is discussed in the Campaign Management chapter.

After the login you will first be presented with the main dashboard overview. Because we understand that you are
eager to dive into our system to find out which advertisers offer the best and relevant advertisements to place on your
site, we will provide detailed information about the dashboard later on in this document. Besides that - except for the
news that’s displayed – upon first login there is limited data displayed. So, let’s start to take a look at where the
promotional materials created by the merchants within the TradeTracker network can be located to get you started.
We will also take a look at what types of creatives are available to use on your site in the chapter: Other promotional
materials.

Click on the Creatives & Tools page to take a look at the available campaigns and their promotional materials.

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As you can see in the image above (or on the site) you have a lot of different options to choose from: Banners, Text
Links, Incentives, Link Generator, Rotators, Product Feeds, Page Tools and Web Services. Let’s take a look at the
available materials and how you can use the system to find the ones that are most interesting to you.

To search for banners in all available campaigns select All campaigns in the campaign selection pane.

After selecting all campaigns you will have to select a category that corresponds to the preferred subject you want
view the available banners for. Of course it is best to match your choice to suit your site’s subject(s) as best as
possible.

After you have selected the category you will be presented with an overview of the available banners in the selected
category. You are also able to view banners created by a particular merchant in the next selection pane.

3.1 Banner type and dimension

After selecting the category you like, you can choose to view all banners or make a sub selection to display Flash or
image banners. You can select to view banners in a particular dimension that is suitable for placement on your site.

Note: if you want to run campaigns from different countries on your site (or sites) you can do so by adding your site
to the country of which you want to display advertisements from.
To read more about this we refer you to the chapter My Sites

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After you have made your selection you will notice that the “Generate code” functionality (that you will need to put the
ad on your site) on the right side below the ad is greyed out (see image below).

This is because you are not yet subscribed to the campaign.

If you want to start using the promotional material from any campaign you will first have to sign up.
In some cases you will have to be approved by the merchant to be able to start running their campaign.

To subscribe to a campaign click on the link on the left bottom corner:

You will be redirected to the details page of the campaign which is part of the Campaign Management section of the
TradeTracker software.

To be able to run a campaign on your site an advertiser has specified certain conditions to which you have to comply.
In the next chapter we will discuss these conditions and what they mean to you and we take a closer look at the
campaign details page.

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4 Campaign details
This is the campaign details page. Here you can read all information about the selected campaign. On the right side of
the page you see the earnings you made while running this campaign, the available promotion materials, which
policies apply and the campaign related news and an option to search for a specific campaign.

4.1 Register for a campaign

If you want to run a campaign you can register by clicking Register in the Status section.

4.2 Policies and how they affect you

This is a description of policies that merchants can set for their campaign.

Note: be aware that the advertiser is allowed to end the affiliation as he sees fit. So please, respect the conditions
that apply for each campaign.

4.2.1 Create your own deep-links

In most cases the merchant will allow you to create your own deep-links to their site. A deep-link is a link that points
directly to a specific page on the merchant’s site, like: [Link]

To create a deep-link to a merchant’s page you can use the Link Generator to make the link compliant to the
TradeTracker specifications (and your account ID for tracking purposes). You can only create these links if the domain
of the link you want to create corresponds with the actual campaign domain name.

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If deep linking is disabled for a campaign the merchant wants you to only use the links they provided within this
specific campaign. There are a couple of ways to acquire the links provided by the merchant, you can check if the
merchant provided Text Links for this campaign or use the Product Feeds functionality if the merchant has product
feeds available for you to use.

If you do try to make a deep-link and it is prohibited by the advertiser it will result in the following notice:

4.2.2 Reference tracking (also known as subid or custom tracking property)

Reference tracking allows you to create your own custom tracking property (sometimes referred to as subid).

This can be useful in performing A/B tests on a specific ad. How this works is that you create two links from (or to) the
same advertisement and provide a custom reference like A for link 1 and another one to the same ad with reference B.
This way you can analyse which of the two ads, which look the same, but are placed on different positions of your site
performs best. Or other A/B tests you want to conduct.

If you are registered to a campaign click on the Generate Code icon to generate the code you will need to place the ad
on your site. Here you are able to specify this custom reference as well.

This data will then become available in “Reports' -> 'References” or will be accessible by means of the Web Service. To
read more about the reference reports we refer you to the References chapter.

Note: the maximum length of a reference is 255, and characters are limited to:
a-z, A-Z, 0-9, tilde (~), dash (-), colon (:), period (.), comma (,) vertical bar (|) and asterisk (*).

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4.2.3 Search engine marketing/advertising
Not allowed - You are not allowed to use search engine marketing in any form whatsoever.

Allowed - Use search engine advertising how you see fit. For example you, are also allowed to use the merchant’s
brand name in the search ad.

Limited - If SEA/SEM is set to limited you need to check the campaign remarks. In most cases the restriction is that
you are not allowed to use the merchant’s brand name or other company related terms for instance. Note that the
advertiser can terminate your subscription in case you do not respect these conditions.

4.2.4 Email marketing

Not allowed - You cannot use email marketing in any form whatsoever.

Allowed - You are allowed to create emails based on the creatives provided by the merchant and send them out
without any restrictions.

Limited – Conditions apply when using email marketing. A restriction could be that the merchant wants to review the
email you are intended to send and give you approval to do so. Please read the campaign remarks to see which
conditions apply.

4.2.5 Cashback sites

Not allowed - If set, you are not allowed to use promote the campaign by means of cashback and/or GPT (get paid to)
sites in any form whatsoever.

Allowed - You are allowed to promote the campaign on cashback and/or GPT (get paid to) sites without any
restrictions.

Limited - Conditions apply when using cashback and/or GPT (get paid to) sites. A restriction could be that a site is not
allowed to award its users for filling out forms.

4.2.6 Voucher code sites

Not allowed - You may not use voucher codes to promote the campaign in any form whatsoever.

Allowed - You can use voucher codes as provided by the merchant without any restrictions.

Limited - If limited, conditions apply to use voucher code sites. A restriction could be that you are not allowed to use a
“click to show voucher code” method when promoting the codes.

Note: When a policy is set to “Allowed”, please note that you obviously must still operate within the boundaries of
the affiliate terms and conditions.

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4.3 General information
At the general information section you will find information about the campaign such as the URL to the campaign/site,
the merchant information (which can have multiple sites/campaigns), category in which the campaign is placed and
starting date.

Cookie duration – The cookie duration is the amount of time that the cookie is valid for this campaign. Within this time
frame any action from a customer resulting in a purchase (or any other action corresponding to a commission) will be
attributed to your account. The general rule of thumb is that from all affiliate sites the last referrer/click will earn the
corresponding commission.

Maximum validation period leads – This specifies the maximum amount of time in which the merchant will validate
the leads generated by you.

Maximum validation period sales – This specifies the maximum amount of time in which the merchant will validate
the sales generated by you.

Prepayment – If a merchant participates in prepayment, you will receive your earnings far quicker than normal.

4.4 Description
This is the description of the merchant’s campaign and website. It provides you with an overview of the activities they
conduct.

4.5 Remarks
Her you will find any remarks about the campaign and information about the policies that apply for the campaign if
applicable.

4.6 Trade rules

The merchant is able to specify trade rules on which a commission structure can be based, such as different sales
margins based on your performance or an introduction commission. For example:

General – This is the segment in which every affiliate is placed.

Bronze – If you generate 10 sales or more per month you will be automatically placed in the bronze segment.
Gold - If you generate 20 sales or more per month you will be automatically placed in the gold segment.

Note: Every night our system checks if you comply with the specific requirements set by the merchant.
Based on this check you will be placed in the corresponding segment automatically.

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4.7 Fees
For the placement of relevant creatives on your website the merchant will pay you a specified fee. These fees are also
listed in the campaign details.

4.8 CPM (Cost Per Mille)

The merchant can specify a commission that you will receive for 1,000 impressions of an ad for a specific campaign.

4.9 CPC (Cost per Click)

This is a commission that you will receive for every unique click on an ad for a specific campaign.

4.10 Lead
A lead commission is set for specific user actions where no direct sale has been made. E.g. signup for a newsletter,
request for proposals, request for further information, membership applications or downloads, etcetera.

4.11 Sales
There are two types of sales commission that can be specified by the merchant. They can specify a fixed sales fee or
will reward you a percentage of the final sale.

If you go to Campaign Management  Campaigns  Available Campaigns you can see the fees that are set up by the
merchants listed in the overview.

On the right side of the pane you see the Action column.

 To look at the promotional material you can click on the icon.

 If you want to register to the campaign directly you can click on the icon.
 If you want to unsubscribe from the campaign directly you can click on the icon.

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5 Implementing the creatives on your site
Once you have selected the right type of promotional material (subject, size, type and format etcetera), subscribe to
the campaign and are accepted by the merchant you are able to click the “Generate Code” icon and select the preferred
method you want to use to display the ad on your site. To use the generated code, click on the corresponding option
and copy/paste the code to use it on your site.

Note: we highly recommend you to use the JavaScript or I-frame method.

The reason for this is that this code will dynamically generate links to their destination as it is configured in our
system, in contrary to the html method in which the destination is “hardcoded”.

5.1 JavaScript

5.2 I-Frame

5.3 HTML, Pop-up, Pop-under and custom

These options you can also use. They work the same as the JavaScript and I-Frame. Just copy and paste the provided
code.

Note: when altering the codes provided by TradeTracker, please be very careful when doing so. TradeTracker is not
responsible for broken tracking after alterations.

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6 Other promotional materials
Flash banners
HTML Advertorials
Text Links
Voucher codes
Consumer offers
Link Generator
Rotators
Product Feeds
Product browser (your custom feeds creator)
PageTools & Web Services

Quick selection list

Besides the image banners which we discussed in the Finding your first relevant advertisement chapter there are all
kinds of other promotional materials/creatives you can use. Keep in mind that the merchants are responsible for
providing these creatives and in most cases do not provide all types of material. It is up to you to make the best use of
the provided materials to maximise your earnings, so be creative within the given boundaries.

Flash banners

Flash banners work in the same way as the image banners. You can select them in the same way as you would select
an image banner and implementing the banner works the same as well.

6.1 HTML Advertorials

HTML advertorials are more dynamic than just an image or a flash banner. The advertiser could for instance create an
html advertorial that allows your visitors perform a search on the advertiser’s site, e.g. flight or hotel search boxes. This
could look something like the following examples. Use them as you see fit.

Text Links

The use of text links is getting increasingly popular. Your visitors are more likely
to click on text links you provide than on a banner on your site. The advantage of
using text links is that you can integrate them within written content on your site.

For example, if you host a blog about mobile phones and write a review about the new Samsung phone, you can easily
integrate a text link from one of your merchant’s campaigns that displays “buy the new Samsung phone here for €
299,-” seamlessly into your review.

Note: our tip is to use text links wherever you can. When used in the right manner, the conversion ratios will be higher
than normal.

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6.2 Incentives
6.2.1 Voucher codes
Here you can find available voucher codes to refer to on your site. This is becoming increasingly popular.
You can create a product feed for voucher codes based on a specific category or a search query (or both).
With this function you are able to create a feed (RSS/CSV or XML) and use this dynamic list on your site.

In the Product Feeds chapter you can read more about the use of product feeds and how to create them.

6.2.2 Consumer offers

Consumer offers are offers that will run for a certain amount of time on the merchant’s site.
These are offers like SALE, FREE SHIPPING and other kind of promotions.

You can create a dynamic product feed for these offers as well.

6.3 Link Generator

You can use the link generator to create your own links to a specific page on the merchant’s website. Conversions are
generally higher when pointing your visitors to dedicated subpages. Make sure to use the same domain name as the
merchant’s website. If you try to generate a link from an URL to a different domain it will generate a link to the
merchant’s homepage automatically.

6.4 Rotators
You can create ad rotators based on your manually selected creatives or create dynamic rotators.

When you create a rotator you can choose to automatically display creatives from any category based on their
performance. You can choose between CTR, CLR, CSR, eCPM or EPC. When you choose to create a rotator that is
dynamically selected based on EPC the rotator will automatically sort the creatives based on the highest earnings per
click for the campaigns you are subscribed to and from the category specified here.

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If you place this rotator on your website after it is created, it will dynamically show the best performing advertisements
at any given moment. When you save this rotator it will look like this (in the system).

As you can see above you can create a rotator that will display your manually picked creatives. To place a creative in a

rotator, select one by searching for a banner and click the Add to rotator button followed by “Add”.

7 Product Feeds
Product feeds are an advanced way of promoting campaigns. You are able to generate a product feed for any
subscribed campaign (if available). You are able to combine multiple campaigns as well.

The merchant is able to provide you one or more product feeds. This could be a general or more specified feed such as
a feed containing all products or a feed containing only sale offers for instance.

You are able to use these feeds as you see fit. To start using a feed, select one using the icon in the action column. By
using the Prodcut feed URL generator you can choose the format in which you want to use the feed. You are able to
place an RSS feed (for example) on your website that displays products from the advertiser and is generated based on
your specific needs. See the image below.

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When you have set all options click Generate to generate your custom product list based on the products available.
This will result in a feed link which you can place on your site:

Note: If you are experiencing difficulties in importing feeds to your own database and/or web sites, you can opt to
use our Product Feed toolkit which you can download from your support section by clicking “Support” in the upper
right corner of the interface.

7.1 Product browser (your custom feeds creator)

Another great function that’s available in the Product Feeds section is the Product Browser. This feature enables you
to create your own custom product feeds based on your own specific query.

If you only want to display black shoes from within the Fashion and jewellery section. Then select the category, the
product feed (or all subscribed product feeds), a sub selection of the feed (shoes in this example) and a product name
or property (black). Click search and all items that match you search are displayed.

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You are than able to create a feed from this query by clicking . This will result in a
custom feed that is dynamically maintained and will display all (future) products that comply with this query.

By clicking the Generate feed of current selection function you will be presented with the Product feed URL generator,
just like it would when using standard product feeds.

8 PageTools & Web Services

Page tools and Web Services will be discussed in chapters PageTools and Web Services.

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9 Campaign Management
Campaign categories
Available campaigns
Stopped campaigns
Campaign news
Sending tickets to merchants

Quick selection list

9.1 Campaign categories

You probably will have a general idea about which kind of campaigns you will want to run on your site. By using the
campaign categories section you can browse through all available campaigns based on the category they are in.

If you are interested in running campaigns in the for example you can click the link to view all
available campaigns that are listed in this category.

If you are looking for a specific subject within a category you could also click on
the icon to expand that category.

You will be presented with a sub list of subjects to choose from.

Click on the link to view the available campaigns for the specific subject.

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9.2 Available campaigns
If you take a look at the available campaigns section you will be presented with an overview of all campaigns in all
categories. A nice feature available here is that you can make a selection based on the policies that apply.

To read more about the policies that apply we refer you to the Policies and how they affect you chapter.

Of course you are also able to search for a particular campaign by using the campaign search box.
Your search term will be auto completed.

9.3 Stopped campaigns

The stopped campaign section displays all campaigns that have run and that are stopped. This is for reference
purposes and to view your campaign history.

9.4 Campaign news

When a merchant makes changes to the conditions of their campaign they will announce the change by creating news
items. These news items are also displayed on the main dashboard for quick reference. In this section you are able to
read the news by selecting the campaigns that you have registered for (for example) and you can specify the type of
news you want to read.

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This way you can see which campaigns have changed, added promotional material etcetera. In addition, you can also
opt to enable email notifications for campaign news by changing your notification settings from your user account
details.

9.5 Sending tickets to merchants

You can contact a merchant directly to ask about specific subjects related to the campaign, such as Tracking, Feeds,
Commission or Promotional Materials. Click on to create a message.

Compose your message and send it.

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10 [Link] main dashboard overview
Quick selection list

This dashboard provides you with an overview of general statistics, latest published campaigns for your corresponding
country (or the selected one), if you have received any tickets and other useful information about your account.

In the right top corner you’ll find the following options:

10.1 Support
In the right top corner of the site you will find the available support documents available for your specific country by
clicking on the support link. Also displayed there is Feedback and Log out.

10.2 Feedback
If you have anything to report you can use this to give us feedback, report a problem, make a suggestion or a
compliment (we like those) but problem reports and suggestions are very valuable to us as well.

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 Note: for general (support) issues you are able to contact your local support organisation by sending an email to the
email address in the Contact pane on the support page [Link] .

10.3 Country selection

If you have registered your site in different TradeTracker countries you can select a country here. To register your site
in multiple countries we refer you to the chapter My Sites.

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10.4 Change the information on the main dashboard
It is possible to change the elements that you want to see on the dashboard to suit your needs by clicking on the
button and selecting the elements you want displayed.

10.5 Drag and drop panels

You can rearrange the panels on the dashboard by dragging and dropping the panels.

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11 Reports
Common options for report/overview lists
Date or period selection
Reporting output options
Opening a report/list in a full window
Output an XML file of a generated list or report (to use in MS Excel)
Output a CSV file of a generated list or report
Output a PDF file of a generated list or report
Customising a report
Campaigns
Promotion Material
References
My Sites
Transactions
Sales Transactions
Lead Transactions
Click Transactions

Quick selection list

There are a lot of different reporting options you can use to analyse your performance. Like at the General Overview
page it is possible to configure this dashboard to suit your needs. This view is fully customisable by using the
option on the right. You can decide which information you want to see here by selecting or deselecting the
following information panels and also drag and drop them to rearrange them:

 Campaign search
 Distribution earnings
 Top impressions & clicks
 Assessed transactions
 Financial overview
 General statistics
 Top leads & sales
 Report summary

By default it will look something like this. The

changes you make are saved automatically.

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11.1 Common options for report/overview lists
As you have seen by exploring our software there are some common options you can use when working with list
overviews. The available options are discussed here.

11.2 Date or period selection

You can select Today, Yesterday, This week, Last week, This month, Last month, Past 30 days, This year, Last year,
Until today or specify a period yourself and clicking .

Besides the ability to select a period for most of the reports there are different options you can choose from that are
relevant to the specific list or report you are viewing.

11.3 Reporting output options

It is possible to generate different kinds of output by using the output options on the right side of each list overview
screen and report.

11.4 Opening a report/list in a full window

Clicking this will open the list in a new window. This is very convenient when you are working with lists that have a
lot of columns you want to look at. The screenshot below gives you an impression of how this will look. We used the
available campaigns list for this example. This option is available for all list overviews and reports.

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11.5 Output an XML file of a generated list or report (to use in MS Excel)

When clicking this icon an XML formatted file of the selected list is generated. Our experience is that this is the
easiest option to use if you want to view or edit a list in Excel. You could use the comma separated value (*.csv) option,
but this requires some additional configuration (in most cases). When using the XML file and opening it in Excel no
extra configuration is required. If you open an XML file in Excel you will see the next dialog box:

Leave it like this and click OK. A somewhat obsolete dialog box is opened:

It would be a good idea to check the “In the future, do not show this message” box and click OK to be presented with a
nice looking Excel sheet including auto-filters so you can excel at what you want to do next with this reporting data.

11.6 Output a CSV file of a generated list or report

If you want to use a comma separated value file of the generated list you can use this.

11.7 Output a PDF file of a generated list or report

The PDF option will only be available when you want to export a report that contains less than 5000 entries.

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11.8 Customising a report

To create a custom report you can click on the icon left above the generated list to select which columns you want
to display in the selected report. This will open the Column picker window.

As you can see here you can choose to display the information that’s most valuable to you.
If you don’t use leads for example, turn it off in this window and click .

To save the new view of this report open up the “My reports” section and click on the save button to name and save
this report view.

You are now able to view this report in the future by selecting it from the list.

Use the icon to delete a custom report as you see fit.

This option is available for all the reports available.

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11.9 Campaigns
This report is a breakdown of the performance per campaign that you are running. By default you can see the number
of impressions, unique clicks, leads, click trough ratio (CTR), click lead ratio (CLR), click sale ratio (CSR), total
commission and the amount of revenue generated.

11.10 Promotion Material

An extensive promotional material report is available to provide you with information about the performance of your
published promotional material. In the left top corner, below the grouping option you can select specific types of
material to display (image banners, HTML advertorials etc.)

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Remember that you can always click on the output icon to open a report in a separate window and see all available
columns.

If you place your mouse on top of the banner name our system will display the preview image of that specific banner.

Using this report you can analyse the performance of your used promotional material to see what kind of creative
works best.

11.11 References
In case you attached references to your tracking links or creative, they will appear in this reference overview report. A
search filter will enable you to perform a search query.

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11.12 My Sites
This report enables you to view the performance per registered site and is created to see all the information about your
sites separately. You can choose to group your campaigns per day, week, year and totals.

Remember that you can always click on the output icon to open a report in a separate window and see all available
columns and that you can create a custom report by clicking the icon.

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11.13 Transactions
The transaction reports list all transactions that originated from your site. The most important one is the sales
transaction list.

11.13.1 Sales Transactions

In the sales transaction report all sale transactions that originated from your site are listed. You can also check the
status of all transactions made. A transaction can be under evaluation, accepted or rejected.

After a transaction has been made that originated from your website, the advertiser has to approve or reject the
transaction based on the actual payment by the customer. In the campaign details you can see within which
timeframe the merchant is intended to approve or reject a transaction. In most cases they will do so within 30 days,
unless stated otherwise in the campaign detail information.

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11.13.2 Lead Transactions
This an overview of all lead transactions originated from your site.

The merchant has to approve or reject leads as well. After a lead is generated the merchant will check upon the lead to
see for example if fake information was provided. If this is the case they have the right to reject the lead.

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11.13.3 Click Transactions
This is an overview of clicks your visitors generated. Note that the maximum look back period for this overview is 30
days. To see detailed click statistics, use the Reporting section instead.

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12 Account
General
Users
Financial
Account balance
Invoice overview and specification
Payout Settings
My Sites

Quick selection list

It is very important for you to make sure that all account information is up to date and correct.

Note: when you have chosen the “Business” account type, we automatically will try to verify your VAT details using
the official VIES database. In case your VAT number turns out to be incorrect (for example in case you have used
address details within TradeTracker which differ from the details known to VIES), you will be informed. No
payments will be done until the VAT details have been confirmed by the VIES service.

12.1 General

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12.2 Users
It is possible to give other people access to your affiliate account and give them specified user rights.
To add a user, use the option on the right side of the screen. After filling in the requested user information
you will be presented with the user permissions pane for the created user.

12.3 Financial
12.3.1 Account balance
Here you will be presented with an overview of your
account balance in one view you can see all outstanding
and coming payments per type and the amount that’s
under evaluation. This is displayed for each campaign
you are running.

In sporadic cases it might occur that the merchant is

unable to pay TradeTracker your outstanding
commission(s). If this is the case, a small “Uncollectible”
pane will appear on the right hand side. With this pane
you are able to see exactly which transactions have been
marked as uncollectible by TradeTracker.

12.4 Invoice overview and specification

In the invoice overview pane you will see all invoices for your account. You can
generate a PDF from the action column to add this invoice to your administration. It is
also possible to generate an invoice specification. You will find all listed transaction for
the corresponding invoice by clicking the view specifications icon .

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12.5 Payout Settings
The payout settings pane displays the payout information for your account. Please make sure all of your bank account
settings are up-to-date. Without the correct information we are not able to perform payments to your account.

You can set the payout frequency for your account as well as other information related to your payments by clicking
“Edit”.

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12.6 My Sites
This is an overview of the sites that are connected to the local TradeTracker network.

You can easily register your site in multiple countries by clicking the button and provide the requested
information.

In the above example you want to register your French site within the TradeTracker France network. After submitting,
your site will then be assessed by TradeTracker France.

It is also important to enter a clear description of your site here. The goal is to provide the merchants with a detailed as
possible description of your site. They will use this to accept or reject your subscription to their campaign.

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13 PageTools
Quick selection list

TradeTracker offers various PageTools in addition to the regular promotion material, rotators and product feeds. In
order to use any of these tools, you will need to do a one-time implementation which consists of placing a single
tracking code on the pages that you want to use these tools on. If your site has a centralised footer, this is the
preferred place to put the code on. After this tracking code has been placed, you will be able to activate a feature from
this page either by clicking on its icon, or by clicking the link at the bottom of its description.

Note that even though you have chosen certain configuration options for a feature here, you are still able to override
these on a per-page-basis by changing parameters in the tracking code.

13.1 Link replacer

The TradeTracker Link replacer can be used to automatically convert all regular links to advertisers on your site into
affiliate links for the campaigns you have been accepted for. Using the Link replacer has a couple of advantages
compared to manual conversion using the link generator:

 Automatic conversion takes far less time;

 Converted links are less prone to errors;
 If a campaign stops, all outstanding links from that campaign will automatically be restored to their
regular/original form.

13.2 CleanLinking
Next to the regular linking methods which involve tracking codes being visible in tracking links, TradeTracker offers an
additional unique tracking method called CleanLinking.

The biggest advantage of using CleanLinking is that the links to advertiser campaigns are not directly visible as being
affiliate links, making the links more attractive and trustworthy to your site's visitors. Also, it allows you to link to
advertiser campaigns without using the link generator, as the plain link simply works. Note that you may even receive a
bonus percentage on transactions generated via clean links!

Note: CleanLinking is not enabled for every campaign by default, which means you cannot use this feature
unconditionally. Once CleanLinking is an option for a specific campaign, you will either be contacted by these
merchants and/or will be placed in a specific CleanLinking segment which will enable you to use this feature.
Normally, higher commissions apply when you are eligible for CleanLinking.

13.3 EU cookie directive compliance

European policy makers have long been concerned with the unregulated application of behavioural tracking
technology and the potential for harm to the online individual. In attempting to ensure that there is an appropriate
balance between regulatory and self-regulatory controls, new European (and country specific) legislation has been
passed. This new law has become known as the "Cookie Law" and has seriously challenged some of the business
models prevalent in the online world. The "Cookie Law" is infamous for introducing the legal requirement for website
owners to obtain the consent of users prior to "dropping or reading cookies" on their devices.

This EU cookie directive compliance tool makes your affiliate site compliant with the EU Cookie Directive in an instant.
Once installed it will inform your visitors and optionally explicitly ask them for consent to enable your site to create
cookies (which is required in some countries).

In addition this tool allows you set various parameters in order to integrate better with your site.

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14 Web Services
Quick selection list

TradeTracker web services allow you to access a large number of functions that are available in the affiliate software
by providing programmatic access to the data generated by the TradeTracker platform:

 Retrieve account information

 Retrieve campaign information
 Retrieve transaction information
 Generate advanced reports
 Retrieve product feed data
 Retrieve payment information
 Retrieve promotion material

You could use web services to connect your own system to the
TradeTracker platform. It is also possible to generate dynamic advertorials,
shopping overviews and product overviews. To start using the Web
Services, you will need to click the “request access” link first to retrieve your
authentication credentials.

WSDL location: [Link]

14.1 How it works

Our web services are based on the SOAP protocol, which is a specification for exchanging structured information in
the implementation of Web Services. You will need a so-called "SOAP-client" to access the information. To make things
easier for you, we have prepared a couple of example scripts in various programming languages to get you started.

From the Web Service section, all of the available methods are listed which you can use to retrieve data or do
manipulations. You will also see a list of properties used by these methods. Click on any of these to get more detailed
information. For a lot of methods there are code examples available to get you started.

14.2 Support
While TradeTracker provides support for getting access, educating clients on the Web Services offered, and providing
fixes for bugs, we cannot provide programming support. You will need to rely on online programming communities for
support. There are numerous online resources and books that can provide support in developing software utilising web
services.

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14.3 Available methods
 authenticate
 getAffiliateSites
 getAffiliateSiteTypes
 getAffiliateSiteCategories
 getCampaigns
 getCampaignCategories
 getCampaignCommissionExtended
 changeCampaignSubscription
 getCampaignNewsItems
 getMaterialBannerDimensions
 getMaterialBannerImageItems
 getMaterialBannerFlashItems
 getMaterialTextItems
 getMaterialHTMLItems
 getMaterialIncentiveVoucherItems
 getMaterialIncentiveOfferItems
 getClickTransactions
 getConversionTransactions
 createConversionTransaction
 getReportAffiliateSite
 getReportCampaign
 getReportReference
 getFeeds
 getFeedProductCategories
 getFeedProducts
 getPayments

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15 General terms glossary

Advertiser Also called merchant, Retailer, E retailer, or Online Retailer. Any website that sells
a product or service, accepts payments, and fulfils orders. An advertiser places
ads and links to their products and services on other websites (publishers) and
pays those publishers a commission for leads or sales that result from their site.

Above the Fold Describes the part of an email message or web page that is visible without
scrolling down the page. This term is important because all content above the fold
is assumed to be more valuable to the reader as they see it first. The size of the
"above the fold" area will depend on the resolution of the user’s computer monitor
and the number of pixels their monitor displays.

Affiliate A Web site owner that earns a commission or finders-fee for referring clicks, leads,
or sales to a merchant.

Affiliate Agreement Terms between a merchant and an affiliate that govern the relationship. This
includes the terms on which the affiliate will be rewarded for the traffic sent to the
merchant's web site.

Affiliate Program Can also be called an Associate Program, Partner, Referral or Revenue sharing
program. In such a program the merchant rewards the affiliate for web traffic,
sales or leads on a pay-per-click, pay-per-sale, or pay-per-lead basis.

Associate Synonym for affiliate.

Auto-Approve Affiliate application process whereby all application are immediately

accepted/approved upon submittal by the affiliate. This term can also be used to
describe the process of automatically accepting all sales recorded by affiliates.

Banner An electronic advertisement or billboard such as an animated GIF, Flash Movie,

JPEG that advertises a product, service, or web site.

Browser A client program (software), such as Internet Explorer, Netscape, or Opera, that is
used to look at various kinds of Internet resources.

Charge Back An invalid sale that results in the affiliate's commission being forfeited.

Click fraud Click fraud means that clicks are artificially generated. This can be done in
multiple ways. The combination of TradeTracker software with and an aware
account manager can help to find click fraud at its early stage. If fraud is noticed
the affiliate’s account will be blocked. Outstanding invoices will not be paid to this
affiliate and earlier done payments will be credited in retrospect and a possible
administration fee. Click fraud can be noticed by many clicks in a relatively small
time span.

Click through Also called click. Refers to the action a visitor takes when they are referred from
one website through a link or advertisement and are taken to another website.

Co-branding Situation where affiliates are able include their own logo and branding on the
pages to which they send visitors through affiliate links.

Commission An amount of income received by a publisher for some quantifiable action such as
selling an advertiser’s product and/or service on the publisher’s website.
Conversion Rate Percentage of clicks that result in a commissionable activity (sale or lead).

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Cookie A small file stored on the visitor’s computer that records information that is of
interest to the advertiser site. Some programs use their own cookies, like Flash
(Flash cookies).

Cookie Expiration/ When a cookie is planted on a web browser, an expiration date for this cookie is
Cookie Retention defined. This date is important because affiliate sales can only be recorded before
the cookie expiration date. This period will also determine if repeat sales will be
recorded.

CPA (Cost Per Action) The amount of cost for a conversion such as a sale or lead, like CPS and CPL.

CPC (Cost Per Click) A metric for online advertising where a rate is set for every action that is taken by
a visitor, e.g.: an individual click when paying on a per click basis.

CPM (Cost Per Mille) A metric for online advertising where a rate is set for every thousand impressions:
the cost of 1000 banner impressions.

CPO (Cost Per Order) Same as CPA but refers specifically to sales.

CTR (Click-Through Ratio) Click Through Rate or Ratio; The percentage of clicks for the number of
advertising impressions displayed or a click on a link to visit the merchant's web
site.

Customer Bounty Pays the affiliate partner for every new customer that they direct to a merchant.

eCPM Effective Cost Per Impression; Earnings per 1000 impressions

E-mail Link An affiliate link to a merchant site in an e-mail newsletter, signature, or a dedicated
e-mail blast.

EPC Earnings Per Click. A rating that illustrates the ability to convert clicks into
commissions. It is calculated by taking commissions earned (or commissions paid)
divided by the total number of clicks.

HTML code Refers to the lines of code that an affiliate places on their web page(s) for linking
to the merchant's site. This HTML code contains the unique identifier that
identifies the traffic as coming from the Affiliate's web site.

Impression The viewing of an advertising banner, link, or product on the Internet.

In-house Alternative to using an affiliate solution provider; building and managing your own
affiliate program software.

Lead When a visitor registers, signs up for, or downloads something on an advertiser’s

site. A lead might also comprise a visitor filling out a form on an advertiser’s site.

Link A link is a form of advertising on a website, in an email or online newsletter, which,

when clicked on, refers the visitor to an advertiser’s website or a specific area
within their website.

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Manual Approval Refers to the process of validating an affiliate application and then approving them
after validation. This can also refer to the process of approving sales after they
have been validated.

Merchant The person selling the goods or service is referred to as the merchant. The
merchant pays affiliates for sending traffic to the merchant's web site after a
product or service is purchased.

Pay for Performance Program Also called Affiliate Marketing, Performance based, Partner Marketing, CPA, or
Associate Program; any type of revenue sharing program where a publisher
receives a commission for generating online activity (e.g. leads or sales) for an
advertiser.

Pay per lead The commission structure where the advertiser pays the publisher a flat fee for
each qualified lead (customer) that is referred to the advertiser’s website.

Pay per sale The commission structure where the advertiser pays a percentage or flat fee to the
publisher based on the revenue generated by the sale of a product or service to a
visitor who came from a publisher site.

Pay per click Rewards an affiliate for each unique click to the merchant's web site. This type of
affiliate program is uncommon because of click fraud or fake clicks.

Performance-Based Marketing in which the merchant only pays commissions for results such as
Marketing conversions to sales or leads.

Post Impression The possibility to earn a sales commission based on an impression instead of a click.

Publisher Also referred to as an Affiliate, Associate, Partner, Reseller or Content Site; an

independent party, or website, that promotes the products or services of an
advertiser in exchange for a commission.

Real time No delay in the processing of requests for information, other than the time
necessary for the data to travel over the Internet.

Recurring Commissions The process of rewarding an affiliate on a recurring basis whenever the merchant
charges a customer a recurring fee. For example, a web host that charges
customers on a monthly basis might reward the affiliate a percentage of each
month's payment from the customer.

Residual Earnings Programs that pay affiliates not just for the first sale a shopper form their sites
makes, but all additional sales made at the merchant's site over the life of the
customer.

ROAS Return on Advertising Spending: This is the amount of revenue generated for
every dollar spent on advertising. For instance, a ROAS of $1 means you're
generating $1 in sales for every $1 in advertising spend, and a ROAS of $5 means
you generate $5 in sales for every $1 in spending.

ROI Return on Investment: This is what all marketing managers want to see from the
money they spend on their marketing and advertising campaigns. The higher the
sales, the large the number of shoppers and the greater the profit margin
generated by sales – the better the ROI.

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Sale When a user makes a purchase from an online advertiser.

Spider / Bot Detection The process of detecting and ignoring automated spiders or bots such as search
engines like Google/Googlebot.

Top Affiliates The highest performing affiliates. Typically less than 1% of affiliates are super
affiliates yet that 1% typically will bring more than 90% of the sales.

Targeted Marketing Offering the right offer to the right customer at the right time.

Text Link These links are unique in order to track the traffic coming from the Affiliate
site. Typically these links can be simple text links, images, product links, etc.

Tracking Code Refers to the hidden 1X1 pixel tracking code that is placed on the confirmation
page of your store for tracking sales conversions.

Tracking Method The way that a program tracks referred sales, leads or clicks. The most common
are by using a cookie, a unique web address (URL) for each affiliate or by
embedding an affiliate ID number into the link that is processed by the merchant's
software.

2nd Tier Affiliate marketing model that enables affiliates to sign up additional affiliates
below themselves, so that when the 2nd Tier affiliates earn a commission, the
affiliate who referred them also receives a commission. Two-tier affiliate marketing
is also known as MLM (Multilevel Marketing).

Unique Click The process of only counting unique clicks from each web visitor. Unique clicks
are typically tracked by recording the IP address and browser header.

Viral Marketing The rapid adoption of a product or passing on of an offer to friends and family
through word-of-mouth (or word-of-email) networks. Any advertising that
propagates itself the way viruses do.

Web based Requiring no software to access an online service or function, other than a Web
browser and access to the Internet.

Web portal A website or service that offers a broad array of resources and services, such as
email, forums, search engines, and online shopping malls.

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