TradeDoubler Market like you mean it
TradeDoubler Market Like you mean it - Help Centre
HELP CENTRE >> FAQ >> Tracking

All Tracking Related Queries


How does TradeDoubler track clicks, leads and sales?

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TradeDoubler uses cookies to track advertiser sales and leads. Cookie Tracking is the most popular method to track customers "from click through to order". When a user clicks on your affiliate link a small text file is written, a "cookie", to the user's browser. This cookie holds your affiliate ID, which can be identified at the advertisers order page to credit for referred sales. The cookie that records your affiliate ID can "live" for as long as the advertiser desires, allowing you to get credit for customers who clicked on a link weeks, or months, before finally purchasing or making a repeat purchase.

What about customers who have their cookies turned off?

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The vast, vast majority of all Internet users have cookies enabled in their browsers (a tiny percentage may have their cookies disabled or blocked due to software they may be running). Cookie technology is a reality that will remain a part of consumer tracking for individual Internet businesses. In the highly unlikely situation that a customer has cookies disabled, the customer is out of the range of publisher tracking and sales that occur cannot be tracked. However, more and more of TradeDoubler's advertisers are now set up to track even if cookies are blocked.

Does TradeDoubler access unique information on customers or site visitors?

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No, TradeDoubler is a leader in performance-based online marketing solutions and does not use its technology as an analysis tool for profiling online customer use. For more information, see our privacy policy.

Does your tracking allow me to reward my users?

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Yes, TradeDoubler's Enhanced publisher integration enables you to add an extra parameter to your tracker links. You may want to do this if you have a site that rewards your users for sales they make or to more closely measure the performance of your links. This is another free tool, however you must request this. Please send a request through the support contact form for EPI reporting.

See also: Is it possible to view sales made by specific users?

Does your tracking allow me to identify which creatives / banners earned commission?

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Yes, each graphical element has a unique ID. You can run the Graphical element report in your TradeDoubler account and check which creatives are performing better. This will help optimize your site and performance with TradeDoubler.

A sale/lead has not tracked, I cannot see any commission?

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If you have made a sale or know someone that has made a sale via your TradeDoubler affiliate link and this has not appeared in your TradeDoubler account then please answer the following:
  1. Does the advertiser batch their sales? Please refer to the program information page of that advertiser. Most gambling clients batch their sales, and it can take up to 2 weeks before this transaction will appear in your reports.
  2. Were "cookies" blocked in the browser used to make the purchase? If cookies are blocked then the sale/lead cannot be tracked. Typically 3rd party applications such as Norton's Internet Security, Zone Alarm, PAL Evidence Eliminator, BT Yahoo Browser or other firewall/privacy protection software cause this. Please contact your software vendor or consult the manual to setup the correct permissions for the TradeDoubler cookie.
  3. Has the sale been removed? Check your event breakdown report for all removed transactions.
  4. Many advertisers do not pay on recurring events, so if a user has made a second purchase you will only receive commission on their first sale. Please check the advertiser's 'Apply page' for recurring events.
  5. Sales and leads can take up to 1 hour to appear in your account. Please wait at least 2 hours before contacting support.
If you have checked all of the above and you know for a fact a purchase was made via your link, and it has not tracked please fill in this spreadsheet: Transaction Query Form and send an email to support.uk@tradedoubler with a full explanation. We will then look into this and get back to you shortly. The process of investigating untracked sales may take a while and we thank you in advance for your patience.

A user has made a second sale and it has not tracked, why?

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Many advertisers do not pay on recurring events, so if a user has made a second purchase you will only receive commission on their first sale. Please check the advertiser's 'Apply page' for recurring events.

I have tested the banners/link but clicks and UVs are not being recorded correctly?

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Reporting of UVs and clicks can take up to one hour to update in publisher reports.
  1. Have you entered your site URL correctly in SETTINGS >> Site information". The site URL MUST match the URL where the click is generated from including http://www
  2. The banners/links can only be placed on the registered URL in the system. Clicks will not record otherwise.
  3. Keyword Buyers: If you are using Google Adwords, Overture or other keyword buying sites then you need to activate your account for Keyword Reporting, otherwise you will receive traffic errors. Please contact support, via the Support Contact form and request the site IDs you wish to have enabled for TradeDoublers keyword tracking tool.
  4. Are you or your users clicking from an IP address not assigned to the UK? If you are clicking on UK advertiser program banners/links and are not based in the UK UVs may not record.
TradeDoubler only record Unique Visitors (UVs) for most programs, so if you are clicking on the banner too often not all clicks will show.

Please check if the program is on pre payment, you can see this information on each programs 'apply page'. If the program is on prepayment there may be a possibility that the programs stats have paused. Please note all events, such as clicks, sales, leads etc will still track. Please contact TradeDoubler Support and we will be able to check this for you.

I have many traffic errors, how can I fix this?

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Traffic errors generate for the following reasons:
You have not placed the banner/link on your registered sites URL.
  • If you have multiple sites, please ensure that the advertisers tracking code corresponds to your site that has created the relationship. You need to be accepted or under consideration with the correct Site ID (a=xxxxxxx).
  • Your visitors may be blocking cookies or are using an old browser, IE3 and under.
  • Search Engine spiders/robots will generate traffic errors when they crawl your site.
  • If you are sending out emails with TradeDoubler tracking code in it and you have not been approved for Email Marketing in the system sales, leads and UVs will not track. Please apply for email marketing.
  • Keyword Buyers: If you are using Google Adwords, Overture or other keyword buying sites then you need to activate your account for Keyword Reporting, otherwise you will receive traffic errors. Please contact support, via the Support Contact form and request the site IDs you wish to have enabled for TradeDoublers keyword tracking tool.
Please note that sales and leads always track, regardless of whether a referrer/traffic error generated.

Why have my stats not updated for a while?

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On some occasions you may notice that your stats have not updated. We assure that whilst your stats have not updated, sales, leads and clicks will always track. You will not lose commission during this period. Reporting delays may occur on these occasions:
  • Invoicing - end of each month.
    During this period you can expect delays running in to several hours. The reason for the delay is due to the database locking and allowing TradeDoubler to create an "instance" of our clients invoice. During this time transactions from our tracking servers can not be committed to the database.
  • Payment - middle of each month.
    During this period you can expect delays running in to several hours. The reason for the delay is the processing power required by the database to create publisher payments, again, during his period we can not commit transactions to the database.
  • Unscheduled delays
    During the periods when TradeDoubler have unplanned delays (perhaps due to server reboots), this will be announced on the publisher site where the delays are expected to be more than 1-2 hours.
  • Normal service
    During periods of normal service sales and lead transactions can take up to 40 minutes as long as the advertiser reports transactions back to TradeDoubler in real time. To check if a specific advertiser batches transactions, visit the advertiser's program page in TradeDoubler and look under "technical information".

How can I turn off cookie blocking on my computer?

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Antivirus/Firewall Software

Please refer to the relevant contact details of your antivirus or firewall softare to enable cookie blocking for the TradeDoubler tracking cookie:

- Kapersky
Support page: http://support.kaspersky.com/
Helpdesk: http://www.kaspersky.com/helpdesk
Technical Support e-mail:  support@kasperskylab.co.uk

- McAfee
Support page: http://www.mcafeehelp.com

- Norton (Symantec)
Support page: http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/index.html
Live chat: http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/home_homeoffice/products/nav/nav_2007/chat_form.html

- Avast
FAQs: http://www.avast.com/eng/faq-avast-4-home-professional.html
Forum: http://forum.avast.com/
Technical Support e-mail: support@avast.com

- Panda
Support page: http://www.pandasoftware.com/com/Support/
Technical Support e-mail: techsupport@pandasoftware.co.uk

- Zone Alarm Pro
Support page: http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/support/techSupport.jsp
Customer Service page: http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/support/custService.jsp

- Trend Micro
Support page: http://esupport.trendmicro.com/support/supportcentral/
Support case entry: https://esupport.trendmicro.com/support/consumer/submitonline.do