Ok, so I've tried PPC affiliate marketing for a little over a month just to get my feet wet. Had some moderate success (~6-7K rev, slightly profitable).
Anyway, my question is regarding the affiliate provided landing pages. In general, I do not want to direct-link or just PHP-redirect because the ads will get banned/slapped fast. For my offer, I created my own custom LPs (and site) and my affiliate network was able to provide a link direct to the offer page and skip their LP. This worked out nicely.
Unfortunately, for many other offers, this option does not exist (or at least not initially it appears). I've looked at other niches and ads and have seen a few things to bypass the affiliate networks default LP:
1. Tiny 1x1 iframe that loads the affiilate network cookie then direct link to the final offer page from links on the custom landing page. This works if the direct link is static. However, for some offers, the link could have some dynamic content and this would not work. Also, the iframe is probably not liked by G and will affect load time.
2. The custom landing page just links to the affiliate's default landing page in a "presell" type mode. I think this works for some offers but I suspect it kills your conversion rate. Maybe this is what most people do, I don't know.
3. The custom landing page goes to an intermediate server which I suspect: A) Loads your affiliate LP on the side to register the click and cookie. B) Log some tracking info to a db. C) Pass you on to the final offer page based on A.
I also played around with some affiliate link cloaking programs but again, they do not handle the case where a final offer link has dynamic URL content.
Any suggestions? Thanks.
Anyway, my question is regarding the affiliate provided landing pages. In general, I do not want to direct-link or just PHP-redirect because the ads will get banned/slapped fast. For my offer, I created my own custom LPs (and site) and my affiliate network was able to provide a link direct to the offer page and skip their LP. This worked out nicely.
Unfortunately, for many other offers, this option does not exist (or at least not initially it appears). I've looked at other niches and ads and have seen a few things to bypass the affiliate networks default LP:
1. Tiny 1x1 iframe that loads the affiilate network cookie then direct link to the final offer page from links on the custom landing page. This works if the direct link is static. However, for some offers, the link could have some dynamic content and this would not work. Also, the iframe is probably not liked by G and will affect load time.
2. The custom landing page just links to the affiliate's default landing page in a "presell" type mode. I think this works for some offers but I suspect it kills your conversion rate. Maybe this is what most people do, I don't know.
3. The custom landing page goes to an intermediate server which I suspect: A) Loads your affiliate LP on the side to register the click and cookie. B) Log some tracking info to a db. C) Pass you on to the final offer page based on A.
I also played around with some affiliate link cloaking programs but again, they do not handle the case where a final offer link has dynamic URL content.
Any suggestions? Thanks.