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To download the full Version 5 Manual, please go to http://manual.volusion.com

At the core of the Volusion Reports system is the ROI Tracking page. Used for tracking merchant's affiliate and campaign information, this page provides an easy method for viewing information on sales driven to online stores via advertising campaigns, affiliates and more. Using, this page, Volusion-based merchants can quickly and easily view the return on their investments in regards to affiliates and advertising strategies.

Getting Started:

To view the ROI Tracking page, log into the Volusion Administration Page, click on the Reports tab and click on the ROI Tracking link in the black menu bar.

The ROI Tracking page is divided into 2 main areas - the Report Generator and the ROI Tracker. table Using these portions of the page, merchants can view and create reports based on any tracking URL their store has generated (for affiliates, newsletters, 3rd party campaigns or more).

Information presented in this page closely ties to the Affiliates and Newsletters portions of the Volusion system, under the Marketing tab in the Volusion Admin Page. Before proceeding with this chapter, it is recommended to review the information in both the Volusion V5 Manual chapters on Newsletters and Affiliates.

Part I - Understanding ROI Tracking Data:

The primary portion of the ROI Tracking page consists of the ROI Tracker table. This table will list data from every affiliate or campaign registered with a tracking URL within the Volusion store.

This table will provide valuable information such as the number of click-throughs, sales and conversion rates for each affiliate or promotional program registered with the store.

The information contained within the ROI Tracker table is as follows:

Note:

This table is divided into two areas - the top area will contain any affiliates or campaigns that have generated click-throughs or sales.

The lower-half of the table, labeled, "New / Inactive Campaigns", will list any affiliate or campaign registered with a tracking URL that has not generated any sales or click-throughs.

Furthermore, clicking the X icon at the end of each row of information will deactivate and remove the related tracking URL entry from the system - preventing the system from tracking any sale or click-through data for that URL. Only utilize this option if officially deactivating a campaign. Doing so will also remove any stored data on tracking URL from the system.

Part II - Generating ROI Reports:

Sifting through the ROI Tracker table, especially for merchants with hundreds of campaigns and affiliates, can be very time consuming. In these cases, merchants may want to simply know what a single, particular affiliate has done in terms of click-throughs or wishes to see what tracking URLs have generated orders during last month. Fortunately, the ROI Tracking page's Report Generator is here to help.

The Report Generator allows merchants to tailor the content of the ROI Tracker table based on certain criteria that users can select from:

Date Range:

This drop-down menu will allow selection of a specific, month, year or series of days to base an ROI Tracker report on.

From / To:

These text fields allow merchants to define a specific date or range of dates to base an ROI Tracker report on.

Exclude:

Checking this option will exclude all orders generated within Volusion that have a zero grand total within the ROI Tracker report.

Include:

These series of options, when checked, allow regular affiliates, advertising campaign-related affiliates or newsletter-related affiliates to be included within the ROI Tracker reports. Users can choose to include any combination of these three options for their ROI Tracker report.

Group By:

This drop-down menu can be used to group ROI Tracker report results based on either the selected date range, the month or year being reported on.

Affiliate ID:

Finally, to create an ROI Tracker report based on a single campaign or affiliate can enter the affiliate ID in this field to report only on that particular entry. Once settings for a report are configured, click the Generate Report button. Report results will show within the ROI Tracking table once the page reloads.

Part III - Creating New, Custom Campaigns:

Aside from newsletters, registered affiliates or campaigns such as Google's AdWords, Volusion merchants can create their own, custom campaign or affiliate tracking links if needed.

New campaigns can be created using the gray field located below the ROI Tracker table.

• In the first text box, define a group for the custom tracking URL to belong to. Assigning a group to a custom tracking URL is optional.
• In the next text box, assign a name to the tracking URL.
• In the Days to Track field, enter a number for the days the Volusion system will track the URL for. By default, this is set to 7.
• Click the Add button to generate the custom tracking URL

Once generated, the custom tracking URL will display within the "New / Inactive Campaigns" area of the ROI Tracker table. The custom tracking URL will be assigned an affiliate record, custom record, its own unique URL and is ready to be tracked by the system.

Tips and Special Settings:

The Other Affiliate Campaign:

One of the first items merchants may encounter or have questions about within the Volusion ROI Tracking page is the campaign type listed as Other. The Other campaign is actually a place holder for any and all sales or click-throughs generated within the Volusion store that do not have a specific tracking URL assigned to it. This is essentially a list of all non-affiliate related click-throughs or sales. Ignore this entry in the ROI Tracking page when determining the overall effectiveness of campaigns or affiliates.

ROI Tracker Direct Link Examples:

Located toward the bottom of the ROI Tracking page is a table containing examples of various tracking links that can be created for use with Volusion. The default tracking URL that Volusion generates is based on the base URL for the Volusion store. Tracking URLs however can be created based on other URLs relative to the Volusion store - such as URLs for a product, category or article.

These URLs simply need a valid affiliate record ID appended to the URL from the Volusion store. Clicking on this link will redirect visitors to the exact URL page while tracking that activity using the valid affiliate ID appended to the URL.

Example:

A merchant has an affiliate registered with their Volusion store, www.superwidgets.com. This affiliate has a blog, where they will promote a particular product they sell. As such, the merchant wishes to give out a tracking URL to the affiliate but instead of the standard URL which links to the Volusion storefront, the merchant wishes to use the actual URL to the specific product the affiliate will be promoting.

Provided that the affiliate has an active affiliate account and ID registered within the Volusion store, the merchant can create a URL for the product page and link the affiliate's ID to it.

In this example, the affiliate's ID is 101 and the product code for the product in question is ‘ABC-Widget'. If this is the case, the tracking URL to the product, for the affiliate will be as follows:

http://www.superwidgets.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=ABC-Widget&Click=101

The affiliate can post this link to their blog. When visitors click on this link, they will be redirected to the actual product within the Volusion store. This click-through activity as well as any purchases related to this product will then be recorded for the affiliate.

Note:

In regards to tracking URLs, some merchants may wish to use their SEO-friendly URLs as a basis for creating the URL. This unfortunately cannot be done as the affiliate ID being tracked can only be passed to the Volusion system based on the original, dynamic URL.

Summary:

With the ROI Tracking page, Volusion-based merchants have the ability to report on affiliate, campaign or newsletter promotions that use special URLs to track click-throughs, purchases and conversion rates for different marketing endeavors. It is important to have an understanding of how the Volusion Affiliate system works before utilizing this portion of Volusion's Reports functions. Please review the Volusion V5 Manual chapters on Affiliates and Newsletters for more information.