Launching an affiliate marketing program is a relatively straightforward process. All you really need to do is complete the approval process, select the products and merchants you want to promote, create some commerce-focused content, and build your affiliate links.
But keeping your affiliate program optimized is another story altogether.
Over time, you’ll likely create a lot of affiliate links—and tracking performance on hundreds or even thousands of links across a variety of channels is no small task. Unless you have the right data, it’s hard to accurately assess whether your clicks are earning as much as they could.
Fortunately, Sovrn has the tools you need to understand affiliate performance at a granular level—and we make it easy to tweak your program to optimize earnings.
All about non-monetized clicks
The Sovrn Commerce platform automatically optimizes each affiliate click to ensure the highest possible payout. That said, there are times when a click can go unmonetized—meaning that a user clicks your link, but you don’t earn any revenue.
There are several reasons a click might fail to monetize, but the most common issues are:
- Click origin: This is related to your reader’s physical location. An example would be when a reader from Germany clicks your link, but the merchant only pays for US-based traffic.
- Device type: This is related to the device used to click the link (e.g., desktop, tablet, mobile, etc.). This can create a problem when, for example, a reader clicks your link from an iPhone, but the merchant only pays for desktop traffic.
As you can see, most non-monetized clicks are caused by restrictions that merchants put in place, because they place a higher value on specific types of traffic. Non-monetized clicks will also happen if your site is not yet approved for Commerce or you aren’t approved for a specific merchant, but this is less common. Clicks from ineligible traffic (like bots) can also fail to monetize.
Having the ability to identify non-monetized clicks and understand their root cause will help you take the right action to optimize your earnings. And that’s where our non-monetized clicks report comes in.
Introducing the non-monetized click report
The Commerce platform includes robust reporting capabilities that provide publishers with detailed, click-level insights on link performance. One important report, the non-monetized click report, includes data on:
- The number of clicks that went unmonetized
- Which merchant received each click
- Which geolocation originated each click
- Which device type generated each click
To generate your own non-monetized click report, just visit the Analytics page (also called the Publisher Dashboard) in the Commerce platform and click on the “Reporting” button. Select the site(s) and desired timeframe for your report, then choose the non-monetized click report from the list and click “Send.” Within minutes, your report will be delivered directly to the email address on your account. For more information and detailed instructions, check out this article.
How to reduce non-monetized clicks
Armed with this information, you may discover that some of your merchants aren’t paying for significant segments of your click traffic. At that point, it’s in your best interest to re-evaluate your merchant mix to find options that more closely align with your audience.
Sovrn works with more than 65,000 affiliate merchants who offer a wide range of commission rates, payment methods, and other affiliate terms. By exploring these details in the Approved Merchants section of the Commerce platform, you may find that different merchants will pay more for the types of traffic your site generates — thus reducing the number of non-monetized clicks from certain locations or device types.
Maximizing your earnings with Sovrn
The Sovrn Commerce platform is the fastest, most flexible way to earn through ecommerce and affiliate marketing. The non-monetized link report is just one of many ways Sovrn can help you optimize your affiliate marketing strategy and increase affiliate revenue.
If you’re a current Sovrn Commerce affiliate partner, feel free to reach out with questions. Our support team is standing by to help you reach your audience and meet your revenue goals.
If you’re not already earning with Sovrn Commerce, sign up now! Once you complete the approval process, you can start earning right away.
