Track Direct digital download conversions

J

jerdei

New member
Nov 5, 2009
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Sta Paul MN
marketingplaybook.co
One issue I seem to be having and know I am not a lone is tracking direct digital product downloads and what keywords created those sales

If you direct link to a merchant software download link on your sales page I can't seem to find a good way to track the sale.

If you use Tracking 202 Pro for instance they will want you to link to a meta re-fresh page and then the download will start. The problem with this is it will cause the individual to be shown a blank page with nothing on it and then the download will start. I have found around a 20% drop in conversions because many people abandon the download because they are shown a blank page.

Any good ideas out there for tracking sales and what keywords triggered those sales of directly downloaded products?

The tracking 202 Pro method works but it can't be the best way to go about doing it.
 


How about a PHP script with Header("Location: http://www.downloadURL.zip"); at the end of it. You can put the tracking code right before that line and the user won't notice a bit of difference.
 
That won't work because headers will have already been sent.

Put something like this on your download page:
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
<!--
function beginDL() {
document.write('<iframe height="1" width="1" border="0" frameborder="0" src="http://somesite.com/yourfile.zip"></iframe>');
}
window.onLoad=beginDL();
//-->
</script>
Click to expand...

You can have whatever else you want (including the tracking pixel) on that same page.
 
Good Idea cardine. I did this a while back and while it works for tracking the browser will block the initial download with a security warning. Users then have to go on top to the warning and click download. This is what I am trying to avoid.

On the original landing back I already had the link for them to click to download the product and it sucks having to have the users click a second time to download the file.
 
you can make the download page have a metarefresh that starts the download and has the tracking in it. Also that page doesn't have to be blank you can easily say on it "Your download will begin in 5 seconds" and style it like the rest of your site.
 
You will still get a security block if you use a metarefresh.

I have spent a long time researching this and at this time I do not think there is a way around having Tracking 202 Pro and direct digital downloads Track with out the normal security settings of IE blocking the download. I got it working just fine now for Firefox but that is only about 25% of the site traffic.

Right now the user clicks the download link from the sales page and is directed to a page that contains the below code as well as instructions if the page does not load for them as well as info on allowing the download to happen if it's blocked by security

<body style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" scroll="no">
<iframe src="http://URL/downloadpage.php" style="border: 0px; width: 1%; height:1%;"></iframe>

The above code start the downloadpage.php which contains the below code

<? header("location: direct-affiliate-download-link" . $_COOKIE['t202proSubid']); ?>

This makes it so the download auto starts on the page I linked to. It is still being blocked by security but I have instructions that are simple to follow to allow for the person to allow the download in just a click for Internet Explorer.

While this is the best method I have so far it is still annoying to have the download file blocked. The security is a good thing for Internet Explorer users but from a sales point of view it makes the user have to do an extra step and we all know what happens when a potential customer has to jump through another hoop to download or purchase a product.

Keep the ideas coming. It would be nice to hear others who deal with digital affiliate downloads are doing.
 
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