Affiliate Tracking and Reporting

Table of Content:


What platform does the Cloud86 affiliate program use?

Our affiliate program uses Post Affiliate Pro. It is a software that specializes in affiliate marketing tracking and has been around for 20 years. It ensures that every transaction is tracked and offers comprehensive affiliate tracking and reporting. 


How are affiliate clicks and sales tracked?

We use first-party cookie tracking to guarantee all your clicks and sales are tracked. First-party cookies are more reliable and accurate as they are not affected by restrictions and tracking prevention mechanisms implemented by browsers. We also have real-time reporting in place which means you see stats almost immediately appear in your affiliate reporting.

You can share your affiliate link directly, as part of an article, video, email, or social media campaign. When users click on your affiliate link (or paste it directly into a browser) and complete a hosting order on our website the affiliate sale and corresponding commission value will immediately appear on your dashboard.

Our affiliate cookies are stored for 60 days.


How do I link to a specific language version of your website?

The Cloud86 website is available in multiple languages. When you send someone to cloud86.io, based on their geographical IP the website is displays in that language. However, there may be cases where you want to make sure that regardless of where the user is located, they will always open the website in a certain language.

For example, if you are a Dutch affiliate and you have Dutch content only, it is very likely that the majority of your audience are Dutch speakers, so even if they are not located in the Netherlands it makes sense to always serve the Dutch Cloud86 website to them:

Webpage Affiliate URL
Default Homepage cloud86.io/#a_aid=[your affiliate ID]
Homepage in Dutch cloud86.io/nl/#a_aid=[your affiliate ID]
Default Web Hosting page cloud86.io/web-hosting/#a_aid=[your affiliate ID]
Web hosting page in Dutch cloud86.io/nl/webhosting/#a_aid=[your affiliate ID]

 


How do I link to a specific page?

Your affiliate link points to the Cloud86 homepage by default, but you can change it and send the user to any other landing page. As long as the link structure and your affiliate ID remain intact, your sales will be tracked.

Webpage Affiliate URL
Home page cloud86.io/nl/#a_aid=[your affiliate ID]
Web hosting page cloud86.io/nl/webhosting/#a_aid=[your affiliate ID]
Managed WordPress page cloud86.io/nl/managed-wordpress-hosting/#a_aid=[your affiliate ID]

 

Please keep in mind that for affiliate tracking to work you can only create affiliate links to our main website. Our knowledge base is part of another system and currently, affiliate traffic sent to it cannot be tracked.


Can I place an order for a customer myself?

You can place an order on your customer's behalf, however, the affiliate software may not register the affiliate commission due to our fraud prevention mechanisms and will not credit commissions for sales coming from the same IP address. The essence of the affiliate partnerships is that the affiliate refers unique, new clients to the company.

We understand that for some clients it might be too complex to place an order or there could be other reasons preventing them from doing that and many times the developer they hired will do it for them. If you’d like to place an order or multiple orders for clients, please contact us first at affiliate@cloud86.io.


How to track affiliate campaigns separately?

Channels are a great way to monitor the performance of your promotional efforts across different mediums, blog or video content, and even different banners and links on your website. To do this, simply create a new channel for every link/placement you want.

To create a new ad channel go from the main menu to Ad channels at the bottom and click on Add channel and set a name for easy identification of your campaign in the Affiliate Reporting and a code for the link code parameter, and then click Add.

After your new channel has been created and saved, you can add it to your tracking link. One way to do that is to manually add the channel parameter to your affiliate link like so: https://cloud86.io/#a_aid=[your affiliate ID]&chan=[channel url code].

For example if the user John Doe with affiliate id 66bef4e048a87 creates a channel with the name Cloud86 masterclass and the code masterclass the url becomes: https://cloud86.io/#a_aid=66bef4e048a87&chan=masterclass.

Alternatively you can use the Deep Link Generator tool, which we will show in the next paragraph.

When you start using your newly created channel link, all channel information, including the associated referral commission, will be transferred and reflected in your reports. This allows you to clearly identify which campaign resulted in each sale.


How to use the Deeplink Generator?

A deep link is a URL that takes the user directly to a specific page or product on Cloud86’s website, rather than just the homepage. This type of link is beneficial for targeting users more precisely and improving conversion rates.

You can use deep links to direct traffic to a particular page that is more relevant for your audience or based on the topic of your written or video content. For example, if you feature Cloud86 as the best hosting option in a video about creating a WordPress website, then you might want to directly send the user to our managed WordPress plans.

To create a deep link go to Advanced Tools Menu and click on Deeplink Generator. You can also check this article for creating a tracking channel , if you haven’t done so yet.

In the Deeplink Generator window leave the campaign to None, choose the channel you want to associate with your campaign and paste in the destination field the page where you want to send the user to. In our example it is the main website and click on Generate Code:

Copy the newly generated link and embed it as is in your content. Now you will see the clicks and sales coming from this exact link appear separately in your affiliate reporting. This link (number 4) is the same as we showed in the previous section by adding the &chan=masterclass behind our normal affiliate link.


What if my commission does not appear in my affiliate account?

There are times when your commission may not appear in your affiliate account. This may happen due to a number of different reasons. Perhaps there is an IP block as a result of a previous transaction, or a cookie blocker was used. It is also possible that the actual order was placed from a different device, which could result in an incorrect recording of the transaction.

If your referral has not been tracked, please do not hesitate to contact us. We're happy to investigate and, if necessary, manually add the commission to your account. We will ask for some information to validate the transaction such as the order purchase date, domain name, customer name, and email account. Please inform us within 4 weeks from the order date. If this period has expired, the right to get credited for the sale will lapse.

Correct compensation for customer referrals is of great importance to us, and we do everything we can to resolve any issues as quickly as possible.


If you need some help, you can reach our affiliate desk by email affiliate@cloud86.io or by opening a ticket in My Cloud86 (link). For general questions you can always reach our support desk by email support@cloud86.io and on weekdays from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm you can also reach us by phone and via the chat in My Cloud86.