The Reporting Initiative: Phase Two, Performance Reports
Enhanced performance reports let you better manage your program with easier viewing and data analysis – both to assist in driving quality traffic and increasing your overall program performance.
Performance Report Updates – Phase Two
We understand managing your own program is difficult – from trying to find the perfect advertising partner to the huge number
of details that surface daily – we know how busy a publisher's life can be. One of the most consistent traits we see in our
top performing publishers is their attention to analyzing data and reports. It is crucial to understand the performance of individual
promotions, ads, advertisers and other program aspects to generate the most revenue possible. We find our most successful publishers
check performance reports multiple times a day and are constantly tweaking and updating their offers. With this in mind, Commission
Junction has spent a considerable amount of time, energy and resources to provide the best reporting capabilities available in the
industry, and has recently launched performance report enhancements.
A New Way of Looking at Reports
Commission Junction is dedicated to continuous improvement in our reporting technology and our next phase of innovation is no different. It is very important for a publisher to know what works, what needs adjustment and which advertising partners will help generate the most revenues. Enhanced performance reports let you better manage your program with easier viewing and data analysis – both to assist in driving quality traffic and increasing your overall program performance.
Since we launched the new reports, many of our publishers have seen the changes immediately. There is overlap with our current reports as to ensure there will be no interruption or confusion for our clients.
We recommend all publishers take some time to get familiar with the reports and adjust their program. Run sample reports, compare promotions and analyze data so you will be totally comfortable with the upgrades.
Reports with Benefits
The main theme of the new updates is helping our publishers save time through an easier to view user interface and a better way to
access important data. Publishers will see two key benefits from these updates:
- Ability to easily compare performance of specific items – saving precious time and allowing publishers to dedicate resources and energy to other important parts of the program;
- See important performance data quickly and easily. The new user interface was designed with our busy publishers in mind. We want you to be able to access and analyze data in the most efficient manner possible.
Show Me the Details!
We think you will like the updates – in fact, many of the suggestions came directly from your feedback. Here are specific changes you will notice:
- Monthly and Weekly Performance Trends – The new Performance Reporting home page automatically displays summary performance statistics and a trend graph for the last 30 days, last month and the current month. Publishers can use this summary and trend to get an immediate assessment of the overall performance of their account. Publishers can easily switch to a week over week comparison as well. Performance trend information is a key factor in measuring success of advertisers and campaigns. Checking these reports should be part of your monthly and weekly routines.
- Top Advertisers – A new top-level performance report "Top Advertisers by Commissions" is automatically generated for every week and month. It ranks all of your advertisers in order of commissions earned and shows the change from the previous report. A list of the top 10 advertisers is displayed automatically on the new Performance Reporting home page. These reports allow users to identify significant changes to their account and track the performance of advertisers over time.
- Modify Query – Publishers can run an additional report without going back to the performance reports page. This feature will save time and allow for easier viewing of specific items.
- Expanded Reporting Period – Performance reports are available for the prior 18 months, an increase from the current 12-month limit. This change allows publishers a longer time to compare trends and offers, providing more information to help make better decisions.
- Compare Feature – Publishers can select and compare any row in a report side by side.
- Daily Detail – All performance reports include a Detail link to a day-by-day view of performance metrics.
- Trend Graphics – Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand reports. Trend graphs may be viewed for any performance metric and each line item in a performance report even the report total. Our new trend graphics feature provides a snapshot of program features to help you analyze and compare program features effortlessly.
- Multiple Actions – Publishers may now view a breakdown of sales and conversion metrics for each Sale or Lead action.
- Link Detail – Each performance report now includes the number of links that were used to generate the performance metrics. Publishers can click on these links to view performance by link type and can drill down even further to view performance by individual links.
- Sorting Options – All performance reports can be sorted by any performance metric and will be sorted by default to display in order of commissions, placing advertisers with the most commissions at the top of the reports.
Here is a quick checklist to help organize your new reporting features. These are additions to the current tasks you already perform.
Daily
- Check the Deactivated Advertisers report under the Frequently Run Reports section to see if any of your advertisers have recently been deactivated.
- Run the Best Performing Links report under the Frequently Run Reports section of the Performance Reports page. This report will list up to 50 links that have generated the most commissions in the last 30 days.
- Check the Performance Trend graph and report to compare performance metrics of the current month with the last 30 days and last month.
- Run Performance by Web Site and Performance by Link ID reports to analyze all existing offers. Ensure your site has the most current creative and promotions. Move links or ads around to see where they perform best.
Weekly
- View the most recent Top Advertisers by Commissions report. Are there any advertisers that have had a significant improvement or drop in performance?
- View the Weekly Performance Trend to get a snapshot of your program for the last week compared to the prior week. Make any changes needed to low performing campaigns.
Monthly
- View the most recent Top Advertisers by Commissions monthly report. If possible, contact the advertisers to see if there are things you are missing or if there are upcoming promotions.
- View the Monthly Performance Trend. Compare with previous months to spot trends and predict upcoming performance. Check your calendar for upcoming holidays and compare it with your monthly reports – is there room for improvement?
Quarterly
- Compare this quarter with previous quarters and a comparison to the same time last year. Remember you can now run comparison reports for the last 18 months.
In our experience, the top performing publishers are constantly using data to manage their program. Commission Junction is dedicated to providing the most sophisticated reporting capabilities available in the industry. We hope you like these new updates and changes to your performance reporting capabilities. Give us feedback to let us know how we are doing.
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