phone If there is one thing affiliates hate, it’s LEAKS, especially 800# phone leaks. Setting up affiliate phone tracking should not be that hard, but for many merchants it sounds like an overwhelming technical issue, therefore they never implement it. Essentially you pass the affiliate ID so it gets displayed next to your 800# as a priority code. This happens via the affiliate tracking cookie.

Merchants that DO utilize phone tracking always face another challenge - the human challenge. How do you ensure the phone reps ask for and record the affiliate ID? Then how do you make sure those phone sales that did not get auto-tracked through the tracking software, get MANUALLY updated so affiliates get their commission? This human challenge does not sound like a biggie until you try to implement it. Believe me, I managed an affiliate program where I convinced the merchant to implement phone tracking, but they could get their phone reps and order entry staff to consistantly follow through. Therefore even though that merchant (who shall remain nameless) advertised 800 phone tracking and affiliates could see their ID when they clicked their link - in reality most commissions never got credited. Needless to say, I didn’t manage that affiliate program long. Don’t say you offer phone tracking unless you are prepared to deliver the commissions!

I’ve blogged about Pay Per Call Affiliate Tracking in the past. But now with Google’s formal entry into the Pay-Per-Call game, possibly this pay for performance call tracking medium will take off. For affiliate programs that tend to get many phone calls and for merchants that have call centers and find their conversion rates are higher when a live person can ’sell’ the prospect, PPCall makes perfect sense!

Clickz reports: With Google’s Formal Entry, Pay-Per-Call Set to Grow. “Google announced last week that it would launch click-to-call ads with partner eBay next year in a deal that will be monetized through a performance-based, pay-per-call model.

Google can bring pay-per-call into the mainstream the way no one else can, except maybe Yahoo,” Greg Sterling, analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, told ClickZ. ” It won’t be long before it is established as a side-by-side model with clicks. Most people selling clicks will sell calls, either in tandem or as a substitute for certain kinds of advertisers.“