Does redirecting to a mobile site break the affiliate link?

[medlington]

Hi,

I just signed up to an affiliate with a new booky and last night in the pub got someone to go through my site and click the link to this booky, he then created a new account and received the new player bonus ok but when I have checked this morning in my affiliate control panel it is not showing any signups.

Could this be because when they have clicked the link it has taken them to the correct website with the referral code in the URL but then the sites browser detection has then redirected them to the mobile site but without the referral code in so that when they signed up it had lost the information telling the site that this was my referral?

If so surly this is terrible practice as so many people view the internet on their phones now.

Should I be looking for separate links that go to the mobile sites and putting these in the mobile version of my site?

Thanks

[lots0]

Without looking at the code it is impossible to tell if your redirect is 'breaking'.
But I highly doubt that your redirect is breaking the tracking link.. that just does not make sense unless your using the wrong tracking code.

If this happened to me (and it has) I would first contact the affiliate program in question and ask them to check out your tracking links.
I would mention that, you know someone signed up and made a deposit, but your not getting credit.

Most of the time(but not always) this type of thing is just a delay in reporting. Some programs it takes a while for their data to propagate.. not all reporting systems report instantly, some like bovada have to 'sync' their data, this happens about once every 24 hours or so.

[universal4]

It may also be a case of not waiting long enough.

Depending on who the bookie is, their stats could be one day behind in updating the previous days stats.

Rick
Universal4

[tryme]

If it's a bookie that uses Income Access software (StanJames or Ladbrokes, for example) then what Universal4 and Lots0 have said is definitely the case - stats run 24 hrs behind. The same is true of Bet365, for sure. I'm not certain of other bookies and affiliate software.

[casinoplanet]

I've been active in mobile gaming for quite a while now, but never experienced such an issue. So I agree what's stated above.

A special mobile link is only necessary if the regular link for some reason doesn't redirect to the mobile page. Most programs however use auto-detect these days to solve this problem.

[Anthony-Coral]

It was a common problem of mobile tracking in previous years but the knowledge and tech should mean that any programme should really have figured this out by now.

In old days Coral had this same issue and affiliates could be affected by whether or not the mobile user was actually viewing an affiliate's dedicated mobile site or a dynamic version of their actual web page. The rise in the use of HTML5 should, for instance, now start to break down the barriers between once device and another and make other considerations, like 'Above The Fold' less relevant.

Alternatively, affiliates might want to not take any chances and work with their programmes to set up things like Reverse SMS tracking. This was something we worked on whilst I was at BetFred and I think it's an elegant and simple solution. Just use your webpages to promote the CTA: "Text [Keyword] to 89660" Your keyword is then read by the operators SMS software which responds with a customised reply containing your tracking link.

You've now got the cookie on the user's mobile device and dealt with that tricky moment when they put down their mouse and pick up their mobile.

If your programmes are not offering this for whatever reason I would strongly suggest contacting your AM with the suggestion. The programme may never have considered this as a potential tracking solution but many operators will be using this kind of SMS technology as part of their regular marketing anyway.

If you can get your AM enthusiastic about trialing this it shouldn't be all that difficult too get him to liaise with the relevant team internally and help you out

[medlington]

Thanks for the replies,

Its still not showing so Ive sent them a message.

I do think its still possible there is a redirect problem as someone mentioned the link is going to the traditional website and then it is being redirected to a mobile friendly version. So I think it is going to:

www.booky.com/affiliate_id=123456

and then being redirected to:

www.mobi.booky.com

but like you say in this day and age it should be more robust than that.

Thanks again

[Anthony-Coral]

If the player journey is ultimately arriving at a mobile-specifc regs page then they need to ensure that it is set up to take cookies in the way that the regular regs page is.

[Louis - Income Access]

Is the program powered by Income Access? If so, please PM me and I'll be glad to help out.

[medlington]

Thanks Louis,

Yes it is, Ive sent a PM

[Louis - Income Access]

Got it and working on it!

[Marcia]

Hi All,

At BrightShare we have two excellent mobile casinos - All Slots and Wild Jack. All our links identify the user's device and automatically redirect to the appropriate/optimized page. WITH THE TRACKING TAG - of course!!!

Check us out!

Thanks - Marcia

[Louis - Income Access]

All our links identify the user's device and automatically redirect to the appropriate/optimized page. WITH THE TRACKING TAG - of course!!!

As do those of numerous Income Access' clients, including but not limited to, Betfred, Gala, Sky, mFortune, Probility, and PocketFruity.

[universal4]

This is good to know that many programs recognize the need to do this.

Could we have a bit of clarification on this?

I am assuming this means that we could use a more generic mobile affiliate link and the user device identification takes place upon the visitor landing. Does that indentification take place on most landing pages then, or just on the mobile optimized pages?

Rick
Universal4

[Louis - Income Access]

It's a case by case scenario, but in the case of the exclusively mobile casinos such as mFortune, Probability or PocketFruity, you can use any link and it will redirect properly.

For some of the larger, multi-product brands, they have 100s of landing pages and they may not all be mobile optimized yet. In the case of these types of brands, speak to your affiliate manager to get more info as it depends on the program.