Track how many leads you get from Affiliates in Close CRM
Learn how to track how many leads and customers you get from Affiliates in Close CRM
Tracking how many leads & customers you get from your affiliate program is hard.
Tools like Google Analytics make it easy to see how many website visitors you got, but they can’t tell you how many leads & customers were generated.
But by using a tool called Attributer to capture affiliate data in Close CRM, you’re able to run reports that show exactly how many leads you got from your affiliate program, which affiliates generated the most customers, and more.
And in this article, we'll show you how to do it.
3 simple steps to track how many leads & customers you get from Affiliates in Close
With the help of Attributer, you can track how many leads and customers you're getting from your affiliate program. Here's how it works:
1. Add UTM parameters to your affiliate links
When you're sharing links with your affiliates, you need to include UTM parameters.
For instance, if you're asking them to send people to attributer.io/integrations/close, then the link you would want to give them (with UTM parameters) would be:
attributer.io/integrations/Close?utm_medium=affiliates&utm_source=bloggers&utm_campaign=john-smith
If you're looking for a recommendation as to what data to include in the UTM parameters, we'd suggest the following:
- UTM_Medium = Affiliates
- UTM_Source= Bloggers (or the type of affiliate this is, such as bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers, etc.)
- UTM_Campaign= John-Smith (or the name of the specific affiliate)
Working with UTM parameters for affiliate links can be a hassle. Luckily, some great platforms, like Trackdesk or Rewardful, can make this process easier by automatically adding UTM parameters to the links you share with your affiliates.
If you're not using those tools, then check out our free UTM builder, which offers templates specifically designed for affiliates. This will help you create and share UTM-tagged links with your affiliates.
2. Add hidden fields to your forms
The next step is to include a series of hidden fields within the forms on your website, like those on your Contact Us or Request a Quote page.
You should include the following hidden fields:
- Channel
- Channel Drilldown 1
- Channel Drilldown 2
- Channel Drilldown 3
- Landing Page
- Landing Page Group
Form-building tools like Gravity Forms and Typeform offer simple ways to add hidden fields to your forms. You can find detailed, step-by-step tutorials for over 50 commonly used form builders here.
3. Attributer writes the affiliate data into the hidden fields
When someone visits your website from an affiliate link with the new UTM parameters, Attributer saves this info in their browser. This means they can browse around your site (or even leave and come back later) and the UTM parameters from their first visit will be remembered.
Then when a visitor fills out a form on your site, Attributer will automatically enter the affiliate details (collected from the UTM parameters) into hidden fields in the form.
4. Affiliate data is captured and sent to Close CRM
Finally, when someone submits the form on your website, the affiliate data that Attributer wrote into the hidden fields is captured by your form tool (alongside the lead's name, email, phone, etc).
After that, sending this info over to Close is super easy.
If your form builder has a direct integration with Close CRM, then you can use that. Otherwise, integration tools like Zapier or Make can send the data across.
What data gets captured in Close?
Attributer collects data from the UTM parameters. This means that any information you enter in the UTMs, such as affiliate name, category, and more, will be picked up by Attributer and then sent to Close.
We recommend including the following information in your UTM parameters:
- UTM_Medium = Affiliates
- UTM_Source= Bloggers (or the type of affiliate this is, such as bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers, etc.)
- UTM_Campaign= John-Smith (or the name of the specific affiliate)
Then, the following information would be captured in Close:
- Channel = Affiliates
- Channel Drilldown 1 = Bloggers
- Channel Drilldown 2 = John Smith
But on top of that, Attributer also captures information on leads that come from other channels as well (like Organic Search, Paid Search, Paid Social, etc).
So, for example, if someone was to come to your site from an organic Google search then Attributer would pass through the following information:
- Channel = Organic Search
- Channel Drilldown 1 = Google (or the name of the search engine they came from)
- Channel Drilldown 2 = www.google.com.au (or the Google domain they came from)
- Channel Drilldown 3 = Olmo Software (or whatever the keyword they used to find your business is, when available)
This ensures you're able to see the source of ALL your leads, not just those from your affiliate program.
3 example reports you can run when you capture affiliate data in Close
Before my time at Attributer, I had the opportunity to lead marketing teams at various companies, and I spent countless hours running reports to track where our leads and customers were coming from.
Based on these years fo experience, I have compiled three sample reports below that can help you understand the impact your affiliate program is having.
1. Leads by Channel
Attributer effectively tracks all leads, not just those originating from your affiliate program, which allows you to generate more comprehensive reports showing where your leads are coming from (like the one above).
This enables you to compare performance of your affiliate program with other channels, such as Paid Search Ads or SEO, and can help you make more informed decisions about how to grow.
2. Customers by Affiliate Type
This report shows how many new customers you've gotten from your affiliate program. It classifies these customers into different categories, like bloggers, YouTubers, podcasters, and social media influencers.
This allows you to see what type of affiliates are performing best, and you can make strategic decisions based on this information (like recruiting more of the top-performing type of affiliates).
3. Revenue by Affiliate
This report shows you how much new revenue you've generated from each of your affiliates.
It enables you to do things like give extra rewards to your top affiliates, or identify opportunities to support those who may require additional help.
How Attributer helped William Russell scale their affiliate program
William Russell is a UK-based insurance company that specialises in providing health and life insurance for expatriates.
They have a strong network of affiliates and use affiliate software to manage them. Unfortunately, though, it didn't integrate with their CRM, which made it difficult to understand how many leads & customers the program was generating.
But with the assistance of Attributer, they were able to solve this issue.
They used the built-in functionality of their affiliate management tool to automatically add UTM parameters to all affiliate links. Then when someone clicked a link and became a lead, Attributer wrote the affiliate data (taken from the UTM parameters) into the hidden fields on their forms and they were sent to their CRM.
The William Russell team could then create detailed reports within their CRM that showed how well their affiliate program was performing, which affiliates were generating the most revenue, and more.
"By using Attributer, we're able to track the amount of customers & revenue that come from our affiliate program, as opposed to just website visitors and leads. This has shown us that it's our most profitable channel and has helped us scale it"
William Cooper - Marketing Director @ William Russell Insurance
Wrap Up
Attributer is a fantastic tool for grabbing UTM parameters from affiliate links and sending them to Close. It can really help you understand how well your affiliate program is doing.
The best part is that starting with Attributer is free and usually takes less than 10 minutes to set up. Don't miss out – start your 14-day free trial today!
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About the Author
Aaron Beashel is the founder of Attributer and has over 15 years of experience in marketing & analytics. He is a recognized expert in the subject and has written articles for leading websites such as Hubspot, Zapier, Search Engine Journal, Buffer, Unbounce & more. Learn more about Aaron here.