On Monday 15th June, Awin will be making two specific changes to how clicks are counted on the network This will reflect in click reports within the UI as well as having a positive effect on CPC campaigns.
Historically Awin’s click counting removed erroneous clicks whether they came from bots, user error or even physical manipulation of clicks. As web technologies continue to evolve and in light of Awin’s recent release of the Tracking Optimisation Plugin and Bounceless Tracking, Awin found a few areas where click counting could be further tightened to ensure accuracy and increase security.
The first change is to improve the detection of same user clicks. Awin now only tracks one click per device, per publisher within a specific time period. By default the time period is set at three hours.
Example of first change:
A consumer clicks the same link multiple times within a three hour period, or on another link for the same advertiser from the same publisher. In this instance, only the first click is counted.
However, if the consumer clicks on another link to the same advertiser but from a different publisher then both clicks count.
If the consumer clicks on a link from the same publisher but for another advertiser, then both clicks will also count.
The second change is to improve the detection of serial clicks, those that happen in a very short time frame. These scenarios are typically automated and can come from scripts, incorrect integrations or are run from the backend via a server.
Example of second change:
A script on a site sends 10 click codes simultaneously within one second, but these run on 10 different programs. In this instance, only the first click would be counted and all others would be filtered.
This prevents the click counts of these advertisers from overflowing with erroneous clicks.
Both of these changes can be tailored at an advertiser level and any request to do so should be run through Awin’s Technical Support teams.
The end result of these changes is fewer irrelevant clicks within the Awin reports making data more accurate. In turn, advertiser click campaigns are more accurate with stronger conversion rates. The changes do not take in to account historic click counting and as such there will no longer be an exact correlation when comparing click reports against previous periods.
Awin is confident that by further increasing the accuracy of its click counting, publishers have a better opportunity to demonstrate the true value of their traffic through stronger conversion rates; which will help forge stronger relationships and greater trust between Awin partners.
It is also important to note that the reporting of transactions, revenues and sales commissions are completely unaffected by this change.
If you have any questions please contact your Account Manager.
