How affiliate marketing works, and how to see what's going on.
Fourteen lessons and nine short films for affiliate, partnership and paid-search managers, and the agencies that work with them. It's about being aware, never about blame.
Start the course- Lessons
- 14
- Films
- 9
- Watch time
- 23 min
- Sign-up
- Not needed
How it happens
Eight films, one after another.Each film is one way a brand's affiliate or paid-search traffic can end up somewhere unexpected: how it works, what it costs, where it shows in your own reports and what to do.
The films · 1 / 08
The course
Three modules. In order, or dip in.Each lesson is an article you can read in ten minutes or so. Most open with a film, and every one lists the sources behind it.
- Module 01
The basics
The parties, the money, the tracking and the auction: what everything after this builds on.
3 lessons- 01
How affiliate marketing works
The parties, the programme, the money and the click that earns the credit: the affiliate model in one read, for paid-search and affiliate teams alike.
8 min read - 02
How a sale gets credited
From click to commission: the tracking link, cookies, the network's tag, Google's tracking template and parallel tracking, and the records each side keeps.
8 min read - 03
Brand search and your terms
Who searches your name, how Google's auction prices those searches, what its policies cover, and what your programme's terms need to say.
9 min read
- 01
- Module 02
How it happens
Eight films and the articles behind them. Each is one way a brand's affiliate or paid-search traffic can end up somewhere unexpected, how it works, and where it shows in your own reports.
8 lessons- 04
Looks like yours
How another account's ad can show your web address, take the top spot from your own ad, and reach GA4 as paid search.
2:30 film8 min read
- 05
Out of hours
How an ad schedule can keep another ad off your brand search while you check, and where the night shows in your own reports.
2:32 film7 min read
- 06
Not where you are
Your office's clear results page can be a hole in the map. How location and IP exclusions work, and how to look from somewhere else.
2:25 film7 min read
- 07
Only some clicks
Under parallel tracking every click looks the same in the address bar. Whether it earns credit is settled in a request the shopper never sees.
2:32 film8 min read
- 08
Round the edges
One negative exact keyword can keep an affiliate's ad off the bare brand search you check, while it stays eligible on your code searches.
2:34 film8 min read
- 09
New name, same ad
An ad can come back word for word under another advertiser, and Google's Ads Transparency Center keeps the IDs and dates that connect the two.
2:30 film8 min read
- 10
Behind the network
A sub-network joins as one publisher, with its own behind it. A sub ID describes a click, not an ad. Here's how to get the lookup that names the source.
2:37 film8 min read
- 11
What you can do
The order to work in: the terms that applied, evidence that holds up, the validation deadline, Google's routes and a later check.
2:45 film8 min read
- 04
- Module 03
Seeing it clearly
How to look, record and ask without blaming anyone, how to read the live check, and every term in one place.
3 lessons- 12
Aware, not accusing
Most unexpected ads have ordinary explanations. How to look without fooling yourself, what to record, and how to ask your network a fair question.
8 min read - 13
Reading the live check
Godotoro's live check and brand page, part by part: what each tag and figure means, where its data comes from, and what to do next.
2:13 film7 min read
- 14
Glossary
Plain definitions of the affiliate and Google Ads terms in the course, from Ad Rank to voucher site, each linked to the lesson that explains it.
14 min read
- 12