Thread: Day 2: a)Choosing a Tracker

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EXPLANATION

Your only task for this lesson is to choose a tracking solution. I know I said I'd try to take the decision-making out of the equation, but unfortunately this is a decision you'll need to make for yourself.

The three trackers I can recommend are: Funnelflux Pro, Binom, and Voluum. These are the trackers I'll be writing this tutorial around, so if you're wanting to follow this tutorial with minimal guesswork, then these would be the trackers to choose from.

It's important to remember that you can switch trackers at any time, so it's not like you'd be committing to one tracker for life (heck even marriages don't work like that anymore). The drawback is you'll probably lose the data from the old tracker (although you can export data from all of these trackers, trying to sort through the raw data without using the original tracker can be problematic), and you'd have to spend a couple of days to get used to the new tracker. Still, it wouldn't the end of the world if you need to switch trackers later on.

In fact, Funnelflux Pro and Binom both have one-month free trials, so you're encouraged to sign up to more than one tracker and play around with them for a few days before making a decision.

Also: This may be obvious, but before you're sure which tracker you want to stick with in the next while, don't sign up for an annual payment plan. (Just a heads up: If you ever decide to sign up for one of Voluum's annual plans, be aware that if you want to cancel your annual subscription, you'll need to give 2 months' advance notice to their support before the next payment cycle begins, or you'll be charged for another year.)

If you don't have prior experience running pop traffic, you may not yet understand some of the tracker features or pros and cons I describe below. Just try to understand as best you can for now. When you've finished the entire tutorial, you can read this post again to see whether you want to try another tracker to play with certain features that are missing from the tracker you picked initially.

TL;DR: Don't overthink - be flexible - just pick a tracker - you can switch later.



Comparison Chart & Basic Info

To help you decide on a tracker, let's go over some of the considerations that should be involved.

Here's a summary chart for your reference:



(To see a higher-resolution version of this chart click here.)

We'll go over some of the considerations below.



Cloud-Based vs. Self-Hosted

In general there are two types of trackers:

1)Cloud-Based. The tracker is provided as a SaaS. You go to the tracker site and log in to use the tracker. All the data is stored by the tracker provider. Funnelflux Pro and Voluum belong in this category.

Pros:

-Faster redirect speeds, because of multiple servers (aka data centers) around the world.

Basically, the further your target geo is (i.e. the country you're buying visitors from) is from the server, the longer it will take for the tracker to redirect visitors to your landing page and/or offer. Because cloud-based trackers have multiple servers located around the world, chances are most geos you target will not be very far from a server. In comparison, self-hosted trackers are installed on one server only, in one location, so if you're targeting a geo that is very far from the server, slower redirect speeds will result.

-No need to take care of hosting/server - e.g. sign up to hosting, install the tracker, clean up the data when server storage is almost full, etc. (Although for Binom these tasks will be very simple.)

-Tracker downtime is almost non-existent (at least for the reputable trackers) as cloud-based tracker companies have backup servers in place to keep service going when one server goes down.


Cons:

-Can be more expensive, as cloud-based trackers usually charge based on the amount of visitors you send to the tracker, and sometimes even by the number of actions those visitors take. The more traffic you run, the bigger the cost difference between cloud-based and self-hosted solutions.

-Will only retain your data for a limited time.

-Data privacy may be a concern, since the tracker company has access to your data.


2)Self-Hosted. The tracker is provided as scripts/files. You need to subscribe to hosting/server and install the tracker. All the data is stored on your hosting/server. Binom belongs in this category.

Pros:

-Is typically cheaper, as self-hosted trackers typically charge a flat fee per installation. You do need to factor in hosting costs, but if you run pop traffic you'll likely find that even with hosting costs, self-hosted solutions will usually be cheaper. The more traffic you run, the bigger the cost difference between cloud-based and self-hosted solutions.

-Your data will be retained for as long as you wish, until you decide to clear that data (e.g. when your server runs out of storage).

-You have sole access to your data.


Cons:

-Potentially slower redirect speeds compared to cloud-based trackers, as described above.

You DO have the option of getting multiple servers around the world and installing the tracker on each, but most (if not all) self-hosted trackers charge by installation, so in most cases it would likely be cheaper to get a cloud-based tracker than to install multiple instances of a self-hosted tracker.

-Will need to handle technical tasks associated with the server. (Again: For Binom these tasks will be simple - more details further down.) And you'll need to monitor your server in case it goes down (I'll do a write-up on how to set this up in a later lesson).



Redirect Speed

Simply put, the faster the tracker's redirect speed is, the sooner your landing page or offer page will load, and the fewer visitors will leave before the page finishes loading.

When we get to the lesson on landing pages, you'll see the importance of landing page load time. Basically, you need to make sure that the page will load in under 2 seconds (= 2000 ms). Anything longer and you may lose a large percentage of visitors.

And these 2 seconds include tracker redirect time. This means the faster your tracker is, the larger/slower your landing page can be and still meet the 2-second rule.

I've tested the redirect speeds of the 3 trackers using gtmetrix, for all 7 test locations, using the method described here: https://Voluum.com/blog/tracker-speed-test/

Please note that my Binom installation location is in Germany, so the further away a test location is from Germany, the slower the redirect speed.

I ran the test for each location per tracker 7 times, excluded the highest and lowest numbers and averaged the remaining 5 numbers. Test settings: Chrome browser, Desktop.

Tracker Redirect Speed Comparison (in ms)


(The column "FF Premium" refers to the option to pay $5 extra each month for a premium domain, which will get you faster redirection speeds for Funnelflux Pro - please see Addendum A at the end of this post for a detailed explanation. But as you can see from the chart above, even without a premium domain, Funnelflux Pro is already the fastest for most of the test locations.)

As was previously pointed out, cloud-based solutions i.e. Voluum and Funnelflux Pro have faster redirect speeds compared to Binom which is self-hosted.

Funnelflux Pro and Voluum have comparable redirect speeds, but Funnelflux Pro is the fastest overall.


Pricing / Cost

Please refer to the comparison chart at the top for detailed prices. In addition, I've created a pricing chart to compare the prices of each tracker at different levels of traffic - from 1 million to 15 million visitors a month - assuming a landing page CTR of 30%:



Note: Voluum charges by "events", where your total number of events equals the number of visitors + the number of clicks on your landing pages + the number of conversions. Funnelflux Pro on the other hand charges only by number of visitors.

So if you send the same 1 million visitors to both trackers, and landing page CTR is 30% (i.e. 30% of the visitors click on your landing page to go to your offer), and 1% converts, Voluum will charge you for 1,31 million events whereas Funnelflux Pro will only charge you for 1 million visitors.

IMPORTANT: Pricing comparison can be quite different depending on landing page CTR. I don't want to confuse you too much by displaying multiple pricing charts for various landing page CTR scenarios.

(The number of conversions is not factored into the pricing chart because it's usually negligible in comparison with the number of visitors and landing page clicks.)

(Please also note that the pricing chart does not take into account of annual pricing, which can result in significant savings.)

Funnelflux is the cheapest option if you run up to 1 million visitors/mo within the first 7 months.

However, if you buy more than 1 million visitors/mo, Binom will always be the cheapest option, in spite of having to pay for server/hosting.

For Binom, in addition to paying for the tracker license, you will also need to pay for a server/hosting. However, you don't need to get a fancy and expensive server - I think for most of you, either the $20/mo or $40/mo plan from Digital Ocean (as recommended by Binom) should be enough to sustain your traffic levels:



The $20 plan will support up to 500k visitors/day, and the $40 plan up to 700k visitors/day. Moreover, you'll save $100 on DigitalOcean if you register through one of Binom's links here.

Voluum's DISCOVER Plan has limited features, so I would recommend starting with their PROFIT Plan. Among other restrictions, the DISCOVER Plan only allows you to display a single stat - so for example if you want to drill down to Landing Page > Offer to see which landing pages convert best for each offer (or vice versa), you won't be able to. This is why the DISCOVER Plan isn't included in the pricing chart.

Summary of Pricing: Overall, Binom is the cheapest of the three trackers. Plus, the more traffic volume you run, the cheaper Binom becomes compared to the other two. Between Funnelflux Pro and Voluum: Voluum is more expensive compared to the first 7 months of Funnelflux Pro (free trial + 50% off 6 months), but from month 8 and up Voluum is cheaper. However, if you reach 10 million visitors/month or more, Funnelflux Pro is cheaper as Voluum becomes increasingly more expensive as traffic volume increases.



Tracker Features

Each tracker has many features, and I'm not going to do a detailed comparison here. What I WILL do is tell you what I personally like about each tracker.

Funnelflux Pro:

-Has a click-and-drag visual campaign builder. Allows you to create complex funnels and flows the other trackers can't.

-Allows you to drill down into unlimited levels of stats. The other two trackers only allows drilling down to 3 levels. If you're a complete newbie you may not appreciate the power of this feature, but you will once you learn how to analyze stats to optimize a campaign.

-The only con is that it has a bit of learning curve. (This tutorial will help with that.)

Binom:

-Very intuitive user interface.

-Lets you monitor campaign domain and landing page domains for google bans, to automatically switch to a new domain if the original domain is banned, and notify you by email/SMS/etc. (If you run high-volume pop traffic, bans will happen, and this feature can save you time and money. For more details see here, here, and here.)

-Smart filters can help you generate blacklists and whitelists more easily (this is something you'll understand when you learn campaign optimization).

-Allows you to assign tracker access to unlimited users with no extra cost (useful if you have a team).

Voluum:

-Very intuitive user interface.

-Automatically optimizes campaigns using Traffic Distribution AI and the Atomizer.

-Identifies bot traffic with its Anti-fraud feature (GROW Plan and above only).



Data Retention

Cloud-based trackers (Funnelflux Pro and Voluum) will only let you keep your data for a limited time, where self-hosted trackers (Binom) will allow you to keep your data forever (well, until you want to clear it as your server storage fills up).

Funnelflux Pro - They haven't set a data retention period yet, but I was told that it would be at least 12 months for their smallest plan. There will likely be an option to increase data retention period for a fee.

Binom - Since this is self-hosted, you can theoretically retain data forever. See the "Installation and Maintenance" section below for more details.

Voluum - 6 months for PROFIT Plan, 12 months for GROW Plan.



Installation and Maintenance

Because Binom is self-hosted, there are maintenance tasks you'll need to perform, that you won't need to do for Funnelflux Pro or Voluum:

-Getting a server and installing the tracker. Binom has documentation that will tell you exactly which server to get, and how to install the tracker step-by-step. Alternatively, binom support can be called on to do the installation for you. I'll also be writing a lesson with instructions.

-Implementing tracker updates. It is recommended that you avoid peak-traffic periods when updating Binom. The actual process is simple and involves all of two clicks.

-Managing data. At some point, your server storage will get filled with data. If you use a server that is recommended by binom, I'm estimating that it won't fill up with data until at least 1-2 years from now unless you run a lot of traffic volume (i.e. high volume pop). But eventually you will reach this point.

When your server becomes full, you have the option of either just clearing the data, or transfering the data to another server.

Tip from @twinaxe: You can periodically delete data for very old campaigns and failed test campaigns, that you no longer have use for, to help control the amount of data that accumulates. Instructions can be found here.



Summary

So what tracker should you choose? As mentioned I can't make this decision for you. But this simple summary may help:

-If you want to start for cheap, or you're unsure which tracker to choose and want to test for free for the first month, go with either Funnelflux Pro or Binom.

-If you want cheap pricing in the initial 7 months, fastest redirection speed, and no installation required (just sign up and get started), try Funnelflux Pro.

-If you want the cheapest price long-term, best value, nice features, and long data retention, and wouldn't mind the slower redirection speed and having to take care of the tasks listed in the "Installation and Maintenance" section above, go with Binom.

-If you want relatively fast redirection speed, competitive pricing in the long run for under 9 million visitors/mo, and features such as auto-optimization and bot traffic detection, choose Voluum.



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ACTION

Choose ONE tracker to use for the rest of this tutorial. But don't sign up yet - please see the next lesson on how to sign up for and set up your tracker (be sure to take advantage of STM-member discounts!!)

(As I've stated above, you can always try other trackers later. Just do the best you can to pick one based on the information above and continue.)

Then, proceed to the next post where I'll provide instructions on how to set up the tracker you've chosen.


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Big thanks to @twinaxe for the insights he has contributed on the Binom tracker - he's a long-time user!




Amy



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ADDENDUM A - Fast Redirect Speeds with Premium Domains

The redirect speeds for Funnelflux Pro above was NOT done with premium domains. If you'd be willing to pay $5/month more to get a premium domain, you can see a considerable boost in redirect speeds. Below is an explanation by @zeno and the corresponding speed improvements you can expect to see, with and without using a premium domain.

So, to give context, most SaaS trackers/companies restrict you from using custom domains with their system, right? Or they allow maybe one domain, and charge for more

The reason is SSL. To make SSL work, you need to host the SSL certificate on your servers and serve it for that person's domain. But having more and more SSL certs is actually a huge pain in the ass for infrastructure -- its not fun to manage, and for Google Cloud for example, our load balancer(s) allow a maximum of 15 certificates each. We could use special certs that lump multiple domains together, but these get slower to serve with size and you can inspect them and see very domain listed, so privacy gets screwed. TL;DR: pain in the ass

With FF, we let you use Cloudflare as a proxy in front of our infrastructure. Cloudflare handles the SSL so we don't have to and the connections to our servers are then via HTTP behind the scenes. So we don't do anything, it works, you get SSL, unlimited custom domains, IPs obscured by Cloudflare, etc. Great!

The downside, speed. The Cloudflare network is fast but it sitting in the middle will always slow down redirects, since its adding another layer to the middle.

Premium domains will be $5/month per domain. When buying one, we generate an SSL certificate on our load balancer for your domain and give you its IP. Now you can point your domain directly at that IP with no proxying by Cloudflare and the SSL will work

This makes it faster, period, as the connection goes straight to a Google Cloud datacentre that routes immediately to our Google Cloud backend.

Real-world performance will vary of course since end-to-end time including your lander loading might be big anyway. You mileage may vary, but there's no situation with our synthetic checks where the premium domain loses, and you'll get a) more reliable/consistent latency + b) much lower risk of the proxying causing routing to the non-closest datacentre.

Added Addendum A for Funnelflux Pro's $5/mo premium domain which will improve redirection speed.

Re-tested Funnelflux Pro redirection speeds - after recent upgrading of infrastructure.



Amy

Originally Posted by mcstacks

This is AWESOME as usual @vortex!

Had a question on if you have heard of FB account bans related to being associated with a cloud-based tracker?

Thinking about IP addresses here, etc. I'm getting started on RedTrack.io this week.

AFAIK this shouldn't be an issue if you use redirectless tracking.

I would suggest to start a new thread with this question so reps from trackers can chime in.



Amy

Originally Posted by aiden l

Where do you think is the best area to deploy a server for Binom?
I was thinking somewhere like France since it pretty much in the middle of the world.
If anyone has any better suggestions please let me know.


Sent from my iPhone using STM Forums mobile app

I understand your thinking. When we look at a 2-D map of the world they always put Europe in the middle. In reality though the earth is round, so technically, no matter where your server location is, it would be further from certain countries and closer to certain other countries.

It really depends on what geos you're wanting to focus on.

Also - if we look at some sample speeds for this installation where I used Germany as the server location:



You'll see that speeds don't vary by THAT much unless you run in countries that are really far away, such as south america (Brazil), far east (Hong Kong), and Australia.

And if you're REALLY wanting to optimize speed for running internationally, you can of course get more installations - for example starting one in South America and (South)East Asia (if you run significant volumes in these areas) should basically have you covered for most countries in the world in terms of getting reasonable redirect speeds. But that would probably be something you'd only look at when you're running high-enough volumes that the cost of the extra Binom licenses would be worth it. And at higher traffic volumes binom pricing stays the same which can save a lot of money.



Amy

Originally Posted by vortex

I understand your thinking. When we look at a 2-D map of the world they always put Europe in the middle. In reality though the earth is round, so technically, no matter where your server location is, it would be further from certain countries and closer to certain other countries.

It really depends on what geos you're wanting to focus on.

Also - if we look at some sample speeds for this installation where I used Germany as the server location:



You'll see that speeds don't vary by THAT much unless you run in countries that are really far away, such as south america (Brazil), far east (Hong Kong), and Australia.

And if you're REALLY wanting to optimize speed for running internationally, you can of course get more installations - for example starting one in South America and (South)East Asia (if you run significant volumes in these areas) should basically have you covered for most countries in the world in terms of getting reasonable redirect speeds. But that would probably be something you'd only look at when you're running high-enough volumes that the cost of the extra Binom licenses would be worth it. And at higher traffic volumes Binom pricing stays the same which can save a lot of money.



Amy

So are some of these redirect considered bad or would it not really matter.
I know people are willing to wait a bit longer for push ads but for pops it has to load up instantly.
For my first server I will use your German example. France performed ok on vultr but that was when I was using a cloud based tracker. Don’t know if that makes a huge difference.
As you say maybe when I become more experienced and run more volumes then I may deploy multiple servers.


Sent from my iPhone using STM Forums mobile app

Originally Posted by aiden l

I was thinking somewhere like France since it pretty much in the middle of the world.

France is of course a great option (i'm french)

It actually depends where you want to focus your campaigns.
Look at the following map
https://www.submarinecablemap.com/
https://www.infrapedia.com/app/subse...merica-1-sam-1

A country that looks at the center geographically may not be the best if not well connected.

But honestly, i won't spend that much time on choosing an area. Just run your tracker using redirectless mode, and it will remove the redirect delays.

For pops (or anything really) if you’re running everything (landers with cdn and proxy, tracker on proxy) through cloudflare (with ignore query string off in caching) it won’t matter all that much, aside from the first visitor from each geo.

I have my main server in DE and I run stuff all over the world. About 5-6m pops a month and no big issues.

Originally Posted by jaybot

For pops (or anything really) if you’re running everything (landers with cdn and proxy, tracker on proxy) through cloudflare (with ignore query string off in caching) it won’t matter all that much, aside from the first visitor from each geo.

I have my main server in DE and I run stuff all over the world. About 5-6m pops a month and no big issues.

Cheers for the knowledge. Quick question, will you be featuring in anymore Binom videos? I find them entertaining.

Originally Posted by leadmarketing

I can not find tut for day 3,4,5...., plz help

Hello @leadmarketing,

This section is for Common lessons with any tracker.
To get lessons for specific tracker you need to go according to selected tracker just below common lesson section in Vortex's 40 day tutorial. There you will find Day: 3-8 and other parts.



I hope it clears your confusion.

Originally Posted by abitaach

Hello @leadmarketing,

This section is for Common lessons with any tracker.
To get lessons for specific tracker you need to go according to selected tracker just below common lesson section in Vortex's 40 day tutorial. There you will find Day: 3-8 and other parts.



I hope it clears your confusion.

Thank you so much @abitaach!

It seems that a lot of people are confused about this. I'm considering to just copy the common lessons into every tracker subsection.

It would take more work to update the lessons (i.e. update all 3 copies of the same lesson), but it would be worth it if it helps to clear up confusion.

I'll get that done within the week.



Amy

Originally Posted by martinbe

Thanks for this valuable info here. Just one question, i signed few weeks ago to BeMob. Can I continue with that one or it's not a good tracker?

Bemob is a decent tracker from what I know about it, there are better ones, there are worse ones. It all depends on what exactly you need and how much you are willing to pay.

Originally Posted by martinbe

Yeah I choose this one because of its free plan so I could have more budget to put into testing campaigns. Wrong approach?

Nope, bemob is an OKish choice and it can certainly get the job done

Originally Posted by martinbe

Yeah I choose this one because of its free plan so I could have more budget to put into testing campaigns. Wrong approach?

It's not wrong. But personally I would suggest to go with Binom or Funnelflux.

They both come with free trials, and discounted pricing for STM members.

If you're wanting to follow this tutorial step-by-step, it would be way less of a headache to get one of the trackers that are covered in the tutorial.

It's a hassle to change trackers down the road. Plus once you've gotten used to a tracker you may be reluctant to switch.

Here are some threads that may be relevant:

https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...cking-software

https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...h-bemob-lately

Disclaimer: I haven't used Bemob so can't comment on how good it is or not. I'm just providing some food for thought.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to save more money for putting towards your campaigns. Weigh the pros and cons and make a decision you won't regret.



Amy