Product Update: Faster Redirects and Smarter Traffic Routing
Every time a user clicks on an affiliate link, they should reach the desired destination as fast as possible. The slower the traffic is routed to the affiliate operator, the more it has the potential to impact affiliate revenue.
That's why we've made improvements to the traffic routing system so that affiliates can experience better user experiences and more value from each visitor to their sites.
Read on to find out what goes into making a redirect go faster and smarter.
Why Redirect Performance Matters
While a redirect may take only a fraction of a second to happen, it does have an impact on an affiliate campaign.
All the following factors are impacted by the redirects that occur on the affiliate site:
User experience
Page loading speed
Campaign performance
Conversion rates
Affiliate revenue
By making redirects go faster, we ensure that the user reaches the affiliate operator with fewer delays.
Improved Routing Engine
The routing engine has been completely rebuilt to make smarter decisions about which operator to route the user to.
The routing engine can evaluate the following factors at the same time:
User location
Device type
Browser language
Campaign source
Operator availability
Lower Redirect Latency
We've further optimized the platform infrastructure to reduce the latency of redirects.
The benefits of lower redirect latency include:
Faster page transitions
Reduced waiting time for the user
Fewer instances of abandoned affiliate campaigns
Greater user satisfaction
Better Geographic Matching
With traffic being matched to operators with better geographic matches, the routing platform ensures that traffic is sent appropriately to those that can accommodate them.
The following factors are taken into consideration by the routing engine:
Number of licensed jurisdictions
Country availability
Regional campaigns
Market restrictions
Improved Failover Logic
Some affiliate operators may experience unexpected issues with their websites or the availability of their operators.
If issues are detected, the platform will automatically route the user to an alternative destination for them.
Failover logic avoids the disruption of campaigns caused by:
Affiliate operator outages
Failed landing pages
Operator maintenance
Redirect errors
Enhanced Campaign Controls
Publishers now have more control over their campaigns and the traffic that visits their websites.
The following can now be configured for campaigns:
Geographic rules
Device targeting
Priority operators
Campaign-specific routing
Custom redirect logic
Smarter Traffic Distribution
Rather than directing all the traffic to one affiliate operator, traffic can now be distributed more intelligently.
The benefits of smarter traffic distribution include:
More even distribution of traffic among operators
Better campaign testing
Regional operator optimization
More conversion opportunities from visitors
Real-Time Routing Insights
Now that traffic is being routed with greater intelligence, users can also view the routing activities on the platform.
The following can be viewed in the routing reports:
Number of redirects made
Geographic distribution of traffic
Selection of affiliate operators
Trends in blocked traffic
Routing performance reports
Improved Mobile Routing
Users on mobile devices will also benefit from additional routing enhancements.
The following have been optimized for mobile devices:
Mobile redirects
Device-aware routing
Platform compatibility
Response times on mobile devices
Better Monitoring
The engineering teams have implemented additional monitoring of the routing platform.
The following metrics can now be viewed in real time on the routing platform:
Latency of redirects
Success rates of the routing system
Health of the infrastructure
Number of routing errors
Regional routing performance
Built for Higher Traffic Volumes
The routing system was improved to handle higher volumes of traffic.
The improvements will allow the platform to handle:
Higher request volumes
More concurrent users
International traffic volumes
Larger networks of affiliate operators
AI-Assisted Routing Improvements
Artificial intelligence algorithms assist the platform to make smarter routing decisions.
The benefits of AI-assisted decisions for affiliate operators include:
Better selection of operators to route users to
Better geographic matching of users to operators
Evaluation of traffic quality
Better routing efficiency
Recommendations to increase routing performance
What's Coming Next
As part of our product roadmap, there are a few routing improvements that we plan to implement in the near future:
Predictive destination selection for users
Automated campaign optimization
Traffic segmentation tools
Custom routing workflows
Expanded analytics and reporting dashboards for campaigns
Best Practices
To gain the most out of the new routing improvements, follow a few best practices:
Regularly review routing reports
Monitor the geographic performance of campaigns
Test new campaign configurations
Update the priority of affiliate operators
Analyze blocked traffic
Compare the conversion rates of different markets
Optimize mobile affiliate campaigns
Final Thoughts
Traffic routing is one of the most important aspects of affiliate marketing that users tend to not think about. However, each update to the platform makes for faster and smarter redirects so that affiliates can recover more value from each visitor to their websites.
The improvements to the routing engine, redirect latency, geographic matching, failover logic, campaign controls, traffic distribution, monitoring systems, mobile support, and AI-assisted decisions will all work together to allow affiliate operators to increase their conversions and revenue.
As the iGaming industry continues to advance, smarter traffic routing will continue to provide publishers with a competitive advantage in growing their affiliate programs.