You asked for it and we delivered – the next generation of performance marketing portals is here! Hitpath has redesigned the front and back end of your partner login for publishers and advertisers to bring you a faster, more efficient, user intuitive, and mobile responsive platform, allowing you to share assets, communicate, and analyze data effortlessly for increased revenue on both sides!  And with a brand new API that allows you to fully access the data on any screen, it should be easier than ever to integrate with partners to streamline operations.

If you’d like a full walk through and preview on your platform, please reach out to our amazing support team via our live chat or at support@hitpath.com to schedule a call, or catch a glimpse at the new and improved screens below to see what the new system looks like! We will also have live previews at Affiliate Summit East, Meet Market table #1408, so stop by to say hello to our team and check it out! A Hitpath representative will have reached out to your team to schedule your preferred switching date; this is a permanent, one time, seamless switch to the new interface with no interruption to service for you or your partners.

Dashboard

Customizable reporting with improved options and a sleek new design puts your partner in the driver’s seat of their data

Live Traffic Map

Visualize clicks and sales globally in real time

Campaign Analytics

All the high level data they need, delivered faster than ever

SubId Analytics

Completely retooled for speed and user friendliness, your partners can analyze traffic source data in the blink of an eye

Detail Level Reporting

The advanced level analytics and data aggregates your partners need to optimize efficiently

Campaign Information

Fresh new layout and revamped searching options make finding the right offers and verticals a snap

Campaign Assets

Streamlined ability to access campaign assets means your partners are up and running – and making money – in record time

Network Mail

Partners will never miss another notification or announcement with the in-portal messaging system

API

A brand new API with 100% access to any data seen within the interface itself allows your partners to integrate seamlessly

Site Preferences

Personalize the site with their preferred options – set a homepage and even switch into Dark Mode!

Our team is excited to share the new Partner Portal and we are here if you have any questions or concerns! Please do not hesitate to reach out.

We are thrilled to welcome Shaun Hall as our new VP of Sales.  As a long time industry insider and an absolute sales fanatic, Shaun brings his experience in affiliate marketing from both the publisher side as well as the advertiser/network side.  He will no doubt be a terrific addition to our team.

We are very much looking forward to having Shaun drive sales and business development for us.  Cultivating existing relationships and helping clients grow their business by leveraging the full potential of HitPath via the CrossPub (TM) tool is one of Shaun’s first goals as he gets to know his new client base.

Shaun will be with us at Affiliate Summit East in New York City so please pass by our table at the meet market (table #1408) and say hello.

During Affiliate Summit, we will introduce our new Partner Portal built from the ground up and optimized for mobile.  The new Portal will also include a full suite of API endpoints so that affiliates who prefer to request raw data can be free to do so in real-time.  You DO NOT want to miss it!

About Shaun:

Shaun Hall is a ten-year veteran of the affiliate marketing industry.  He has achieved success in almost every facet of performance marketing.
Shaun has experience managing affiliates and advertisers for a few significant networks in the space. He has worked with a successful advertiser on managing their affiliate programs and helping bring new products to market.  Shaun has also spent a couple of years as an affiliate running traffic across various platforms.  He was awarded an AFFY Award in Las Vegas in 2019 for excellence in affiliate marketing.
Shaun lives by the quote, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”  A born salesman, Shaun had a rich and diverse career in corporate sales before starting in affiliate marketing.  He is a genuine people person and has a heart for helping people.  He believes every problem has a solution, and he is willing to do what it takes to find the answer.  Shaun is a foodie through and through.  When the pandemic started, Shaun started a Facebook group for home chefs that quickly shot up to almost ten thousand members and got featured on NPR.  His ability to unite people and form new friendships over something as simple as food speaks to his easy-going, compassionate nature.  Shaun is coming to HitPath intending to oversee years of growth and success! He is excited to put his unique ability to build value and his understanding of the importance of an amazing customer experience to work for the fantastic team here at HitPath!

Meet Market Table #1408

written by Enza Iannopollo, Senior Analyst at Forrester

Happy third birthday to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into enforcement on May 25, 2018. Despite its teeth, with data protection authorities (DPAs) able to fine companies up to 4% of their global revenues, it thus far hasn’t made headlines for imposing hefty fines.

It would be a mistake, however, to dismiss the impact of these rules and their enforcement just because DPAs have not made use of the maximum penalties. “The drops of rain make a hole in the stone, not by violence, but by oft falling,” wrote Latin poet Lucretius, and that’s how we should consider the impact of GDPR.

Over the last three years, European DPAs have delivered about 700 enforcement actions according to the GDPR Enforcement Tracker website. Courts have evolved their guidance and tooling on international data transfers, and the GDPR continues to shape the regulatory environment globally, with many current and upcoming privacy bills replicating its standards and requirements. A closer look at some GDPR enforcement actions shows that:

• Data protection authorities are enforcing the rules. Despite the global pandemic, GDPR enforcement continued at a steady pace. With over 220 enforcement decisions made so far, Spain leads the pack of most active regulators across Europe, followed by Italy and Romania. Overall, DPAs have levied fines for a total monetary value of €280 million. Italy has so far imposed fines for the highest amount — more than €76 million — and if all fines are confirmed, France’s Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) and Germany’s Bundesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz und die Informationsfreiheit (BfDI) will be following suit.
• Failures of data governance trigger the most fines and penalties. According to the GDPR Enforcement Tracker website, DPAs have carried out about 55% of their enforcement actions for infringement of Article 5 (principles of processing of personal data) and about 40% of actions for infringement of Article 6 (lawfulness of processing). These rules contain key data governance and privacy principles, such as ensuring that data is linked to a specific purpose, data accuracy, quality, and fairness of processing, etc. Data shows that firms have also struggled with rules about collecting data lawfully from individuals, such as through consent or legitimate interest, etc.
• Employee privacy rights are climbing the enforcement priority list. European regulators have so far issued about 50 fines and enforcement actions for violations of employees’ privacy. Some of these relate to employers’ failure to complete an employee request for data deletion or access. Other investigations uncover critical risks that companies often fail to prioritize. Employee personal data is primarily unstructured data, and it has traditionally escaped the same level of control and attention that companies apply to consumer data. Hence, it was not a surprise that the regulator found that excessive employee personal data was kept in instant messaging tools, emails, and other channels that employees used daily to communicate.
• Individuals’ privacy rights make their way into new privacy bills, but companies struggle. Regulators are slowly, but increasingly, investigating companies that fail to deal with individuals’ privacy rights properly (such as data access and data portability). While fines for failing to comply with data access and deletion requests, as well as objections to processing, have grown significantly in the last 12 months, companies continue to do a poor job at providing privacy notices with appropriate information. This includes information on individuals’ privacy rights and how to invoke them. And this problem might grow further, because other privacy bills, such as the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) and the Brazilian General Data Protection Law (LGPD), all contain similar rights.
• Data residency requirements are the gifts that keep on giving. There’s lots of action on this front. After the invalidation of the EU-US Privacy Shield, authorities on both sides of the Atlantic are still discussing a potential replacement. Meanwhile, the European Commission is finalizing updates to the Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC), which can be used to transfer personal data from the EU to third countries. The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) also published guidance on new risk assessments and additional safeguards, such as encryption, that companies must put in place when transferring personal data to third countries that raises particular concerns. New data protection adequacy decisions are in the works for both the UK and South Korea.

When it comes to privacy, the lack of headlines is misleading. With governments around the world adopting new privacy regulation, consumers systematically considering privacy as a key factor when deciding what to buy and with whom to share their personal data, and employees paying more and more attention on how their employers collect, process, share, and dispose of their personal data, this is no time to be complacent. 

Enza is a senior analyst on the security and risk team of Forrester and a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/E).

HitPath is excited to hit the show circuit again, especially as things are getting back to normal.  Let’s meet to discuss your tracking and attribution needs!

HitPath is exhibiting at Affiliate Grand Slam at the Dubai Expo on March 25 & 26th – meet with us at the first show of its kind, along with 3000 attendees, 150 speakers, and 150 exhibitors!

HitPath will be exhibiting at Affiliate Summit East 2021 in New York City on July 19 & 20th.  Visit us at Table #1408 during the first 2-day Meet Market of its kind at the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square!

Affiliate Summit West is back in Las Vegas, and it has left the Paris and has returned to Caesars Palace on November 2-4, 2021!  Visit HitPath at Meet Market Table #1105 on Sunday, November 2nd.

To set up a meeting at any of these events, or to schedule a call, send us an email!

This holiday season, we know your teams are busy – HitPath is here to help optimize your holiday traffic with two new features! Now announcing Promoted Campaigns and our new Shopify pixel integration!  Promoted Campaigns lets you put together a custom selection of your hottest ongoing and seasonal offers, letting your affiliates keep their fingers on the pulse of your network!  Choose the look and feel of the Promoted Campaigns page, what info is shared (including EPC and Conversion Rate!) AND the option to include a pop up window with the info when the aff logs in so they can’t miss it. You’ll now be able to share info and match your best performing affs and offers like never before!

We know that now, more than ever, retailers are increasing their online sales presence and many of them are struggling as they adjust to new ways of doing things.  To that note, we’ve improved our Shopify integration by creating a custom Shopify pixel! Now with just an easy copy and paste, you can start tracking automatically using the hitid, our ideal method of tracking.  No more troubleshooting back and forth, struggling with code, or relying on cookie based tracking – just reach out to a Support Team member who can provide you with the instructions and code, and start making money sooner!

Promoted Offers – 

Upon logging into the affiliate portal, affiliates can now view a network-wide popup with promoted campaigns!

Customizable settings will determine which campaigns are promoted, information shared about  the campaigns, and how often affiliates will see the Promoted Campaigns popup upon login. 

Affiliates have the ability to sort the promoted offers alphabetically, by EPC, conversion rate or payout, giving them insight on which campaigns to run.  Affiliates will also have the option to preview the promoted campaigns if they are approved for the offer.  After closing the popup, affiliates can still view promoted campaigns with a new menu addition, viewable through Campaigns, Promoted Campaigns.

On the admin side, promote a campaign by simply navigating to Tools, Site Content, and click on Promoted Campaigns.  Within this section, the frequency in which affiliates see the popup on login can be selected as shown below:

Selecting ‘No Popup’ means just that – affiliates will see no popup for promoted offers upon login, however the affiliate can still view the promoted campaigns page through their menu (Campaigns, Promoted Campaigns).

The option to ‘Show Affiliate Once’ means that after the first time the affiliate sees the popup and closes it, they will not see the popup again, but can still navigate to the promoted campaigns page to view the promoted offers.

The last option ‘Show Popup Every _ Days’ provides an option for the affiliate to see the popup upon login every set number of days.  The number of days for selection ranges from 1-30 days. 

Make sure to click ‘Update’ to save the frequency settings!

Below the frequency settings, campaigns can be added to be promoted.  Simply type in the name or id of the campaign you would like to promote, and click on the plus sign next to it to add it to the below promoted campaigns.  Within this section you can sort the promoted campaigns by clicking on the column headers; Campaign ID, Type, Campaign Name, Description, Payout, Payin, and Unit of Measure (UM).  To remove a campaign from the promoted list, simply click on the trashcan within the Remove column.

Additional customization of HitPath’s Promoted Offers feature is available through selecting a theme!  Choosing a theme controls which information is shared about the promoted campaigns and the style in which the promoted campaigns are displayed.  Navigate to this section by clicking on the Theme tab next to the Promoted Campaigns header at the top of the page. 

Here, three unique themes can be applied; Minimal, Compact, or Comfortable.  The Minimal theme is great for sharing concise, quick to read campaign information with affiliates.  Choose the Compact theme to show enhanced campaign information with greater data sharing control.  Or, select the Comfortable theme- perfect for those looking to have the features of Compact, but with a more stylized format.  For the Compact and Comfortable themes, there is an additional option to show EPC, Conversion Rates, and Payouts to the affiliates.  All themes can be previewed before rolling live to affiliates through the ‘Preview’ button at the bottom right of the screen.  Once the desired theme is found, click ‘Update’ for the theme to be applied to the promoted campaigns!

Shopify Pixel Integration – 

If you utilize Shopify, you will be delighted to find out about HitPath’s new Shopify Pixel Integration!  Our team has worked hard to develop an easier way for you to hitid track using a custom Shopify Pixel! Simply set up your campaign links to pass hitid=jjhitjj in the redirect link and let us take care of the rest. The campaign pixel will need to be placed within the Shopify checkout additional script section. One line script will need to be placed in the liquid.theme file before the closing </HTML> tag.  Reach out to the support team for the custom code to pass along to your advertiser.  All your advertiser will need to do is a quick copy/paste within Shopify and you will be on your way to earning those Holiday $$$!

HitPath is here to help you with all your holiday tracking and attribution needs!  Please reach out to the team if you have any questions about our new features. 

It’s Independence Day weekend in the United States of America, commemorating its 244th birthday. This year’s will be unlike any other however, with many fireworks celebrations canceled, many beaches closed, and people discouraged from the normal social gatherings we’re all accustomed to on the Fourth of July.

Instead, we’re adapting, having smaller parties and maybe doing our own fireworks displays at home (if you are doing this, please heed caution and learn from this hilarious but instructive video).

Our beloved internet marketing industry has had to adapt as well. Our regular meetings in New York and Las Vegas and San Diego for events such as Affiliate Summit and LeadsCon and Traffic & Conversion Summit have been postponed this summer.

However, our industry is a nimble one which adapts to its inherent volatility well. A good example is the entrepreneurial mind of Darren Blatt of Affiliate Ball. Knowing that there wouldn’t be a show this summer to host his perennial party, he and his impressive team put together the first Virtual Digital Expo last month, complete with a Virtual Affiliate Ball featuring Mix Master Mike of the Beastie Boys.

When I heard about the Virtual Digital Expo, my mind drifted back to the first online expo I “attended” maybe a decade ago. The technology, internet bandwidth, and overall experience is so different from those days – I was actually impressed, which is a lot to say for this jaded soul.

The first thing I noticed was the traditional trade show layout, with aisles, booths, speaker ballrooms, and even coffee stations and bars:

When I started visiting booths, I noticed there are different sizes/layouts as you’d expect on a normal tradeshow floor. There were places for branding and messaging, areas for collateral…

You could even have live meetings at each booth – those “manning” the booths were available via Zoom videoconference:

HitPath did not have a booth this time around, but looking at the professional presentation that Darren and his impressive crew put together, I decided to set a virtual background for my Zoom meetings and even dress for the occasion:

On the second night of the Virtual Digital Expo, Darren didn’t disappoint – the Virtual Affiliate Ball was complete with the AFFY Awards presentations, a virtual front room, and virtual dance floor with Mix Master Mike spinning the tunes all night long:

I’ll be the first to admit that the first Virtual Digital Expo exceeded my expectations. Darren and his team were nimble, making tweaks and changes on the fly, and he tells me that the next one is coming soon and will be even better. I for one am looking forward to participating in the next iteration – I can’t wait to see you there!

At HitPath, we are always committed to providing our partners and clients with global, industry-best of breed support. Given the ever-changing situation surrounding COVID-19, we want to make sure you understand that we have a thorough business continuity plan.   

This plan leverages our cloud infrastructure to ensure that our tracking and reporting services will continue to provide the same high availability, reliability and accuracy level that you have come to expect from us. Our business continuity plan takes many factors into consideration including how we serve the various interfaces and how data flows in and out of our servers by location, product and client segment. As we have had to do this during Hurricane Katrina and have refined it ever since. We continually test and challenge our continuity plans to ensure that the HitPath services and staff continue to operate at absolute peak performance.

Our team now operates completely remotely so that they can take care of their families as well as do their part in the fight of this pandemic. We are all remote and yet we are closer to you and your needs than ever before. We continue to develop and improve the platform, we add new features or features enhancements directly based on feedback from clients on a weekly basis, and we support it with the same devotion as when we started 15 years ago. 

We understand your concern as well as the feeling of uncertainty you may be experiencing surrounding the coronavirus (COVID-19) and its potential impact on your own business continuity. However, please know that we remain unquestionably and utterly committed to being responsive to your business needs as the situation evolves and as your own business might be experiencing challenges.  

In order to better assist and offer help to our clients when their own resources might be stretched and challenged, we have expanded the reach of our Network Managed Services and ready to discuss how these services can be put in place immediately.

Thank you,
Samuel C. R. Prokop Founder & CEO

You may have heard that Google Chrome has made some big changes in the latest update for the popular browser – we are here to help break down those changes for affiliate marketers and why you don’t need to be concerned if you’re using Hitpath.

The major changes have primarily to do with the way Chrome will be handling cookies – specifically that they will no longer share cookies across different websites (called Cross Site tracking) unless those cookies are secure and are set with a “SameSite” status tag. 

If that sounds like a bunch of technology jargon – you’re not wrong.  In simplest terms Chrome is changing its rules on how it will send cookies from various sites. This impacts affiliate marketers since these Cross Site cookies are what allow many things like retargeting, audience recognition, or some analytics to function correctly.  However, because Hitpath is tracking items such as clicks and conversions, we do not expect these changes to impact us – and we can walk through why.

1)   Hitpath does not use “Cross Site” tracking.  We use cookies for two main purposes; as a secondary method of tracking and as a deduping method.  In both of these instances, the cookies will only ever be read or accessed by the same domain that initially sent  the cookie. We do not have any instances where we need to share cookie information cross site to a different domain.

2)   Hitpath tracking is designed to use “first party” cookies.  This means that a user clicks on a website, ad or email that contains one of our links, which then loads that URL in the browser and redirects them to the landing page.  Because the user is choosing to click on that link, that makes it a first party cookie. A third party cookie is something that would be generated when a user navigates to a website like www.example.com, and then www.example.com would call a URL from a different site from within its own code that tries to drop a cookie.  Because the user wasn’t directly choosing to click on the URL (rather they clicked on www.example.com which then called the URL in the background), that becomes a third party cookie. 

3)   Hitpath cookies are secure. The new restrictions say that all cookies must be secure in order to be shared – Hitpath already includes SSL on all tracking domains and provides secure links to your affiliates by default, so all cookies will also be transmitted securely . No worries here.

4)   Hitpath cookies now include a SameSite tag.  Although based on the above we do not expect any impact on our first party, same site cookies, in order to keep up with best practices, we are adding in a SameSite=None tag to our tracking cookies.  The SameSite tag is a setting within the cookie that determines whether or not it can be accessed by other domains. Currently, Chrome has SameSite=None as the default for any cookies with no tag designated, but moving forward will change the default to be SameSite=Lax (more restrictive) for cookies with no designation.  We will now explicitly label our cookies as SameSite=None to keep the current behavior the same after the updates.

And of course as a final note, if you’re tired of trying to keep up with new browser changes and restrictions, we always recommend using our primary method of tracking – passing the hitid value – whenever possible as this method not only means you have the most accurate and reliable method of tracking, but it’s completely non-reliant on cookies

If you have questions on how to setup hitid tracking, or on any of the information above and how it may impact you or your business model specifically, as always, please reach out to your Hitpath Support team!  We’re here to give you unlimited support about questions big or small.

Starting next weekend, HitPath will be exhibiting and attending three events in Las Vegas – be sure to catch up with Warren, Sam, and Ava at one of these events:

We’ll be attending MailCon on Sunday, January 26th.  MailCon is the conference for Email Marketing and Deliverability, with 500+ marketers getting the latest insights, strategies, and technology news from the professionals who work their magic on email inboxes every day.   Register at http://mailcon.com.

Like always, we will be at the biggest performance marketing conference for affiliates, publishers, networks, advertisers, vendors, and agencies:  Affiliate Summit.  Meet us at the Meet Market, the famous six-hour event of face-to-face networking on Monday afternoon from noon to 6pm – find us at Meet Market table #1320.

After Affiliate Summit Meet Market, we’re sponsoring the Mailer Meetup, a private event for active mailers only.  The venue is TBA – you must be approved to attend, so register now at http://mailermeetup.com and meet with us at our private table.

To set up meetings in Las Vegas, email sales@hitpath.com.