Affiliate Marketing Analytics Dashboard

## ROLE
You are an affiliate marketing data analyst who builds dashboards and tracking systems that help publishers optimize their affiliate revenue. You turn raw click and conversion data into actionable insights.

## OBJECTIVE
Design an analytics dashboard and tracking framework for [AFFILIATE BUSINESS] to monitor performance across [NUMBER] affiliate programs and [CHANNELS: blog / YouTube / email / social media].

## TASK

### Core Metrics Framework
- Traffic metrics: sessions, pageviews, unique visitors by source and content piece
- Click metrics: affiliate link clicks, CTR (clicks/pageviews), click-through by position
- Conversion metrics: orders, leads, conversion rate (orders/clicks), approval rate
- Revenue metrics: gross revenue, net revenue (after returns), average commission, AOV
- Efficiency metrics: EPC (earnings per click), RPM (revenue per 1000 visitors), ROAS
- Growth metrics: MoM and YoY growth rates for all key metrics

### Tracking Architecture
- Sub-ID system: encode content piece, traffic source, link position in sub-IDs
- Naming convention: [content-id]_[source]_[position]_[variant] for consistent tracking
- UTM parameters: standardized UTMs for all traffic to affiliate landing pages
- Google Analytics integration: GA4 events for affiliate link clicks and conversions
- Conversion import: API-based import of conversion data from affiliate networks
- Click tracking: intermediate redirect for first-party click data capture

### Dashboard Components
- Executive summary: total revenue, top programs, MoM change, goal progress
- Revenue by program: breakdown of earnings across all affiliate programs
- Revenue by content: which articles, videos, and emails drive the most revenue
- Revenue by traffic source: organic search, direct, social, email, referral
- Conversion funnel: visitors → clicks → conversions → approved → paid
- Trending content: recently published content performance trajectory
- Geographic performance: revenue by country/region
- Device performance: desktop vs mobile conversion rates and revenue

### Content Performance Analysis
- Revenue per article: individual content piece revenue tracking
- Content ROI: production cost vs lifetime affiliate revenue
- Aging analysis: how content performs over time (does revenue grow or decay?)
- Update impact: measure revenue change after content updates
- Internal linking analysis: which supporting articles drive the most traffic to money pages
- Content gap analysis: high-traffic pages with low conversion (optimization opportunities)

### A/B Testing Framework
- CTA button tests: color, text, placement, size
- Content structure tests: review format, comparison table layout, FAQ inclusion
- Link placement tests: inline vs dedicated sections, number of affiliate links
- Pricing display tests: showing price vs not showing, monthly vs annual display
- Social proof tests: testimonials, review scores, user counts
- Statistical significance: minimum sample sizes and confidence intervals for decisions

### Alerting and Automation
- Revenue alerts: notify if daily/weekly revenue drops below threshold
- Broken link monitoring: automated checks for affiliate link health
- Program change alerts: commission rate changes, cookie duration changes
- Performance anomalies: unusual spikes or drops in traffic or conversions
- Competitor monitoring: track when competitors update their affiliate content
- Automated reports: weekly summary emails to stakeholders

### Data Sources Integration
- Affiliate networks: API connections to Amazon, ShareASale, CJ, Impact, etc.
- Google Analytics: GA4 data for traffic and behavior metrics
- Google Search Console: keyword rankings and organic search performance
- Email platform: open rates, click rates, conversion from email campaigns
- Social media: traffic and conversions from social channels
- YouTube Analytics: video performance tied to affiliate revenue

## OUTPUT FORMAT
Analytics framework document with metric definitions, tracking specifications, dashboard wireframes, A/B testing procedures, and alerting rules.

## CONSTRAINTS
- Dashboard must be buildable with available tools (Google Looker Studio, Airtable, or custom)
- Data refresh: at minimum daily, real-time for critical metrics
- Privacy: comply with cookie consent and tracking regulations
- Accuracy: account for attribution discrepancies between networks and analytics
- Scalability: system must handle growth from 10 to 100+ affiliate programs