Best Analytics Tools for Affiliates

You can't optimize what you don't measure. The right analytics tools help you understand where your traffic comes from, what converts, and where to focus your efforts—plus they help you stay legally compliant by documenting your traffic sources.

This guide covers the essential analytics stack for casino affiliates at every level.

Core Analytics: Website Tracking

Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

Cost: Free

What it does:

• Tracks all website visitors
• Shows traffic sources
• Measures user behavior
• Provides conversion tracking

Key features for affiliates:

• Acquisition reports (where traffic comes from)
• Engagement metrics (time on site, pages per session)
• Custom events (track button clicks, affiliate links)
• Funnel visualization

Setup priority: Essential - this is your foundation

Limitations:

• Learning curve for GA4
• Sampling at high traffic levels
• Privacy regulations affect data
• Requires proper configuration

Alternatives to GA4

Plausible Analytics

• Cost: From $9/month
• Privacy-focused
• Simpler interface
• No cookie banner needed in many jurisdictions

Fathom Analytics

• Cost: From $14/month
• Privacy-first
• Simple, clean dashboard
• Good for GDPR compliance

Matomo

• Cost: Free (self-hosted) or paid (cloud)
• Full-featured
• Privacy-compliant options
• More control over data

When to use alternatives:

• Privacy is priority
• Simpler interface preferred
• GDPR compliance concerns
• Want to avoid Google ecosystem

Conversion Tracking

Affiliate Link Tracking

Why it matters:

• Know which content converts
• Understand what drives revenue
• Optimize high-performers
• Identify underperformers

Options:

Affiliate dashboard tracking

• Built into most programs
• Tracks clicks and conversions
• Limited to that program's data

UTM parameters

• Free, works with any analytics
• Track source, medium, campaign
• Custom parameters possible

Dedicated link tracking tools:

ThirstyAffiliates (WordPress)

• Cost: Free / Pro from $79/year
• Link cloaking
• Click tracking
• Category organization

Pretty Links (WordPress)

• Cost: Free / Pro from $99.50/year
• URL shortening
• Click tracking
• Redirect management

ClickMeter

• Cost: From $29/month
• Multi-platform
• Advanced tracking
• Conversion monitoring

Implementing UTM Tracking

For a detailed guide, see our UTM tracking setup article.

UTM parameters:

• utm_source: Where traffic comes from (google, twitter, etc.)
• utm_medium: Type of traffic (organic, cpc, email)
• utm_campaign: Specific campaign name
• utm_content: Specific content piece

Example:

yoursite.com/casino-review?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=jan-promo&utm_content=thread-1

Best practice: Create consistent naming conventions and document them.

SEO Analytics

Google Search Console

Cost: Free

What it does:

• Shows search queries that find you
• Tracks rankings over time
• Identifies technical issues
• Shows click-through rates

Key metrics:

• Impressions (how often you appear)
• Clicks (how often clicked)
• CTR (click-through rate)
• Average position

Why essential:

• Only source of true Google search data
• Free and directly from Google
• Identifies indexing issues
• Shows ranking trends

SEO Tools

Ahrefs

• Cost: From $99/month
• Backlink analysis
• Keyword research
• Competitor analysis
• Rank tracking

SEMrush

• Cost: From $129.95/month
• All-in-one SEO suite
• Keyword research
• Technical SEO audits
• Competitor tracking

Moz Pro

• Cost: From $99/month
• Domain authority tracking
• Link research
• Rank tracking
• On-page optimization

Ubersuggest

• Cost: Free limited / $29/month
• Keyword research
• Content ideas
• Backlink data
• More affordable option

When to invest:

• When SEO is primary traffic source
• When you need competitive intelligence
• When scaling content production

Heatmaps and User Behavior

Why Use Heatmaps

Understand:

• Where users click
• How far they scroll
• What gets attention
• What gets ignored

Applications:

• Optimize CTA placement
• Improve content structure
• Identify UX issues
• Increase conversions

Top Tools

Hotjar

• Cost: Free limited / from $32/month
• Heatmaps
• Session recordings
• Feedback polls
• Form analysis

Microsoft Clarity

• Cost: Free
• Heatmaps
• Session recordings
• Unlimited data
• Good free option

Crazy Egg

• Cost: From $29/month
• Heatmaps
• Scroll maps
• A/B testing
• Click reports

Recommendation: Start with Microsoft Clarity (free) or Hotjar free tier.

A/B Testing

Why Test

Test to improve:

• Headline effectiveness
• CTA button text
• Page layouts
• Content formats

Tools

Google Optimize (sunset, but alternatives exist)

VWO

• Cost: Contact for pricing
• Full A/B testing
• Multivariate tests
• Personalization

Optimizely

• Cost: Enterprise pricing
• Full experimentation platform
• Advanced features

Simple alternatives:

• Manual testing with UTM tracking
• WordPress plugins (Nelio A/B Testing)
• Landing page builders with built-in testing

Social Media Analytics

Platform-Native Analytics

Free from each platform:

• Twitter Analytics
• YouTube Studio
• Instagram Insights
• TikTok Analytics

What they show:

• Follower growth
• Engagement rates
• Best posting times
• Audience demographics

Cross-Platform Tools

Buffer

• Cost: Free limited / from $6/month
• Scheduling
• Basic analytics
• Multiple platforms

Hootsuite

• Cost: From $99/month
• Comprehensive analytics
• Team features
• Report generation

Sprout Social

• Cost: From $249/month
• Deep analytics
• Competitor analysis
• Enterprise features

Email Marketing Analytics

Built-in Email Analytics

Key metrics:

• Open rate
• Click rate
• Unsubscribe rate
• Conversion rate

Email Platforms with Good Analytics

ConvertKit

• Subscriber engagement scoring
• Tag-based tracking
• Revenue attribution

Mailchimp

• Detailed campaign reports
• Audience insights
• E-commerce tracking

ActiveCampaign

• Advanced automation analytics
• Contact scoring
• Attribution reporting

Building Your Analytics Stack

Beginner Setup (Free-Low Cost)

Essential:

1. Google Analytics 4 - Website tracking
2. Google Search Console - SEO data
3. Microsoft Clarity - User behavior
4. UTM parameters - Link tracking
5. Platform native analytics - Social media

Investment: $0-50/month

Focus: Get basics right before adding complexity

Intermediate Setup

Add to beginner:

1. SEO tool (Ahrefs or SEMrush) - Competitive analysis
2. Link tracking tool - Better affiliate tracking
3. Hotjar (paid) - Advanced user insights
4. Email platform analytics - List performance

Investment: $100-300/month

Focus: Competitive intelligence and optimization

Advanced Setup

Add to intermediate:

1. A/B testing platform - Systematic optimization
2. Data visualization (Google Data Studio, Tableau)
3. Custom dashboards - Unified view
4. Advanced attribution - Cross-channel understanding

Investment: $300-1000+/month

Focus: Scale and efficiency

Key Metrics to Track

Traffic Metrics

• Sessions / Users
• New vs. returning visitors
• Traffic sources
• Geographic distribution
• Device breakdown

Engagement Metrics

• Time on site
• Pages per session
• Bounce rate
• Scroll depth
• Click patterns

Conversion Metrics

• Affiliate link clicks
• Click-through rate
• Conversion rate
• Revenue per visitor
• Cost per acquisition (if running ads)

SEO Metrics

• Organic traffic
• Rankings for target keywords
• Click-through rate in search
• Backlink profile
• Domain authority

Content Metrics

• Top pages
• Content that converts
• Content that doesn't
• Time on page by content
• Exit pages

Creating Actionable Dashboards

What Makes a Good Dashboard

Characteristics:

• Answers specific questions
• Shows trends over time
• Highlights actionable items
• Updated automatically
• Not overwhelming

Essential Dashboard Views

Traffic dashboard:

• Total traffic trend
• Traffic by source
• Top pages
• Geographic breakdown

Conversion dashboard:

• Affiliate clicks
• Conversion rate trend
• Revenue attribution
• Top converting content

SEO dashboard:

• Organic traffic trend
• Ranking changes
• Click-through rates
• Top keywords

Tools for Dashboards

Google Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio)

• Free
• Connects to Google products easily
• Customizable
• Shareable

Databox

• Cost: Free limited / from $72/month
• Pre-built templates
• Multi-source integration
• Mobile-friendly

Conclusion

The right analytics setup helps you make data-driven decisions:

Start with:

1. GA4 for website tracking
2. Search Console for SEO
3. UTM parameters for attribution
4. Free heatmap tool

Add over time:

1. SEO tools as you scale
2. Advanced tracking as needed
3. Testing tools when optimizing
4. Custom dashboards for efficiency

Key principle: Don't collect data you won't act on. Start simple, add complexity as you need it, and focus on metrics that inform decisions.

For proper tracking compliance, review our casino affiliate compliance checklist and understand gambling advertising regulations. Programs like PureOdds offer transparent dashboards that integrate with your analytics setup. Be aware of common affiliate mistakes that come from poor data analysis.