The Complete Guide to "Content IDs"

"Content is king, distribution is queen, data is the crown jewel" -Arko Chakraborti

As a publisher and content creator, the importance of publishing & marketing quality content is obvious.

But what about measuring content performance? Having clear visibility on this data is supremely powerful, enabling you to instantly answer questions on your content, like:

• Which and what type of my content is driving the most (or least) clicks, conversions, and commissions?
• When I refer someone from one of my content pieces v.s. another, how often does the referral make a purchase (i.e. what's the conversion rate?)?
• Similarly, when I refer a referred order from a specific content of mine, how much do I usually earn for every referred visitor (aka what do I earn per click?)?

Enter Content IDs.

Note: Content IDs are not Required for Auto-linkers

Content IDs are only required for manually created and placed affiliate links. Thus, if you are affiliate linking through our auto-linking option, then the Content IDs do not need to be set up and are automatically recorded.

What are Content IDs?

A Content ID is an "identifier" or tag on an affiliate link that helps you know which content the link was placed on and is thus responsible for the resulting clicks and conversions.

You'll often hear marketers refer to this reporting method as "content attribution" or "page-level analytics".

The Content ID can be anything - like the URL of a page on your website, a description of an email, social media post, or even a Youtube video title.

It doesn't really matter what the Content ID is. So long as you / your team know what content the Content ID is referring to, you'll be able to easily distinguish between the performance of your various content.

How do I set up and track Content IDs?

Step 1 - Set Up Content IDs

There are two ways to create Content IDs:

• Kutoku's Browser Extension
• Link Builder

Option 1 - Kutoku Browser Extension

Preface: you'll need to first install our Extension by visiting the Chrome Web Store listing, clicking "Add to Chrome", then "pinning" 📌 to your toolbar (below).

1. Navigate to any merchant partner's site (✅ should appear on the Extension to show that it's a valid Kutoku merchant) > click the Extension

2. Customize the "Content ID" field* (e.g. grant-stone-brand-profile-june-2024 ) and any additional tracking params.

   

3. Click "Copy Affiliate Link" or "Copy Short Link" 
4. Paste the link wherever you'd like!

Option 2 - Link Builder

1. Go to the Link Builder
2. Add a link to any brand or product page in the "Merchant / Brand URL" field

3. Customize the "Content ID" field* (e.g. grant-stone-brand-profile-june-2024 ) and add any additional tracking (utm) params.

   

4. Click "Generate Link" or "Generate Short Link" 
5. Paste the link wherever you'd like!

Step 2 - Analyze your Content ID Performance

Once you have a few affiliate links set up with content IDs that have been getting activity, you'll next want to mine all of this valuable data for nuggets of insight!

1. Login to your Kutoku account
2. Go to the Performance page
3. Click the "By Content ID" reporting tab
4. Play around with sorting and analyze as you see fit! A lot of our publisher partners like to look for content outliers, such as:
   1. Which is generating the most commissions? Is there something special about this content, the brand/product featured, etc. that is contributing to the end result?
   2. Which are garnering a high number of clicks but few/no conversions? That may mean there's an issue on the brand's web shop (e.g. sold out product, high shipping cost) which is adding friction to an end purchase.
   3. Which content has a higher-than-average "average sale", "conversion rate", and/or EPC? This is your top-tier content. It means that your audience highly enjoys both your content and brand(s) / product(s) referred, leading to higher earnings for you.

Example

Say you have been diligently setting up Custom IDs for every affiliate link above and after a few weeks decide to dig into your "By Content ID" report.

It may look something like below, with the very top bar (highlighted in pink) being the total/average over the time period.

We've plucked out five example Content IDs for analysis:

1. Top-tier content, responsible for driving ~60% of clicks (20,107 of 32,361 clicks) and 30% of the affiliate sales (59 of 212, or $1,178.20 of $3,934.70). However, the conversion rate and earning per click (EPC) are 50% lower than the average. Thus, there are clearly opportunities to improve the content - whether it's the actual content, design, and/or affiliated brands/products featured within.
2. Another important piece of content, earning ~9% of the total referred sales with a 200%+ higher conversion rate and 50% higher EPC. Something about this type of content is definitely resonating with the audience. Potential improvements could trying to increase the commission amount (e.g. finding a different merchant with a higher commission %).
3. Wonderful source of clicks, but clearly under performing in terms of average sale, conversion rate, and EPC. The publisher should consider experimenting with different brands/products to feature.
4. While not a massive earner, the average sale is ~42% higher than the average ($356.40 v.s. $251.75) and based on the Content ID, I think it's safe to assume it was published in March 2013 (/2013/03/... ). There is certainly something special about this content's timeless value if it's 10+ years old and still driving clicks, sales, commissions.
5. Similar to #4, while not a huge commission driver, it is highly effective - both the average sale and EPC are higher than average, leading one to think that there is something of value within this content for the audience.

Keeping in mind that a single Content ID can be used for multiple affiliate links too, the publisher could have the option of organizing how they see fit

Example 1 — Consolidated Revenue

To consolidate all the revenue from these links you must generate them all using the same Link Content ID, e.g. brand-deals-email-2024-05-03 .

Example 2 — Separated Revenue

To see click and revenue data for an individual link, give that link its own unique Content ID, e.g. grant-stone-3345 or brand-deals-email-2024-05-03-grant-stone .