A guest article by Milana, key marketing manager at Travelpayouts.
When I discuss affiliate marketing strategies with our partners, I always start by looking at their statistics.
Stats reveal unexpected details. For example, it turns out that a long list of popular hotels brings fewer bookings than a review of a single hostel. Discoveries like this can help you refine your affiliate strategy, choose the most effective tools, and ultimately increase your earnings.
The good news? Interpreting statistics isn’t as complicated as it sounds. In this article, I’ll walk you through Travelpayouts’ stats features and how to use them to grow your income.
The Performance section
The Reports → Performance page is my go-to tool for evaluating campaign effectiveness across multiple parameters.
Here’s what it lets you do:
- Select a period: Analyze specific days, weeks, or months.
- Customize grouping: Break down data by brand, day, month, SubID, user country, and more.
- Use filters: Focus on specific affiliate programs or traffic sources.
- Show/hide columns: Display only the metrics you’re interested in (clicks, conversions, revenue, etc.).
- Download CSV reports: Export data for deeper analysis in spreadsheets.
🌟 Real-life case study
One of our partners had affiliate tools from different verticals – accommodation, excursions, and transfers. Grouping data by brand, they discovered that excursions were driving the most bookings, while transfers barely converted.
This insight led them to take two revenue-boosting steps:
- Doubling down on excursions by creating more content about them.
- Re-evaluating transfer programs – either replacing the affiliate or repositioning affiliate tools in higher-traffic content.
One simple analysis and two easy changes helped this partner maximize earnings!
Content Analytics
Another must-use tool in your Travelpayouts account is Content Analytics.
You just install a script on your website (details here), and the tool begins analyzing your pages. As soon as a user interacts by clicking a link, it’ll appear in your Content Analytics report.
(If you’re already using Emerald or LinkSwitcher, there’s no need to install the script. Content Analytics is already available in your Travelpayouts account.)
Note: The Content Analytics section is only visible to partners who have at least one Project with a website.
Content Analytics lets you:
- Track visits and unique visits to each page.
- See how many users click on affiliate tools.
- Monitor bookings (confirmed and canceled).
- Measure visit-to-click and click-to-booking conversion rates.
- Estimate revenue and potential earnings.
- Analyze the performance of AI tools like Emerald and LinkSwitcher.
Why this is a game changer
- Identify high-performing pages: Discover where your audience engages and books the most.
- Optimize weak pages: If a page gets traffic but doesn’t convert, you can tweak content, adjust affiliate tool placements, or test new offers.
- Boost revenue: Scale successful strategies by applying them to other pages.
SubID tracking
A SubID is an extra link parameter that lets you track the performance of specific tools, traffic sources, or content types.
🌟 Real-life case study
A partner placed a search widget in the sidebar menu of their site. To track its performance, they added the SubID widget_sidebar.
The results? Zero conversions. Turns out, the issue was banner blindness – visitors simply don’t notice widgets in sidebars.
Solution: The partner moved the widget into the article body, and soon after, bookings started rolling in. Again, a simple tweak, big results!
Experiment with different affiliate programs
New programs appear in the Travelpayouts catalog all the time, and even familiar ones update their terms. It’s a good idea to go back through the list periodically and experiment with new programs.
Tips for evaluating programs:
- Compare cookie lifetimes, commission rates, and conversion rates.
- Try several brands within the same niche to see which performs best. For example, link to GetYourGuide and Viator in similar articles, then compare their performance.
Keep analyzing, keep optimizing
Regularly checking your stats is the secret to long-term growth. Identify what works, double down on it, and refine what doesn’t.
Here are some next steps:
✅ Install Travelpayouts’ script.
✅ Use Performance reports to track clicks, bookings, and earnings.
✅ Use SubID tracking to refine placements and strategies.
✅ Test new affiliate programs and optimize underperforming pages.
If you have any questions or want to share your own data-driven insights, drop a comment below! I’m always happy to chat and help you make the most of your Travelpayouts partnership.