Note: You should use the Traffic Sources and Traffic Partners sections of IRP Admin only in cooperation with your IRP Account Manager.
You can find this section under Orders Tracking > Traffic Sources in the IRP Admin left navigation menu.
The Traffic Sources section is one of the most important and productive sections in IRP Admin. By entering your marketing costs, linking up with your Google Analytics account and harnessing the powerful statistical abilities of the IRP, you have the potential to maximise your sales using insights and strategies specific to your particular retail sector.
Hierarchy of Channels, Sources and Partners
Traffic Channels contain Traffic Sources which are then identified with Traffic Partners:
- Traffic Channels: These are the online marketing channels that are defined in IRP World. You download the following channels from IRP World as explained later in this section:
- Direct
- Paid Search Marketing
- Affiliate Marketing
- Organic Search Traffic
- Free Social Media Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Paid Social Media Marketing
- Marketplaces
- Remarketing and Display Advertising
- Paid Offline Advertising
- Referral Traffic
- Comparison and Review Sites
- Other (a catch-all category for channels that currently have no name)
- Traffic Sources: These are the specific sources within the channels. Again, you download these from IRP World as explained later in this section. Potentially there could be a large number of Traffic Sources and so here are just a few examples:
- Google PPC (‘Paid Search Marketing’ Channel)
- Yahoo Organic (‘Organic Search Traffic’ Channel)
- Amazon (‘Marketplaces’ Channel)
- IRP Email Marketing (‘Email Marketing’ Channel)
- Affiliate Window (‘Affiliate Marketing’ Channel)
- Facebook Paid (‘Paid Social Media Marketing’ Channel)
- Twitter Free (‘Free Social Media Marketing’ Channel)
- Traffic Partners: You could think of Traffic Partners as splits within the Traffic Sources, for example you might have country-specific Partners for each of your PPC Sources. You add Traffic Partners to IRP Admin manually; you don’t download these from IRP World. Examples of Traffic Partners might include:
- Google AdWords UK
- Google AdWords USA
- Google AdWords CHINA
Note that you should decide upon a naming convention for your Traffic Partners and make sure that you are consistent in the names you choose. We recommend that you include as much detail as necessary to distinguish each Traffic Partner from other similar Traffic Partners.
For more details, see the Traffic Partners help topic.
TrafficSources.aspx page
You use the main (TrafficSources.aspx) page to do two things:
- Download Traffic Sources from IRP World.
- Use your Analytics data to enter your Traffic Source Costs, Revenues and Transactions.
Downloading Traffic Sources from IRP World
Before you download Traffic Sources from IRP World, the main Traffic Sources page (TrafficSources.aspx) appears as follows:
If you (or your IRP Consultant) has not already done so, the first thing you need to do is to click the Get Latest Traffic Sources button. When you do so, the page is populated with data from IRP World as follows (note that the following screen capture includes sales, transactions and Traffic Partner details which you will learn about in later sections):
You can use the Search bar at the top of the page to find any Traffic Source. If you expand Other Options you can filter by Traffic Channel and by paid channel/unpaid channel.
Note: Now that you have downloaded the Traffic Sources, you don’t need to use the Get Latest Traffic Sources button again as the IRP uses the Download Latest Traffic Sources Common Task to keep the Traffic Sources synchronised with IRP World. However, there may be times when you need to use the button, for example if a new Traffic Source is added to IRP World and you need to update your IRP before the Common Task is scheduled to run.
Click the Enable Stat Entry button for the Traffic Sources you use. Then only those ones will appear in the main grid (there needs to be one or more Traffic Partners that fall under a particular Traffic Source).
When your Traffic Sources are in place, you can go on to associate them with specific Traffic Partners. To do this, you can click the Traffic Partners button at the top of the page, or go to Orders Tracking > Traffic Partners in the IRP Admin left navigation menu. For more details, see the Traffic Partners help topic.
Entering your Costs
After downloading the Traffic Channels and Traffic Sources from IRP World, you need to enter your costs. You should do this at least seven days after month end for the previous month. You can enter costs in one of the following ways:
- Go to Orders Tracking > Traffic Sources in the IRP Admin left navigation menu and click the Enter Costs button at the top of the page.
- Click the Enter Costs button in the bottom navigation bar. This button will be coloured red if you have yet to enter your costs; otherwise it will be grey:
- Go to Statistics > Monthly Statistics in the IRP Admin left navigation menu.
Note: Ensure that you enter your figures inclusive of VAT.
For details about how to enter your costs, see the How To Enter Costs article in this section.
