Lander vs direct-link in the funnel — tracker setup tradeoffs

Lander vs direct-link in the funnel — tracker setup tradeoffs

Send clicks through your own lander or straight to the offer? Beyond conversion theory, the tracker setup differs.

Use a lander (2-hop) when:
— You need pre-sell, pre-qualification, or compliance buffering.
— You want to capture click-through rate as a separate optimization lever.
— You're warming traffic the offer page would reject cold.

Use direct-link (1-hop) when:
— The offer page already converts cold traffic well.
— Every 100ms costs conversions (you remove a full page load).
— The source allows direct offer linking.

Tracker implications to log:
— Lander gives you a CTR metric and a place to fire your own click_id — more control, more failure points.
— Direct-link means your tracker only sees the click and the postback — no mid-funnel signal.
— With a lander, ensure the click_id passes lander → offer or you lose attribution at hop two.

Rule: direct-link to validate an offer fast, add a lander once you need a CTR lever or a compliance buffer.

Save this SOP. Run this before every launch.