Every partner has a personal code. When a visitor arrives through a link that carries this code and later buys from you, the sale is credited to that partner. This article explains which links work, how long a click is remembered and how an order finds its partner.
You set the rules under Affiliates > Settings > General. The Affiliates menu entry only appears while Payments is on, which you switch on under Settings > Features. Links are only tracked, and commissions only booked, while the program is switched on and your workspace is on the Business plan. Otherwise no click is counted and no code is stored, but the visitor still reaches the page. This applies to every link form below.
What a partner link looks like
Any page of your platform becomes a partner link when you add the code as a
parameter: ?ref=CODE. The names ?affiliate=CODE and ?partner=CODE work
the same way. So /courses?ref=anna opens your courses page and credits Anna.
There is also a short form: /r/CODE, or the longer /affiliate/CODE. It
sends the visitor to your home page. Add ?to=/path to land on another page of
your platform instead. Only paths on your own platform are accepted, anything
else leads to the home page.
A code that does not belong to an active partner is ignored. The visitor still reaches the page, but nothing is tracked.
Campaign links
Partners often share their link in several places. The Campaign Links element gives each place its own link, so a partner can compare the results. In the element settings, under Links, you choose Add link and enter a Name and a Page. By default there are three links: Website, Instagram and Newsletter.
Each partner then sees their own version of every link with its number of
Clicks and Conversions. Behind the scenes the link has the form
/r/CODE?c=website. If you choose a Page other than the home page, the link
also carries it, for example /r/CODE?c=website&to=/courses, and the visitor
lands on that page. Below such a link the element names the target, for example
Opens /courses. Each partner's links are created, with their target page,
the first time the partner opens the element. If you change the Page of a
link later, the new page only applies to partners whose link does not exist yet.
Existing links keep opening the page they were created with, and the element
shows exactly that page in the link and in the line below it. Changing to= by
hand in a campaign link does not change where it leads. The element is available
on a hub and on the dashboard.
How a click is counted
A click is counted once per visit. If the same visitor opens the same partner's link again in the same browser session, the counter does not go up. Clicks are stored per day and, for campaign links, per link as well.
On a partner's detail page, Referral links lists their links, and the statistics show Clicks next to Conversions tracked.
How long a referral lasts
The Attribution window in the box Attribution & freeze decides how many days a click stays credited. It accepts 1 to 365 days and starts at 30. In simple mode the box sits behind Show advanced settings.
The window is stored in a browser cookie. If your cookie banner is switched off, the cookie is always set. If it is switched on, the cookie is only set after the visitor accepts marketing cookies.
Without that consent, the partner code is only kept in the visitor's session. If they buy in that session, the sale is still credited to the partner. Once the session ends, the referral is gone. If the visitor accepts marketing cookies later in the same session, the cookie is set then and the full Attribution window applies from that moment. See Legal pages and cookie banner.
The last link wins. If a visitor first clicks Anna's link and later Ben's, the stored code is replaced and a purchase after that is credited to Ben.
How an order finds its partner
At checkout the stored code is saved with the payment. Once the payment succeeds, the commission is booked for that partner. No commission is booked if the program is not running at the time of payment, if the partner is not active, or if Affiliate commissions is off in the product's Affiliate tab. If the buyer is the partner, they earn no commission, points or rank for that purchase, but the partners above them still earn their level.
The first credited sale also links the buyer to the partner. Later purchases by the same member are credited to that partner even without a link. A purchase through another partner's link still goes to the other partner, but the lasting link does not change. Subscription renewals are credited to the partner of the first payment. How much is paid is explained in How commissions are calculated.
Buy buttons embedded on a site outside your platform can carry a partner code as well, see Embedding checkout on any page.
Sign-ups through a partner link
When New sign-ups become partners is on, everyone who signs up becomes a partner. Someone who came through a partner link is placed under that partner, unless an earlier purchase already linked them to another partner. This also works with the registration form embedded on another site, which reads the code from the address of the page it sits on. It decides the team placement only. The text below Default partner says it plainly: "Commission attribution for sales is not affected." More on joining is in How partners join your program.
Correcting an attribution
On a paid order, Change in the Affiliate box (or Assign affiliate while no partner is set) lets you choose a different partner or none. This reverses any existing commission for the order and books it again for the partner you pick. It also moves the buyer's lasting link and future subscription renewals of this order to that partner; choosing none removes the lasting link. It needs the permissions View Payments and Update Orders / Customers. See Team and permissions.
To move only the lasting link between a member and a partner, use Managed members on the partner's detail page. Systems outside your platform can read this link through the API with View in the Members group, and set or remove it with Manage in the Affiliates group.
Sales from outside your platform
If you sell through another shop or system, you can still pay your partners
for those sales. Create an API key with the permission Register
conversions in the Affiliates group, see
API keys and developer access.
Your system then sends each sale to POST /v1/conversions with the partner
code, the amount in the smallest currency unit, the currency and an
idempotency key.
- The commission follows the same levels, rates and rules as any other order. Tax you send along is left out of the base.
- One request books at most 20,000.00 in the currency, and the amount must be at least 1 in the smallest unit.
- A request with an idempotency key that was already used is counted once, so sending a sale twice does no harm.
- An unknown or inactive partner code is refused, and so is a sale where the buyer's email is the partner's own.
- While the program is switched off or your workspace is not on the Business plan, the sale is recorded but no commission is created.
To read commissions from another system, use an API key with View in the Payments group.