Track affiliates via affiliate ID URL parameters
Overview
2Checkout has expanded affiliate tracking capabilities with the introduction of support for the inclusion of Affiliate ID parameters ?AVGAFFILIATE=[affiliate identifier] in certain URLs pointing to your web properties.
Availability
This feature is available on-demand. Please contact 2Checkout directly if you'd like to take advantage of Affiliate ID URL Parameters,
Affiliate ID URL Parameters are available in concert with two types of Product Links that your affiliates can generate, namely links to:
- Your website (vendor website): when clicking on this type of links, shoppers from your affiliates are sent to the homepage of your website. Affiliates using this type of links get credited for sales no matter what products are purchased by shoppers during the validity period of the cookie set on their machines by 2Checkout (30 to 180 days, according to vendor preferences).
- Custom URL: affiliates create these types of links themselves, redirecting shoppers to a URL of their choice, such as special landing pages on your website.
How it works
When shoppers click on links on the affiliates' site such as the ones described above, pointing to your website they're taken to 2Checkout server (page loader), where affiliate cookies are set, and then redirected to your website. The redirect process involves adding the AVGAFFILIATE parameter to the link automatically.
For example, the following link:
http://wwww.yourwebsite.com/shop.html
becomes
http://wwww.yourwebsite.com/shop.html?AVGAFFILIATE=12345
(for an affiliate with the 12345 affiliate ID).
By including affiliate ID parameters in redirects to your website, 2Checkout enables you to better monitor the traffic generated by your affiliates.
Use case
AVGAFFILIATE functionality needs to be enabled for your account.
- Affiliates create vendor website or custom URL links and place them on their websites.
- AVGAFFILIATE is included automatically into links.
- Customers click the links to access a free trial of your service.
- Customers are taken to the 2Checkout server (page loader), where affiliate cookies are set (this stage of the process is invisible to end users) and then redirected to your website when they access the free trial of the service.
- Customers visit your site directly to buy the full product at a later date, or send the link to the financial department in a B2B scenario to purchase the service on their behalf.
- Because of the presence of the AVGAFFILIATE, the member of the 2Checkout Affiliate Network who provided the initial referral is credited for the sale and paid the appropriate commission.