🔗 Website⚙ Integrations

Affiliate Link Tracking

How does AnyTrack track affiliate links, what you need to do and how you can perfect your data collection with link attributes.

Reminder about affiliate link tracking

In order for tracking and attribution to take place, AnyTrack AutoTag your links with unique tracking id data.

Example: 

https://affiliatelink.foo?aff_id=123&offer_id=23&subid=xU4VVnJyCbFWIloIPdYap1ht

When AnyTrack is on your site, the entire data generation and link tagging happens automatically, without any special setup or additional configurations.

This is what we call AutoTag and it's part of the redirectless tracking feature.

Anatomy of an affiliate link:

  • Affiliate link: https://affiliatelink.foo?aff_id=123&offer_id=23

  • Query string: subid

  • Dynamic string (click ID): xU4VVnJyCbFWIloIPdYap1

We call the dynamic string Click ID and it looks like this xU4VVnJyCbFWIloIPdYap1

When a conversion takes place, the Click ID is appended to the Postback URL, which is called by the affiliate network. ⚠️ Without the Click ID, no conversion can be recorded and attributed.

Postback URL example with Click ID

https://t1.anytrack.io/account_id?click_id=xU4VVnJyCbFWIloIPdYap1&payout=12

LogoPostback URL Explained | AnyTrackAnyTrack

Since each affiliate software uses different URL formats and query strings, AnyTrack must be able to identify affiliate links so it can append the correct Query String and Click ID.

Examples of affiliate networks query strings

Affiliate Program

Query String

CJ Affiliates

sid

Rakuten

u1

Impact

subId1

Hasoffers

aff_click_id

ShareASale

afftrack

Examples of affiliate links that have been "autotagged":

HasOffers

✅ Each tab shows a different method.

<a class="lp-element lp-pom-button" id="lp-pom-button-250" 
href="https://go.nordvpn.net/aff_c?offer_id=2&aff_id=4479&
aff_click_id=Ww7Bz3Rxm47Eou0Fn3Eply" target="_self">
<span class="label">Click Me!1</span></a>

Specific Instructions are given for each affiliate network when you add it to your AnyTrack account.

LogoAffiliate Networks Integrations - AnyTrackAnyTrack

If you work with your own internal redirect system or with a link cloacker, make sure you pass the query string parameters to the destination URL. 💡 Learn how AnyTrack works with redirect plugins like Thirsty Affiliates.

Thirsty AffiliatesPretty Links Integration with AnyTrack

Query string in the offer link URL

If you prefer to add the query string directly to the offer link or if the affiliate network is not integrated in AnyTrack, you can manually add it to the link.

As long as the macro {click_id} or --CLICK-ID-- is added to the link, AnyTrack will identify it as a Call To Action.

https://mysite.foo/goto/offer?aff_click={click_id}
https://mysite.foo/goto/offer?aff_click=--CLICK-ID--

Additional options

<a href="https://mysite.foo/goto/888" rel="888" ></a>
<a href="https://mysite.foo/goto/leadpages" rel="impact" ></a>
<a href="https://mysite.foo/goto/wpengine" rel="shareasale" ></a>
<a href="https://mysite.foo/goto/wpengine" rel="noreferrer shareasale" ></a>

👉 You can check on our site where we have have a list of the best affiliate marketing tools. Hovering on some of the links will show you the "subid" parameters.

Logo16+ Affiliate Marketing Tools To Dominate Your Market | AnyTrackAnyTrack

If you've published your links as provided by your affiliate program directly on your site, your can skip this part as AnyTrack tag will automatically track them.

What are link attributes?

In the example below, you can see that the link href is surrounded by several attributes. Those attributes are set to give more context to the link.

<a class="aff links" data-table="top10" data-action="cta" data-page="Top 10 Brands" 
data-brand="888.com" data-position="1" href="https://888.com" target="_blank"></a>

  • data-table="top10"

  • data-action="cta"

  • data-brand="888.com"

How does AnyTrack use link attributes?

When you add the data-tracking-group attribute to your links, Anytrack will automatically append the required Query String and Click ID to the link when a visitor clicks on the link.

Example: 888 Affiliate Program

  • Affiliate link https://mmwebhandler.aff-online.com/C/47984?sr=1664238

  • URL Redirector: https://mysitedomain.foo/goto/888

  • Data Tracking Group: data-tracking-group="888"

Code as it should appear on your site:

<a  href="https://mysitedomain.foo/goto/888" data-tracking-group="888" target="_blank"></a>A

Alternative method: add the data-tracking-group as a url query string

https://mysitedomain.foo/goto/888?data-tracking-group=888

When adding the tracking group as a query string, you do not need to surround it with ".

URL during the click event

https://mysitedomain.foo/goto/888?anid=0as8df0sad8f

URL after the redirect

https://mmwebhandler.aff-online.com/C/47984?sr=1664238&anid=0as8df0sad8f

Your Link Redirector must be able to pass query string to the affiliate links. If your site runs on WordPress, you will find many URL redirection plugins. Check here

Each affiliate program has its own data-tracking-group name.

The data-tracking-group information is displayed on the dashboard when you setup an affiliate network. This list serves as an example.

Affiliate program / software

Data Tracking Group

CellXpert

cellxpert

Hasoffers

hasoffers

cake

cake

maxbounty

maxbounty

CJ.com

cj

ShareASale

shareasale

ClickBank

clickbank

HitPath

hitpath

Optional link attributes that AnyTrack uses for tracking additional information.

Attribute

Example Value

Google Analytics

Aliases

data-payout

20

Event Value

data-commission

data-brand

NordVPN

Event Label

data-label, data-name, title

data-category

page category

Event Label

data-page, data-table

Here is an example of how a link should be added on your site.

<a href="https://anytrack.io/goto/leadpages" data-payout="1" 
data-tracking-group="impact" rel="nofollow" data-brand="leadpages" linkId="blog" 
data-at-href="https://anytrack.io/goto/leadpages">Try LeadPages Free</a>

CSS standard attributes

You can use the following CSS attributes to enable redirectless tracking on your links.

  • Tracking Group: tgid-{affiliateNetwork}

  • Commission: at-com-{numericValue}

  • Brand Name: at-label-{brandName}

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