You can see some of the information being recorded. It has been shown in bold in the URL:
• The affiliate network – Affiliate Future • The ID of the affiliate (238) • The ID of the merchant (214) • The ID of the programme (3897) (a merchant may have more than one programme on a network) • The media used (0) • The destination of the click
Can you spot the original URL in the one with the tracking?
When the customer completes the required action on the merchant’s website, the cookie will allow the tracking software to collect the information needed to award the commission. For example, if a customer were to use an affiliate link
to purchase a gift from a merchant (using the same URL as before), the following information would be collected:
• Referring URL and affiliate • Total sale amount for commission • Date and time of sale • Unique order number of sale
All this information will allow the merchant to confirm that the sale is valid, as well as the amount of commission that is due, without ever releasing any of the customer’s personal information.
Affiliate tracking software collects information even if no action is completed. This is vital to the affiliates and to the merchants to see where they can optimise their campaign.
Information collected includes:
• Impressions • Clicks • Conversions
All this information helps to build up data in order to strengthen the campaign.