If you’re a merchant running two different affiliate programs on two different networks, then you’ll need to account for duplicate conversions. Duplicate conversions might occur when a merchant has two affiliate programs on two different platforms/networks. If a customer is referred to your website by affiliates from both platforms, then they may end up with two separate sets of tracking cookies on their browser. If the customer goes on to place an order, then you may end up paying commission twice for one sale. You’ll need to setup a process (either manual or automated) to deduplicate these conversions.
Please note: It's generally discouraged to run a similar type of affiliate program on two different platforms. The tips that we provide here are intended to help merchants who are in the midst of migrating their affiliate program from one platform to another.
Also note that some aspects of this solution are technical and may require developer resources from your end.
Steps
Append a Click Source as a Tracking Parameter in the Referral Link and Set the Source as a Browser Cookie
A potential solution you can employ to help automate this de-duping process is using a custom tracking parameter in all of your affiliates’ referral links (from all tracking platforms). Each tracking platform/marketing channel should append a unique value for the parameter. For example:
www.awesomebrand.com/?source=refersion – Refersion
www.awesomebrand.com/?source=google – Google PPC
www.awesomebrand.com/?source=email – Email campaign
From there you can reference the click source in a conversion report with traffic sources/referring URLs and manually deny conversions when needed.
On a more technical level, you could also use the tracking parameter to set a cookie on the visitor’s browser.
Overwrite the Click Source When Needed
Should you choose to use the click source URL parameter as a browser cookie, then since Refersion operates on a last-click attribution model (the affiliate’s link who was most recently clicked by a customer before placing their order will be the referring affiliate in our system), you’ll want to overwrite the cookie on the customer’s browser every time a new source parameter is detected in the URL.
For example, If a customer first clicks to your site via an Awin publisher (?source=awin) but later returns via a Refersion publisher (?source=refersion), then the stored source ID needs to be replaced with the most recent referrer.
Important Note: Depend on your site’s e-commerce platform and it's integration with Refersion, you may not be able to control when Refersion’s tracking scripts load. In that case, instead of overwriting the click source cookie, you can remove the local storage values set by Refersion to lessen the chance of attribution if the source is another platform.
Reference the Click Source on Your Store’s Thank You Page
Finally, when the customer completes a purchase, your site should reference the last recorded source ID to determine which tracking script to fire. In the above example, only the Refersion tracking code would be triggered (not the Awin tracking code), ensuring the sale is correctly attributed to Refersion as the last referring network.
You can also manually within either platform look at the traffic source of conversions and deny them if the source isn't the same as the platform you’re currently reviewing.
For example: If you’re reviewing a report showing conversions with referring URLs and see some of the conversions have a source of "awin" in the URL, then you could deny those conversions in Refersion and allow them in Awin. The same logic would apply when reviewing conversions in Awin.