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What is the Attribution Window?

Set an expiration date for affiliate attribution, and capture a conversion as unqualified.

Nick Castellano avatar
Written by Nick Castellano
Updated today

Attribution Windows can get tricky in the wider world of affiliate and influencer marketing. Did that customer buy your product because of your own efforts or your affiliate’s? One way to filter through the complexity is to apply a number of Attribution Days to your affiliate offers.

The Attribution Window is a period of time during which a sale (conversion) can be attributed to a specific affiliate. After that end date passed, the conversion will show up in Refersion as Unqualified instead of Pending.

Please note: This setting used to be called the Cookie Day window. However, Refersion does not technically rely on browser cookies for link tracking, so the setting name was changed to the Attribution Window to prevent possible confusion.

Please note: The attribution window only applies to link conversions. Conversions through other methods (coupon code, customer email, or SKU) are not subject to this window.

Example: You set your number of Attribution Window Days to 30 days. A customer visits your affiliate’s blog and clicks a referral link, but leaves your shop without completing the purchase. That same customer comes back directly to your store 31 days later and completes the purchase. This order would show up as Unqualified in Refersion. You still have the record, and you can sort it out directly with your affiliate if need be.

Note: Click attribution happens on a "last touch" basis. That means that if a customer clicks on multiple different affiliate links to visit your shop, only the last link that was clicked will be attributed to the order.

How to apply an Attribution Window to an offer:

  1. Go to Manage > Offers from your Dashboard.

  2. If you’re creating a new offer, click + Add. If you’re updating an offer, click on that Offer Name from the list below.

  3. Scroll down, and expand Advanced Options.

  4. Enter your desired Attribution Window.

  5. Save Changes.

The default Attribution Window is set to 90 days on new offers that you create.

​Please note: Attribution Window tracking only works when a customer uses the same device and browser, in regular (non-Incognito or Private) mode, and with the same cache intact.

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