WP Affiliate – first click: Does Affiliate's link overwrite our own?

[aniinl]

Hi,

We recently switched from last click to first click in order to make sure to reward the very first affiliate that sent us traffic.

What if a customer has been to our site before, though, and then gets referred by an affiliate again? Will the affiliate receive commission even though it was already an existing lead?

In theory our link should then be the ‘first click’ and the referral of the affiliate should not be counted.

Could you please clarify?

Thank you,

Anja

[wzp]

To recap, there are 3 possible behaviors:

1. Default, LIFO. The last affiliate who sets the affiliate cookie, gets credited.
2. FIFO. The first affiliate who sets the affiliate cookie, gets credited for the lifetime of the affiliate ID cookie (default 21 days).

   https://support.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forums/topic/can-we-lock-members-by-affiliate#post-43487

   When the affiliate ID cookie expires (and is deleted by the browser), the next time an affiliate cookie is created, “that” affiliate gets credited for all purchases during the lifetime of the new cookie.

3. Locked. There is an addon that will allow you to permanently lock a visitor to an affiliate.

   https://support.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forums/topic/wp-affiliate-lock-customers-to-affiliates

 

We recently switched from last click to first click in order to make sure to reward the very first affiliate that sent us traffic.

If an affiliate cookie already exists on someone’s browser, the last affiliate will continue getting credit until that existing cookie expires. After which time, the behavior for case #2 takes over.

If you did not change the default cookie lifetime, then at worst, you will wait 21 days for the new setting to take effect.

Changing the cookie lifetime setting only affects newly created affiliate ID cookies. So, it’s safe to change it to 3650 days (10 years) now.

Note: Even if you set the cookie lifetime to 10 years, if the visitor ever erases their cookies; then everything gets reset. In which case, you might want to consider asking for the addon.

[aniinl]

Thank you wzp, this is all very clear and makes sense.

What I’m really interested in, though, is this scenario (maybe I wasn’t clear above):

1. user clicks on our own link (not affiliate link), so we attracted them ourselves

2. afterwards, same user clicks on affiliate link to get to our site (after he has already been on our site through our own efforts)

Will the affiliate be credited for the sale in this case (in a FIFO scenario)?

I know in a LIFO scenario the affiliate would be credited. But in a FIFO scenario that should not happen. Is my assumption correct? Because WE were the first click, not the affiliate.

Basically, we do not want to credit an affiliate if they are sending us people who already have been on our site before and probably are already on our own mailing list.

[wzp]

1. user clicks on our own link (not affiliate link), so we attracted them ourselves

2. afterwards, same user clicks on affiliate link to get to our site (after he has already been on our site through our own efforts)

Will the affiliate be credited for the sale in this case (in a FIFO scenario)?

The affiliate in #2 will get credited… because in #1, no affiliate ID cookie was ever created.

 

we do not want to credit an affiliate if they are sending us people who already have been on our site before and probably are already on our own mailing list.

For that to occur, one of two things would have to happen; both requiring a custom code modification:

1. Modify the plugin to create some kind of placeholder/dummy affiliate ID cookie, that will block later attempts at establishing cookies, by affiliates.
2. Modify the plugin used to lock affiliates, so that this case can be implimented.

 

#1 seems logical, because the dummy cookie will eventually expire; allowing affiliates to get credit for “recovered leads.” This could either be done as part of the existing affiliate plugin, or as an addon. But we’ll have to wait until @admin gets in, for his opinion.

[aniinl]

Thank you wzp, very clear!

Hope admin will see this and weigh in.

Will pass this on in the meantime.

[admin]

What wzp said is correct. Here is an example to explain why:

It doesn’t matter that you went to amazon’s site before. If you have clicked on an affiliate link to go to their site and purchased something then it is only fair that the affiliate receives the commission.

[aniinl]

Thank you for confirming Admin!

[Author]

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