Q: Exclusive partner codes or public discount codes for affiliates?
Use exclusive, partner-specific codes whenever a code is attached to a partner. Here's why it beats public codes for attribution.
A public 'SAVE20' code leaks everywhere — coupon aggregators scrape it, customers find it via search, and you pay commission on sales no partner influenced. Worse, it lets last-click coupon sites claim credit for traffic your content partners drove.
— Give each meaningful partner a unique code (PARTNERNAME15). Now attribution is clean even when their tracking link gets stripped, and you can shut off one leaky code without nuking the campaign.
— Reserve public codes for owned channels (email, on-site) where you don't pay commission.
This also fixes the influencer problem: their audience uses the code instead of a link, and you can still pay correctly.
Caveat: monitor for code leakage to aggregator sites. A partner's 'exclusive' code on RetailMeNot is just an expensive public code.
Got a question? Send it in.
Use exclusive, partner-specific codes whenever a code is attached to a partner. Here's why it beats public codes for attribution.
A public 'SAVE20' code leaks everywhere — coupon aggregators scrape it, customers find it via search, and you pay commission on sales no partner influenced. Worse, it lets last-click coupon sites claim credit for traffic your content partners drove.
— Give each meaningful partner a unique code (PARTNERNAME15). Now attribution is clean even when their tracking link gets stripped, and you can shut off one leaky code without nuking the campaign.
— Reserve public codes for owned channels (email, on-site) where you don't pay commission.
This also fixes the influencer problem: their audience uses the code instead of a link, and you can still pay correctly.
Caveat: monitor for code leakage to aggregator sites. A partner's 'exclusive' code on RetailMeNot is just an expensive public code.
Got a question? Send it in.