The integration connects the affiliate system with your website, shopping cart, or payment gateway, allowing tracking referrals, purchases, or any other action for which you'd like to give commissions.
You are welcome to contact our support team to consult your desired affiliate program workflow and needs to receive the best possible advice on how to integrate & set up your account.
How tracking works
When a visitor clicks an affiliate link or banner, they are directed to your website where the integrated click tracking code records the click. The tracking code sends a request to our server, which generates a visitor ID value. This visitor ID is stored in the visitor's cookies and is also saved internally and linked to related data such as the referring affiliate and campaign.
When the visitor makes a purchase or completes another tracked action for which you want to give commissions, it is required to execute a tracking request to send the data about the sale/action along with the visitor ID value to Post Affiliate Pro. Upon receiving the tracking request, the system attempts to identify the referring affiliate using the visitor ID cookie, user-agent, IP address, or via other methods like coupon code or lifetime referral. If a match is found, the commission is credited to the affiliate.
General integration steps
1. Click tracking
To track clicks, add the click tracking script to pages where your affiliates send traffic. This script creates the visitor ID cookie value and stores it in the system, which is later used for sales tracking. The value can also be saved to the URL or a site parameter if needed. In general, it is recommended to place the click tracking script into an element that's available on every page of your website, e.g. footer.
The click tracking integration script valid for your account is available in Tools > Integration > Clicks tracking.
2. Sales/actions tracking
Integrating the sale/action tracking method allows your shopping cart/payment gateway to notify the affiliate system about a new sale (or another action that should generate a commission). The tracking request can be executed in many ways, via the sale tracking JavaScript added into the thank you page, a webhook executed by your payment processor, server-to-server request, and so on. The request is processed by the system, and if applicable, it creates commissions for referred orders/actions. The integration steps very much depend on your shopping cart and/or payment gateway.
All the supported integrations & tracking methods are listed in Tools > Integration > Sales/Leads Tracking. If your shopping cart or payment gateway isn’t listed, you can always try the "General solution" method, or apply for our free integration offer where our specialists develop the new integration method if possible.
A non-purchase action, for example a lead, registration, download, etc., can be tracked with a sales tracking method enhanced with a function/parameter to track an action instead of a sale, using the "Action commissions" feature.
Test the integration
Once your website, shopping cart, and/or payment gateway is integrated with Post Affiliate Pro, it is recommended to perform a quick test click and sale to confirm that the integration is working as intended.
Navigate in your merchant panel to Affiliates > Affiliates manager, click on the Edit (pencil icon) button to open the account details of the pre-set affiliate, and log in to the affiliate panel.
Click on the general affiliate link in the top header, and check if your click has been recorded in Transactions > Clicks list in your merchant panel. The click may take up to 5 minutes to appear.
If a click has been successfully noted, continue and complete a test purchase, and check if the commission is recorded in Transactions > Commissions. Again, it might take up to 5 minutes for the commission to appear.
If you don’t see the click or sale even after 15 minutes, feel free to contact us via email (support@postaffiliatepro.com) or live chat and provide us with details about your integration and test.
Next step: Add promo materials