Understanding and Troubleshooting DirectLink Tracking for Affiliates
To understand why DirectLink tracking might not work, it is essential to first understand how DirectLink tracking actually functions. DirectLink tracking is designed for affiliates who have their own websites and allows these affiliates to use simple links—without any affiliate parameters—pointing directly to your website.
For example, suppose you have an affiliate who owns a website, such as www.myaffiliatesite.com, where they intend to promote your site. The affiliate can add myaffiliatesite.com* and *.myaffiliatesite.com* as DirectLink URLs into the system. Once these URLs are approved by the merchant, the affiliate can use simple links pointing to your website (e.g., https://www.yoursite.com) on their site.
When a customer is redirected from the affiliate’s website to your website, where the click tracking code is integrated, the software will look for the HTTP_REFERRER field in the request. This field should contain the URL address of the website from which the visitor was redirected—in this case, www.myaffiliatesite.com. The software will check whether any DirectLink URL pattern matches this HTTP referrer. If a match is found, the customer will be tracked under the affiliate to whom the matching pattern belongs.
This method relies on the HTTP referrer parameter, which identifies the website from which the customer arrived at your site.
Note: The HTTP_REFERRER can be empty in many cases, which means tracking will not work. These cases are described here.
DirectLink URLs will not work with Facebook, as Facebook always sets the HTTP_REFERER value to "https://www.facebook.com/"
NEVER permit your own domain name as a DirectLink pattern for any of your affiliates, as this would assign all visitors to your website to the affiliate for whom you allow this.
Steps to Debug DirectLink Tracking that is Not Functioning
- The "Support DirectLink tracking" checkbox in Configuration > Tracking settings must be checked.
- The DirectLink URL for the affiliate must be approved. The affiliate must also be approved, and the URL must be set for an approved campaign in which this affiliate is also approved (in the case of Private Campaigns). If the DirectLink URL is not associated with any campaign, the default campaign is selected. For Post Affiliate Network accounts, the default campaign used will be determined by the ID in the click tracking code on the resulting website.
- For Post Affiliate Network, the click tracking code on the website must use the correct account ID under which the DirectLink should track.
- The HTTP referrer must be set at the website where the click tracking code is implemented; you need to verify its presence in the click tracking request.
- The HTTP referrer must match the patterns defined for the affiliate.
The reasoning behind having two DirectLink URLs for each affiliate, such as myaffiliatesite.com* and *.myaffiliatesite.com*, is to match both www.myaffiliatesite.com and myaffiliatesite.com. You could set up a single pattern like *myaffiliatesite.com*, but this would also match other domains, such as www.anothermyaffiliatesite.com, since "myaffiliatesite.com" is part of that domain name.
Please instruct affiliates to use the Pattern & Real URL test in their panel when defining their DirectLink URLs to ensure their DirectLink URL definition meets their requirements.
If you need more information about DirectLinks, please click here.
Note: Hyperlinks used on any website defined as a 'DirectLink URL' must lead directly, without any additional redirect, to a landing page integrated with the click tracking code. Otherwise, the HTTP referrer will most likely not be set correctly.