Affiliate Link

A URL containing tracking parameters that identifies which affiliate (and campaign) referred the visitor.

An affiliate link routes a visitor through the tracking system — recording affiliate ID, campaign and click ID — before landing them on the operator’s site. It is the contract between traffic and payment made machine-readable.

Anatomy

A typical link carries the affiliate ID, an offer or brand ID, optional SubIDs for the affiliate’s own reporting, and lands on either the homepage or a deep-linked target page. Shorter, HTTPS, branded-domain links convert measurably better in email and social contexts, where raw tracker domains trip spam filters and user suspicion.