First Click or Last Click – who deserves the referral?

[p.arena]

Hey all, there’s been some discussions on the topic of first click and last click tracking on the forum in the past, so I thought this article from the WBX Affiliate News section may be of interest to some readers.

The article also looks at cookie length and some other important issues for affiliates.

Here’s the link: First Click vs Last Click Affiliate Tracking

[universal4]

What method do you currently use?

Rick
Universal4

[hublot]

My vote goes for last click, they were the ones that closed the sale.

[TheGooner]

Yes the problem with "first click" is that encouraged all those low rent sites that open up sneaky pop-under windows that load the target program in a small window AND place a cookie on the readers PC.

Many of these sites had no intention of openly promoting the sites or informing readers about them, it was just a case of hopping onto viral videos and trends and stuff cookies for numerous programs hoping to get a "hit" with a subsequent join.

[p.arena]

What method do you currently use?

Rick
Universal4

Hey Rick, last click is the type used at WBX.

[p.arena]

Yes the problem with "first click" is that encouraged all those low rent sites that open up sneaky pop-under windows that load the target program in a small window AND place a cookie on the readers PC.

Many of these sites had no intention of openly promoting the sites or informing readers about them, it was just a case of hopping onto viral videos and trends and stuff cookies for numerous programs hoping to get a "hit" with a subsequent join.

Exactly, I've read about big operations involving cookie stuffers for eBay and other affiliate programs. Once they have dropped those cookies for all those visitors, anything that legitimate affiliates do would count for nothing which doesn't seem fair to me.

[GCG]

IMO the last referrer who actually actively contributed to the sale not the "wankers".

[EdJones]

I think last click makes the most sense, but it's not perfect. The brand's own campaigns shouldn't override the affiliate tracking - but most seem to. Very often an affiliate site will be the first to introduce a person to a product via a review etc, but then the user will recognise a saturation branding banner ad somewhere later and click to sign up, because they remember the brand. It was the affiliate that did the work to convince the user that brand was worth a purchase, but they then get no recognition for the sale. Some brands are even more evil and will override an affiliate cookie on direct navigation to a url. For example if a potential customer remembers the brand and types in brand.com instead of re-clicking an affiliate link, they will override any existing tracking cookies with their own 'type in' tracking. That is especially heinous.

That's why at the last affiliate program I consulted with, we had a last click policy, but the brand's own advertising would never override affiliate tracking. It's probably the fairest way. But there's no reason these days that affiliate tracking can't be even more sophisticated. Unfortunately it's an area that is still largely in the dark ages technologically. Not a lot has changed since the 90s.

[p.arena]

hi Ed, that's true. Some of those points were touched on in the article as well.

There could be scenarios like the one you mentioned above where the first affiliate puts in most of the work and someone else just happens to get the sale across the line. Generally though with no other information to go on, last click seems to be the safest option.

Splitting the revenue between all affiliates that have dropped cookies on the visitors computer would get messy as well. I think as an Affiliate Manager it would be difficult to explain to someone that referred their friend and asked why the earnings were only 1/3 of what they should be, that the referral has been credited to 2 other affiliates as well.

I know there are some sectors where this is done, but for sports betting affiliate programs it is pretty uncommon, and I can't think of any that do that off the top of my head.

[Gamer]

"last click seems to be the safest option"
That's all in this matter.

Perhaps the solution is that both affiliates (first and last click) share referral by 50/50 ??
Just joke!

[F-L-C]

Last Click 100%

[Panther Casino Affiliates]

Hi

You go with the affiliate that closes the sale by getting the player back to the site to sign up.