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When is a 30 day cookie not a 30 day cookie?

by teatree
3 replies
When the retailer employs last click tracking.

I was on the affiliates4u forum (for UK retailers) and came across the following thread:

Problems with John Lewis

The affiliate network in question tracks everything including time of click and time of transaction - but it turns out that some retailers who are supposed to have 30 day cookies actually have last click tracking so even if the transaction takes place within minutes of clickthrough, it could be attributed to something else like email advertising if another click comes through in that timeframe!

Just a warning to read the fine print. I've seen a lot of posts from people slamming amazon for it's short cookie time and relatively low commissions - but at least they their TOS is straightforward...
#cookie #day
  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by teatree View Post

    Just a warning to read the fine print.
    And to interpret, too: let's not overlook the fact that the person there making that complaint is a first-time poster with one post to her name, and that someone has replied asking her a couple of pretty intelligent-sounding questions and offering to look into it further for her, and so far there hasn't been any response to that, from the OP. I'm "just saying". It's easy to read things like this, without yet knowing all the facts, but just sometimes one's conclusions can turn out to be a little premature ...

    Originally Posted by teatree View Post

    When is a 30 day cookie not a 30 day cookie?
    When it gets overwritten by a more recent cookie, clearly ... and when potential customers clear their cookies, and when various other things go wrong with various cookie-tracking methods. ClickBank has the same system, and that can sometimes cause problems, too ...
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    • Profile picture of the author teatree
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      And to interpret, too: let's not overlook the fact that the person there making that complaint is a first-time poster with one post to her name, and that someone has replied asking her a couple of pretty intelligent-sounding questions and offering to look into it further for her, and so far there hasn't been any response to that, from the OP. I'm "just saying".

      Just checked again in case I read it wrong - the OP updated their opening post with their response about what the network said - read it again. They should really have posted a reply underneath, but hey, not sure that negates their point!

      My point was that people who bash amazon don't know when they have it lucky. Amazon has millions of affiliates across the world and you hardly hear about problems about their program. That's amazing and people should think again about chasing 30 day cookies and give the tried and true a chance.
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  • Profile picture of the author DireStraits
    There could be any number of reasons for this perceivedly high "rejection rate".

    For instance, some retailers are better known than others for running regular coupon-based discounts, encouraging shrewd shoppers to go in search of a coupon code just before ordering. Whether one is available or not usually makes little difference; the original affiliate's losing his commissions either way, because these sites nearly always send visitors away through their own affiliate links, overwriting the first cookie.

    Why Bonita thinks this implausible because of the short time frame between click-through and transaction is beyond me. It takes virtually no time at all even for a slow and casual web user to run a quick Google search and click a link or two before placing an order as normal.

    Secondly, who knows how the retailer was being linked to? If iframe redirection or something like that was used, for example, it's possible that wary customers concerned about clone/phishing sites will revisit through a referral source they instinctively trust, "just to be safe". That could be the retailer's own PPC ads or organic search listings, or an official glossy newsletter of which they're most trusting.

    Anyhow, yes, I would have to agree about Amazon. It's a real pleasure to do business with them, both as a customer and an Associate.
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