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I’ve written and spoken on many occasions about why affiliates should be using SubIds in their network tracking. Whether you are a cash back site figuring individual member credits, a PPC affiliate tracking keywords, or a content affiliate testing different types of links and strategies, you can benefit from appending SubID information to your links.
I use the SubIds so much it’s become second nature to me, but I know that it can sometimes be tricky to find the instructions depending on the network. so I’ve pulled together a quick cheat sheet for you to print out and post next to your computer or email to your content teams so that they can use them as well. I may not use all of the same networks that you do, but this will cover most of the big ones.
Creating Network SubIds
For each of these examples, I will be using YOURSID as the placeholder for whatever you want to include in the SubId field.
CJ (formerly Commission Junction)
?sid=YOURSID
http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-1903321-11358?sid=YOURSID
ShareASale
&afftrack=YOURSID
http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=539670&u=140920&m=49225&urllink=&afftrack=YOURSID
Linkshare
&u1=YOURSID
http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=wfhQUf6qWdI&offerid=214134&subid=0&type=4&u1=YOURSID
Affiliate Window (formerly buy.at)
&clickref=YOURSID
http://www.awin1.com/cread.php?s=421467&v=5269&q=201377&r=135727&clickref=YOURSID
Pepperjam (formerly EEAN)
?sid=YOURSID
http://www.pjtra.com/t/4-98077-568-89424?sid=YOURSID
Impact Radius
?subId1=YOURSID
http://goto.orientaltrading.com/c/10146/79464/1985?subId1=YOURSID
Avantlink
&ctc=YOURSID
http://www.avantlink.com/click.php?tt=ml&ti=152225&pw=4205&ctc=YOURSID
LinkConnector
&atid=YOURSID
http://www.linkconnector.com/ta.php?lc=018983000010005602&lc_pid=Promo-11550&url=&atid=YOURSID&lcpf=0&lcpi=11550
eBay Partner Network
&customID=YOURSID
http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?icep_ff3=1&pub=5574636035&toolid=10001&campid=5335828680&customid=YOURSID
Performance Horizon Group
pubref:YOURSID
http://prf.hn/click/camref:1011l3gI/pubref:YOURSID
Be sure to test all of your links after you add the parameters to make sure that they are both routing correctly and tracking properly. This is particularly the case when you are combining deep links with subIds.
If you use another network and know the SubId tracking, feel free to leave it in the comments!
(P.S. SubIds are just one of the hints that I mention in my 30 Affiliate Marketing Tips in 30 Days Series. Have you signed up yet?)
summer says
Hello, thank you for the cheat sheet, just wondering about AWIN, which allows up to 6 clickrefs ie clickref, clickref2, clickref3 etc. Is that the case with CJ and sid? For example, can I have sid, sid2, sid3? I have searched the documentation at CJ but can not find anything. Thanks for your help!
Tricia Meyer says
As far as I know, you CANNOT have any other subids with most of the other networks (including CJ, Rakuten Linkshare, and ShareASale). A lot of CPA networks have it and some of the other “plaforms” like CAKE, I think. It’s definitely one way that AWIN is differentiating itself!
Claire says
Hi Tricia,
After searching for this info for quite a while on google I just want to say that I think I might love you a little bit for providing this cheat sheet!
Laurent Malka says
Hi Tricia
Very useful post. Would be good to follow up with the postback URL parameters as those subids can be used in conjunction with postbackurl provided by tracking software.
Best
Laurent
Bobette Kyle says
Ebay Partner Network (EPN)
&customid=YOURSID
Tricia Meyer says
Good one! I think it is about time for me to totally update this graphic! Between additions and networks changing names, some of it is getting dated.
Bobette Kyle says
Seems like at least one of the networks “shuffles” every couple of years!
Linkconnector
&atid=YOURSID
felipe says
Are you sure about Affiliate Window? Their just tell about an parameter called clickref
see wiki.affiliatewindow.com/index.php/FAQ_Publisher_Technical#Example_Links wiki.affiliatewindow.com/index.php/Publisher_Click_Ref
Tricia Meyer says
I was actually just looking at this yesterday and doing some investigating. It looks like in the US our old buy.at links still work with the LID parameter but the newer Affiliate Window links are using clickref. So it depends which ones you still have on your site. I am going to update the post to reflect that!
Jeannine Crooks says
Tricia is correct. When we transitioned from the buy.at interface to the new Affiliate Window interface in June, 2012, we made sure that the old links continued to work so our affiliates would not be inconvenienced. Clickref is how things are done via the AWin platform. If anyone has any questions, I’ll be glad to help!
Jeannine Crooks says
We’ve been Affiliate Window now since 2012, and in fact have retired all of the old buy.at servers. AWin all the way now!