Overview

Understanding how your marketing efforts translate into actual results is crucial in the fast-paced world of affiliate marketing. That's where offer attribution comes in.

Attribution simply means giving credit to the marketing touchpoint that led to a conversion (like a sale or signup). It's about figuring out which ad, link, or other marketing effort deserves the "credit" for driving that customer.

This article will demystify offer attribution within Everflow, exploring the different attribution models available and how to leverage them to gain valuable insights into your campaign performance.

Attribution Priority Types

Everflow has several ways to attribute a Conversion to a Partner (Affiliate). Following are the identifiers that could be used interchangeably.

Click Based

By default, Everflow looks to attribute a Conversion to a Click. Each Click that’s recorded within Everflow has a Transaction ID associated with it. When a Conversion is recorded & Transaction ID is sent to Everflow, the Conversion is attributed to the Partner who drove that Click, unless a different Attribution model has been set.

Coupon Code Based

Everflow allows for Coupon Code based attribution. By default, even if there’s a coupon code provided in the checkout, Everflow looks to attribute the conversion to the Partner who drove the Click.

This can be changed by setting the Attribution priority.

View-Through Priority Based On Impressions

View-Through Attribution allows conversions to be attributed to impressions (rather than clicks) when a user converts after viewing an ad.

To track View-Through Conversions, you need an impression tracking link from the Advertiser and must enable View-Through Attribution at the Offer level. More details can be found here.

Email Address Attribution

Generally, attribution can be based on Clicks.

But you can learn more about Email Attribution by reading our guide.

Clickless Tracking with JavaScript SDK

Clickless tracking allows conversion attribution without requiring users to click traditional tracking links. Using the Everflow JavaScript SDK, you can implement this by capturing user identifiers or behaviors directly on your site. Simply add the SDK to your pages and use the EF.conversion() method with appropriate parameters like coupon_code, customer_id, or custom identifiers. This is particularly valuable for direct site visitors, returning customers, or when tracking across platforms where click tracking isn't feasible. Clickless tracking complements your click-based and impression-based attribution models while providing more complete conversion data.

Want to learn more? Check out our guide about Clickless tracking and our Using Coupon Codes For Clickless Tracking article.

Attribution Methods

First Touch vs Last Touch

Everflow has two basic attribution choices, First Touch & Last Touch. These two attribution methods can apply to both impressions and clicks, but are most commonly associated with the latter.

Last Touch attribution is when Everflow attributes the conversion to the Partner who drove the last click before the conversion took place, and First touch is when that conversion is associated with the first click (or impression).

Learn in-depth about this topic here.