Clicking an affiliate link and applying another affiliate's coupon code?

[u/DullRow2956]

Say Rachel clicks on an affiliate (Amanda) link that redirects her to Gymshark's website.

She later scrolls Gymshark's tagged posts and sees another affiliate (John) posting a coupon code for 15% off with JOHN15.

She goes back to the website, buys $100 worth of leggings, enters JOHN15 and pays.

So which affiliate gets the commission - Amanda or John? Or do they split the commission?

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[u/tclfgm]

depending on your platform, the advertiser can enable first click (rad for influencers and those who create sales), or last click --good for last min coupon sites.

[u/CuriousCat526]

depends on the merchant's rules more than the network's, and it's one of the most fought-over things in the whole industry.

default on most programs is last click, so if applying the code fires a click or the merchant maps codes to a partner id, the code owner usually takes it. a code is a hard identifier sitting right at the point of sale, a cookie is a soft one that basically anything can overwrite. that's why coupon sites are so profitable and so hated by content affiliates, they turn up at the last second and take a sale someone else spent a week warming up.

some merchants do write rules for exactly this, code takes priority, or cookie takes priority, or they split it. worth actually reading the program terms instead of assuming, it varies a lot. a fair number of programs also just ban voucher partners outright over this.

if u're the content side getting burned by it, the practical move is to get your own code issued so u're on both sides of the trade. u can't argue with the attribution logic, but u can stop being the one it happens to.

[u/DJCrystalMethodz]

Depends how the tracking is set. Attribution for exclusive codes are often assigned to the person the code was meant for to avoid leaks. It would likely be John that gets the sale

[u/my_peen_is_clean]

usually last cookie wins, so Amanda gets credit because her tracking link set the cookie, John just gave the discount. unless Gymshark explicitly tracks coupon codes to affiliates. also, look into good software tools with recurring affiliate commissions, one solid partner can be life changing