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Tracking

What is an affiliate link?

Quick Definition

An affiliate link is a unique tracked URL that identifies the affiliate who sent a visitor to a merchant's website. When the visitor completes a qualifying action, the tracking ID on the link credits the affiliate with a commission. It's the fundamental building block of every affiliate program.

Anatomy of an affiliate link

Every affiliate link has three parts, visible or hidden:

  • Destination — the merchant's domain or a tracker redirect that eventually reaches the merchant
  • Tracking identifier — a unique code that tells the merchant which affiliate sent the visitor
  • Optional sub-IDs — extra parameters that let you track your own sub-campaigns

An Amazon affiliate link looks like this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTXXXXXX/?tag=your-id-20

The tag=your-id-20 is the tracking identifier. Everything else is a normal Amazon product URL. A typical network affiliate link looks like:

https://track.network.com/a/12345/b/67890?s=your-sub-id

Here the tracker's domain fires a redirect, records the click with your affiliate ID (67890), and passes the user through to the offer.

How the tracking actually works

When a user clicks your affiliate link, three things happen in milliseconds:

  • The tracker (or merchant directly) logs the click and your affiliate ID
  • A tracking cookie is set on the user's browser with your affiliate ID and a timestamp
  • The user is redirected to the offer's landing page

If the user completes a conversion inside the cookie window, the merchant reads the cookie, matches it to your affiliate ID, and credits you. In modern paid-media setups, this is increasingly backed up by server-to-server tracking that doesn't depend on cookies at all.

Types of affiliate links

  • Direct links — point straight at the merchant with a tracking parameter (Amazon style)
  • Tracker redirect links — go through an affiliate network's tracking domain first
  • Cloaked links — short, branded URLs on your own domain (e.g., yoursite.com/go/producta) that redirect to the real affiliate link
  • Deep links — land on a specific product or page inside the merchant's site rather than the homepage
  • Smart links — automatically route traffic to the best-converting offer for that user's geo or device

Link cloaking — why affiliates use it

Raw affiliate links are long, ugly, and obviously tagged. Cloaking replaces them with a clean branded URL on your own domain that redirects to the real one. Benefits:

  • Cleaner appearance — yoursite.com/go/producta beats a 120-character tracking string
  • Easier management — if an offer pauses, change one redirect instead of every link
  • Better tracking — click counts aggregate in one place
  • Platform friendliness — some platforms (Pinterest, email) handle cloaked links more gracefully

Popular cloaking tools: Pretty Links (WordPress), ThirstyAffiliates, Bitly with custom domain, Cloudflare Redirect Rules, Lasso.

Disclosure is not optional

Under FTC rules in the US (and similar rules in the UK, EU, Canada, and Australia), every piece of content containing affiliate links must clearly disclose the relationship. "This post contains affiliate links" above the content is the baseline. See the Compliance Playbook for platform-specific rules.

Frequently asked questions

Does clicking an affiliate link cost more?

No. The user pays the merchant's standard price. The affiliate commission comes out of the merchant's marketing budget, not from the buyer.

Do affiliate links expire?

The link itself usually keeps working as long as the program is active. What expires is the attribution cookie — you only get credit if the user converts inside the cookie window.

Should affiliate links be nofollow?

Yes. Google's guidelines specify that affiliate links should use rel="sponsored" (or rel="nofollow"). This keeps your site's link profile clean and avoids being penalized for "unnatural" paid links.

Can I use affiliate links on social media?

Yes on most platforms, with disclosure. Pinterest, Twitter/X, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok all allow direct or cloaked affiliate links. Facebook and some subreddits are stricter — check each platform's rules. Always mark the post as including affiliate or paid content per FTC guidance.

Related terms

Cookie Window

Attribution timing

Postback URL

Server-side tracking

S2S Tracking

Server-to-server

Bridge Page

Between ad and offer

Put it to work

Use affiliate links without tripping over compliance.

The Compliance Playbook covers FTC disclosure language and the Funnel Blueprint shows where to place links for maximum conversion without looking spammy.

Compliance Playbook Funnel Blueprint