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Cookies in affiliate marketing

You may have heard of cookies being used in affiliate marketing. In case you are not up to date on the use of cookies in affiliate marketing, let's first look into the basics.

A lot of merchants use cookies to track referrals. This cookie is used as a tag when people don't buy instantly: the cookie with your own affiliate id in it will be placed on the computer of the visitor. When that visitor decides to buy let's say the day afterwards, you will still be identified as the referrer and thus earn the commission.

If that cookie would not be there and the visitor decides not to buy instantly but the day afterwards, then you wouldn't be identified as the person referring the visitor to the merchant’s site. As a consequence you would NOT get any commissions.

Many visitors do not buy instantly, especially when you promote products or services which are pricy. Scientific research has proven that people generally need to have 3 'contacts' before they consider buying something.

Cookie Issues and points of attention

A first important issue with cookies is the cookie duration: the cookie duration may vary from merchant to merchant. Some merchants offer a cookie that stays as little as a single browser session. Others are more generous and offer a cookie that stays several months. It's probably clear to you which one is more advantageous to you…

Easiest solution would be picking the merchant with the longest cookie duration right?

Well, I wish it would be that simple, unfortunately there are several other things that may go wrong when a merchant uses cookies:

1. The visitor has disabled the cookie function in his browser or cleans his cookies often. Same thing with cookie blocking software that runs on the user’s computer. Although all these causes are pretty bad for you, the affiliate, there isn't a lot you can do in order to earn that commission anyway.

2. Another issue is the fact that the cookie is put incorrectly or not at all: The software the merchant uses fails to generate a working cookie or 'forgets' to add your affiliate id in the cookie…

Some merchants do not practice this on purpose. Nevertheless it's very important that you check whether or not the cookie is working well or not. Just click on your own affiliate link and open the cookie that is put in the cache folder on your own computer. It should state an expiration date (or duration) and your id.

Help, I encountered the Cookie Monster

As you see, there are a several things that can go wrong with cookies; nevertheless they remain a wonderful addition for the affiliate. Basically, you have 3 kinds of merchants:

- Merchants that not offer a cookie at all.

Advice: Basic rule: avoid them. You can try testing the merchant in order to see what conversion rates are delivered. Don't forget to keep looking for better alternatives! Note however, that there are affiliate marketing solutions which credit the affiliate for a longer period of time without using cookies.

- Merchants that offer a cookie but it's not working correctly.

Advice: when there's something wrong with the cookie then you have two options: you abandon the merchant and find another one or you contact the merchant to explain the problem. If you value the merchant highly, it may be worth the while to contact him. If not, and if there are several alternatives available, just use a similar merchant.

- Merchants offering a normally functioning cookie.

Advice: these are the ones you should be looking for. Preferably select the ones with the longest cookie duration but don't forget, there are several other variables you should take into account when you pick a merchant program. Cookies which last one month are good but there are some merchants out there who offer cookies with duration of 3 months.

Although cookies have received a lot of criticism, they are here to stay at least for a while. If you are an affiliate marketer who is serious about growing his affiliate business, analysing cookies of the merchant should always be on your to do list.