The integration connects the affiliate system with your website, shopping cart, or payment gateway, allowing tracking referrals, purchases, or any other action for which you'd like to give commissions.
How tracking works
When a visitor clicks on an affiliate link or banner, they are directed to your website with the click tracking code installed. This code sends a request to our server, which generates a visitor ID, which is saved to the visitor's cookies. Post Affiliate Pro also links the visitor ID value internally to relevant data, such as the referring affiliate and campaign.
If the visitor makes a purchase or performs another tracked action for which you want to give commissions, the sales tracking code sends a tracking request containing the data about the sale/action along with the visitor ID to Post Affiliate Pro. The system identifies the referring affiliate using the visitor ID cookie, user-agent, IP address, or via other methods like coupon code or lifetime referral. If matched, the commission is credited to the affiliate.
Integration typically involves adding the tracking codes to your website. You can find all our integration guides for supported shopping carts and payment systems in the Tools > Integration section of your merchant panel.
Integration steps
1. Click Tracking
To track clicks, add the click tracking script to the pages where your affiliates send traffic. This code creates the visitor ID cookie value and stores it in the system, which is later used for sales tracking. In general, it is recommended to add the click tracking script to an element that's available on every page of your website, e.g. footer.
The click tracking integration script valid for your account is available in Tools > Integration > Clicks tracking.
2. Sales/actions tracking
Integrating the sale/action tracking script allows your shopping cart/payment gateway to notify the affiliate system about a new sale (or another action that should generate a commission). The tracking request is processed by the system and if applicable, it creates commissions for referred orders/actions. The integration steps very much depend on your shopping cart and/or payment gateway.
All the supported integrations & tracking methods are listed in Tools > Integration > Sales/Leads Tracking.
If your shopping cart or payment gateway isn’t listed, usually you can use the "General solution" method by adding the sale tracking JavaScript tracking code to your order confirmation page.
Any action, for example a lead, registration, download, etc. can be tracked with sales tracking code enhanced with a function to track an action instead of a sale, using the "Action commissions" feature.
Test the integration
Once your website, shopping cart, and/or payment gateway is integrated with Post Affiliate Pro, it is recommended to perform a quick test click and sale to confirm that the integration is working as intended.
Navigate in your merchant panel to Affiliates > Affiliates manager, click on the Edit (pencil icon) button to open the details of the pre-set affiliate, and log in to the affiliate panel.
Click on the general affiliate link in the top header, and check if your click has been recorded in Transactions > Clicks list in your merchant panel. The click may take up to 5 minutes to appear.
If a click has been successfully noted in your account, continue and make a test purchase, and check if the commission is recorded in Transactions > Commissions. Again, it might take up to 5 minutes for the commission to appear.
If you don’t see the click or sale even after 15 minutes, feel free to contact us via email (support@postaffiliatepro.com) or live chat and provide us with details about your test.