Overview
As of June 4, 2024, ClickBank has released a bundle of new affiliate tracking parameters to supplement the existing tracking ID (TID) functionality for affiliate tracking links. These updates will empower affiliates with advanced tracking capabilities, insightful reporting, and seamless integrations with third party integrations.
Prior to this update, affiliates on ClickBank have relied solely on one TID parameter for tracking data from link click to conversion. While the TID offers some functionality, it is limited in terms of reporting and third party integrations.
The new Affiliate Tracking Parameters have been designed to address those limitations, providing a streamlined solution for tracking multiple data points from click through conversion events effortlessly. Learn more how Affiliate Tracking Parameters unlock advanced integration capabilities and provide enhanced reporting insights.
This article contains the following sections:
- Historic TID Use vs. New Affiliate Tracking Parameter Use
- What are Affiliate Tracking Parameters?
- How to Use Affiliate Tracking Parameters
- What parameters are available?
- How to View Parameter Data in ClickBank Reporting
- How to Pass Parameter Data to Integrations
- Affiliate Tracking Parameter FAQ
- Additional Resources & Related Articles
Historic TID Use vs. New Affiliate Tracking Parameter Use
Historic TID Use
Prior to the addition of Affiliate Tracking Parameters, affiliates relied on the TID to include as much data as they could on a URL. This created extra work for the client to parse the data to identify meaningful insights.
Example: https://hop.clickbank.net/?affiliate=cbtest2&vendor=cbtest&tid=fb_adgroup123_video2
Additionally, the TID method had negative impacts for third party integrations.
Example: https://hop.clickbank.net/?affiliate=cbtest2&vendor=cbtest?tid={clickid}
New Affiliate Tracking Parameters
Now, affiliates can pass each data point with its own parameter. This allows for easier reporting and analytics.
Example: https://hop.clickbank.net/?affiliate=cbtest2&vendor=cbtest&traffic_source=facebook&traffic_type=paid&adgroup=123&creative=video2
For third party integrations, the click ID is designated with its own specific parameters.
Example: https://hop.clickbank.net/?affiliate=cbtest2&vendor=cbtest&extclid={clickid}&campaign=test-campaign&creative=video1&traffic_type=paid&traffic_source=youtube&aff_sub1=test1
What are Affiliate Tracking Parameters?
Affiliate Tracking Parameters, like UTM parameters, can be optionally added to the end of your affiliate tracking link, tagging your URL with data so that you can see where clicks and conversions are coming from. This makes it easier to differentiate and understand the performance of your campaigns and promotions.
Data passed in affiliate tracking link parameters is captured at the time the link is clicked, it’s stored, and is tracked across any event the click resulted in. These data points can then be easily analyzed and compared inside ClickBank analytics and reporting.
The data is also available to be passed back to your 3rd party tools via ClickBank integrations for your optimization and tracking needs outside of ClickBank. Your tracking parameter data is only visible to you as the affiliate, so the seller you send customers to won't be able to view your tracking IDs in analytics or integrations.
Categories of Tracking Parameters
The new affiliate tracking parameters have been designed to support both non-unique and unique tracking parameter values. Non-unique tracking parameters provide options for tracking “bodies” of clicks where multiple clicks will share a value, for example traffic source, creative, campaign, etc. Whereas tracking parameters for unique data are designed for passing click or session identifiers from external services like adtrackers and traffic sources.
All data passed in non-unique parameters, which are listed in our updated affiliate link generators, will be available for analysis to view aggregated analytics by. Whereas data passed in unique parameters will be accessible via ClickBank integration methods (such as INS, API, Postback) to pass back to external services, and visible within transaction detail level report.
NOTE: These parameters are intended to be used with HopLinks and Direct Tracking Links only. They are not functional with payment links.
Parameters for Non-Unique Data
Non-unique data is available in aggregated analytics and detailed transaction and log-level reporting.
- traffic_type
- traffic_source
- offer
- campaign
- adgroup
- ad
- creative
- aff_sub1
- aff_sub2
- aff_sub3
- aff_sub4
- aff_sub5
Parameters for Partner Click IDs & Unique Data
Partner Click ID and unique data is only available in detailed transaction reporting and log-level reporting.
- extclid
- fbclid
- contact_id
- unique_aff_sub1
- unique_aff_sub2
- unique_aff_sub3
- unique_aff_sub4
- unique_aff_sub5
We strongly encourage passing unique values in the appropriate parameters designed for unique data as it greatly improves report performance. Passing unique values into parameters designed for non-unique data commonly results in slow reporting. For this reason, if our system detects significant mis-use of a tracking parameter designed for non-unique data that is receiving unique click data at high volume, the data will automatically be scrubbed (not stored), and unavailable in aggregated analytics reporting.
The data passed into the affiliate tracking parameters is only visible to the affiliate using the HopLink or Direct Tracking Link. The data is not made visible to the seller the affiliate sends customers to.
How to Use Affiliate Tracking Parameters
Affiliate Tracking Parameters are intended to be used with HopLinks or Direct Tracking Links. Thus, the first step in using affiliate tracking parameters is to create a HopLink or a Direct Tracking Link.
Related: HopLinks Guide
Building your Affiliate Tracking Link with ClickBank’s Affiliate Link Tools & Promote Tools
Affiliate Link Tools
Step 1: Log in to your ClickBank account.
Step 2: Select the Affiliate Link Tools tab from the vertical navigation bar.
Step 3: Then, provide the required information including your account nickname, the account nickname of the seller you are promoting, the landing page the link will point to, and the link type.
NOTE: You must select a landing page from the landing page menu, even if you are using the default landing page for that seller.
Step 4: Add any parameters to your link that you wish.
Step 5: As you add in required information and select a landing page from the dropdown, the link will begin to build in the My Link section. Once it is complete, click Copy.
Step 6: Affiliates are encourage to encrypt all of their links using the Encode tab.
Step 7: Use your link in your promotional material.
Promote Tools Via the ClickBank Marketplace
Step 1: Log in to your ClickBank account.
Step 2: Select Affiliate Marketplace from the vertical navigation bar.
Step 3: Find an offer you want to promote and click Promote.
Step 4: Provide the required information including your account nickname, the account nickname of the seller you are promoting, the landing page the link will point to, and the link type.
NOTE: You must select a landing page from the landing page menu, even if you are using the default landing page for that seller.
Step 5: As you add in required information and select a landing page from the dropdown, the link will begin to build in the My Link section. Once it is complete, click Copy.
Step 6: Use your link in your promotional material.
Manually Creating a ClickBank Affiliate Link
Once you have your tracking link, here's how to build using affiliate tracking parameters:
Step 1: Select the tracking parameters you want to add to your tracking URL.
Related: What parameters are available?
Step 2: Add them to your HopLink using the "&" character in between parameters. To view acceptable values and character limits for tracking parameters, see
NOTE: The illustrated image uses a non-encrypted HopLink. Please use encrypted HopLinks and Direct Offer Tracking links whenever you can.
What parameters are available?
All affiliate tracking parameters are optional and do not impact the functionality of a tracking link (HopLink or Direct Tracking Link). Affiliates can choose which parameters they wish to append to their tracking link.
NOTE: Affiliate Tracking Parameters are accessible to affiliates only and are intended to only be used with HopLinks or Direct Tracking Links.
| Affiliate Tracking Link Parameter | Description & Example | Character Limit | |
| traffic_type |
Use this parameter to pass channel type or category of traffic where the user engaged. Common Values: email, social, display, search, native, organic, paid Example: traffic_type=social |
max 100 characters | |
| traffic_source |
Use this parameter to pass the source channel or platform of the traffic. Parameter designed to pass the source channel or platform of the traffic. Common Values: youtube, facebook, googleAds, tiktok, pinterest Example: traffic_source=facebook |
max 100 characters | |
| offer |
Use this parameter to pass an offer name or a specific identifier of the offer.
|
max 100 characters | |
| campaign |
Use this Parameter designed to pass a campaign name or identifier. Example: campaign=newyear_inspo |
max 100 characters | |
| adgroup | Use this parameter to pass information about the specific ad group that the link is affiliated with. Example: adgroup=fitness |
max 100 characters | |
| ad |
Use this parameter to pass inforamtion about a specific ad a user engaged with. Example: ad=getfit-v1 |
max 150 characters | |
| creative |
Use this parameter to pass information about the creative used in the promotional content that the user engaged with. Example: creative=sams-storyv3-img |
max 150 characters | |
| aff_sub1 |
Parameters designed to pass non-unique data which may not fall into any of the named and commonly tracked data. For example, a client may want to analyze the conversion rate across different email sends, and use an aff_sub parameter to pass an identifier for each email send. Example: aff_sub1=weekly-roundup-16 |
max 100 characters | |
| aff_sub2 | max 100 characters | ||
| aff_sub3 | max 100 characters | ||
| aff_sub4 | max 100 characters | ||
| aff_sub5 | max 100 characters | ||
| extclid |
Use this parameter to pass a partner or external click identifier. Example: exclid=84721a0-1122-4ea5-936f-def4fec4d83b |
max 256 characters | |
| fbclid |
Use this parameter to pass the Facebook clickid, which is then used in ClickBank's custom Facebook integration. Related: Example: fbclid=4722a-0-2211-4ea5-936f-def4fec4d83b |
max 256 characters | |
| unique_aff_sub1 | Parameters designed for affiliates to pass unique data of the click, session, user, etc. that will be available in transaction level reporting | max 100 characters | |
| unique_aff_sub2 | max 100 characters | ||
| unique_aff_sub3 | max 100 characters | ||
| unique_aff_sub4 | max 100 characters | ||
| unique_aff_sub5 | max 100 characters |
What are the valid characters and length for Affiliate Tracking Parameter Values?
Affiliate Tracking Parameters must adhere to the follow character limits and validations:
- Valid characters include: a-z, A-Z, 0-9, space, _ , -, +
- Invalid characters : " < > [ \ ] ^ ` { | }
- Special characters Sse: The following characters must be encoded if they're used in a URL for any reason beyond its original purpose: / # ? & @ % + ~ ; = $ ,
Acceptable character length for tracking parameter values is outlined in the table of parameters above. Affiliate tracking parameters which exceed the max allowed character length will be trimmed to remove trailing or leading whitespaces and truncated to the max allowed length. Invalid values are not stored.
How to View Parameter Data in ClickBank Reporting
Data passed in Affiliate Tracking Parameters is visible to the affiliate role only, and is accessible to view within the Sales Analytics report and the Transaction Detail Report within the master user account.
To view data that is passed in Sales Analytics , follow these instructions:
Step 1: Log in to your ClickBank account.
Step 2: Select Reporting from the vertical navigation bar.
Step 3: Configure your report to view by one of the parameters listed.
With this data presented in sales analytics, affiliates can better optimize their campaign efforts.
How to Pass Parameter Data to Integrations
Data tracked in our new parameters can be passed back on order form impression and conversion events using our existing integration methods described below.
Overview of integration updates:
- New INS Version (8): This new version includes additional data points for affiliate tracking parameters (accessible to the affiliate role only) and additional device and request data collected automatically stored in common tracking parameters array.
- Orders API: An updated version of our Orders API response to contain affiliate and common tracking data is available upon request only. Please contact your account manager if you wish to enable this update.
- Tracking Pixels: An updated version of tracking pixels response containing affiliate and common tracking data is available upon request only. Please contact your account manager if you wish to enable this update.
- S2S Postback: COMING SOON!
Affiliate Tracking Parameter FAQ
Q: Who are Affiliate Tracking Parameters for?
A: This feature is for ClickBank clients using HopLinks or Direct Tracking Links. Especially those utilizing a 3rd-party tracking service which rely on the "TID" tracking parameter to pass a unique click or user identifier, or those who have had to string together multiple data points to be passed into the TID tracking parameter due to the absence of additional tracking parameters.
Q: Why are Affiliate Tracking Parameters important?
A: Affiliate tracking parameters are important because they allow affiliates to pass data across platforms in an organized way that makes integrations seamless. Additionally, parameters provide more insight about affiliates' campaigns and allows them to make data-driven decisions with less friction.
Q: Do parameters work for both HopLinks and Direct Tracking Links?
A: Yes, they are applicable to both.
Q: Can affiliates still use the "TID" parameter?
A: Yes, "TID" will continue to work, but it's strongly recommended to update integrations to utilize the new tracking parameters specifically designed for passing unique identifiers to improve client experience accessing data and insights.
Q: Is affiliate tracking parameter data available outside of ClickBank Analytics?
A: Yes. You can pass affiliate tracking parameter data via INS (only available in version 8), via pixel (only available by request), via the Orders API (only available by request), and by Postback (coming soon).
Additional Resources & Related Articles
- VIDEO: ContactPass Interview with Manny from Maropost
- KNOWLEDGE BASE: HopLinks Guide
- KNOWLEDGE BASE: How do I create a HopLink?
- KNOWLEDGE BASE: Sales Analytics Report on ClickBank