How Affiliate Tracking Works
How Trankets tracks affiliate referrals from click to payout - links, attribution, the commission lifecycle, and refunds.
3 min readUpdated Aug 9, 2026
How Affiliate Tracking Works
"Did my link count?" is the question every affiliate asks and every seller gets asked. This guide follows one referral from click to bank account, so both sides know exactly what to expect.
Where to Look
- Sellers: Marketing → My Affiliate Program → Sales & Payouts - every click, conversion, and commission.
- Affiliates: Marketing → My Affiliate Earnings - your Dashboard, My Programs (with each program's items and your links), Discover (find new programs), and Earnings.
The Tracking Link
Every affiliate gets a unique referral code, and Trankets generates a tracking link per item (and one for the seller's whole page). When a buyer clicks it:
- The click is recorded against the affiliate's code.
- A browser record (a cookie) remembers the code for the program's tracking window.
- The buyer lands on the normal product, event, or creator page - it looks identical to any other visitor.
Share the tracking link Trankets generates - copy it from your affiliate dashboard. A plain product link with nothing added tracks nothing.
Tracking Behavior and Attribution
- The record expires after the program's tracking window (1 to 90 days, set by the seller).
- Tracking is per browser: clearing browser data or buying on a different device breaks the chain. Ad blockers can too.
- Last-click wins by default - if a buyer clicked two affiliates' links, the most recent gets the sale. Sellers can switch to first-click in program settings.
- Promo codes beat all of it: a sale that uses an affiliate's promo code is attributed to that affiliate even with no click at all. For audiences that do not click links - podcasts, print, word of mouth - codes are the reliable channel.
The Commission Lifecycle
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Pending | Sale recorded; still inside the sale's refund window. |
| Confirmed | Refund window passed; awaiting the seller's approval. |
| Paid | Approved - the commission is in the affiliate's Trankets wallet. |
| Refunded / Cancelled | The order was refunded or cancelled; the commission is voided. |
From there it is ordinary wallet money: the affiliate withdraws to their bank from Wallet like any other earnings. See Wallet and withdrawals.
Refunds and Reversals
A refunded or cancelled order voids its commission - the pending stage exists precisely so nobody is paid on a sale that comes back.
Common Issues
- Click not tracked. Browser data cleared, different device, or a blocker. Promo codes are immune to all three.
- Wrong affiliate credited. Last-click attribution - the most recent link won.
- Commission disappeared. The order was refunded or cancelled.
- Commission stuck on Pending. The refund window has not passed, or the seller has not approved yet.
Next Steps
- Setting up an affiliate program - the seller side
- Earn as a Trankets Ambassador - promote Trankets itself