Definition
Attribution
Attribution is the rule that decides which affiliate a sale belongs to. Without it, a purchase preceded by three clicks belongs to no one — or to everyone.
A visitor clicks Marie's link on Monday, Paul's on Thursday, then buys on Friday. Attribution is the rule that settles it: the sale goes to Marie under first-click, to Paul under last-click. The choice is not academic — it decides who gets paid.
Last-click is the default on almost every platform, ours included: it rewards whoever triggered the buying decision. First-click rewards whoever made the product discovered — fairer on a program where content creators do the awareness work and a coupon site picks up the final click.
Three things actually govern attribution: the cookie duration, past which nothing is attributed; the ability to tie the payment back to the click at checkout; and what happens to subscription renewals, which must inherit the attribution of the first sale. All three are configured separately, and the third is the one people forget — an integration that credits the first sale and then nothing raises no error at all, only missing commissions.
At earnwithaffiliate
Last-click applies by default. Choosing between first and last click is available from the Growth plan.
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Related terms
Cookie duration
Cookie duration is how long a sale stays attributed to the affiliate who brought the visitor. Past that window, the purchase earns no commission.
Affiliate link
An affiliate link is a URL that identifies the affiliate who shared it, usually through a parameter such as ?via= or ?ref=.
Recurring commission
A recurring commission is paid on every subscription payment, not just the first. It is the standard model in SaaS affiliate marketing.