Affiliate tracking.
Know what gets credit.

Affiliate tracking connects a referral source to a defined conversion. A link, code, or campaign token identifies the affiliate. The program records that identifier, carries it far enough through the customer journey to recognise a qualifying action, and applies a rule that decides who receives credit.

Tracking is evidence of attribution, not proof that a person would not have converted otherwise. It is also not a promise of payment. Refund checks, customer eligibility, commission rates, thresholds, and payout timing belong to the program's financial rules.

The exact technology varies. Browser programs may use first-party cookies, stored referral parameters, account matching, billing integrations, or server-to-server events. App programs may rely on platform campaign links or mobile attribution systems. Affiliates do not need to operate the merchant's infrastructure, but they do need a clear account of the chain and its limits.

A code is not inherently more reliable than a link. It depends on where the code is captured and whether the purchase system sends it into the affiliate record. Likewise, a click counter proves that a redirect happened; it does not prove the later conversion was joined to that click.

The window answers “how long?” The model answers “who?” A 30-day window means an eligible action can potentially receive credit for 30 days after the recorded referral. It does not guarantee credit if another touchpoint can replace it, the customer changes device, or the identifier disappears.

A typical web affiliate journey stays on domains the merchant and tracking platform can connect. A mobile journey may begin in a social app or browser, move to an App Store product page, continue with a download, and end with a trial or subscription inside the installed app. A browser cookie cannot be assumed to survive those boundaries.

App Store campaign links provide campaign reporting, but they are not individual customer receipts. Apple's current documentation says campaign links use provider and campaign tokens. App Store Connect Analytics can associate impressions, product-page views, downloads, usage, sales, and subscriptions with a campaign. Apple also documents a 24-hour first-time-download window after the campaign link is used and gives subsequent sales credit to the most recent campaign link when more than one was clicked.

Reporting is privacy-protected. Apple says campaign metrics appear only after the relevant metric reaches a minimum threshold of five in the selected date range, campaigns can take at least 24 hours to appear, and small detailed-report groups may be withheld or combined. That means zero visible results can mean zero results, insufficient volume, or reporting delay; the dashboard alone may not distinguish those cases immediately.

At minimum, an affiliate should be able to separate clicks from qualifying conversions and see the date, status, and source or campaign attached to each aggregate result. For content testing, sub-IDs or placement-specific links help distinguish a newsletter from a review, video description, or profile link without creating a second affiliate account.

Ask how often reports update, which time zone they use, whether clicks are unique or total, whether test conversions are allowed, how duplicate events are removed, and whether exports are available. A program should also provide a contact path for a discrepancy, because no attribution system captures every journey with certainty.

A refund or cancellation does not necessarily mean the original click or referral was never tracked. It usually changes whether the attributed conversion qualifies for commission. Dashboards should preserve enough status information to distinguish a missing conversion from a recorded result that was later rejected or reversed.

For subscriptions, verify whether the program tracks only the first payment or later renewals, how it joins subscription events to the original affiliate, what happens after a plan change, and when a cancellation stops future credit. Those are program-specific rules, not properties of affiliate tracking in general.

These examples are not recommendations or permanent promises. They show why “we track referrals” is incomplete without a window, attribution model, qualifying channel, conflict rule, and current first-party terms.

Ask what identifier is used, where it is stored, which conversion event is tracked, and whether the journey crosses a browser, device, app store, or offline step. Confirm the window, first-click or last-click rule, code priority, cross-device policy, and what happens when another marketing channel intervenes.

Then inspect the evidence you will receive: click fields, conversion fields, update delay, status labels, placement tracking, exports, privacy thresholds, and dispute process. Test the link destination and preserve every required parameter. Do not cloak, shorten, redirect, or rewrite a program link unless the current rules allow it.

Finally, separate tracking from eligibility. A dashboard can record an action that is later rejected because the customer, plan, country, purchase channel, refund, or promotion method was not eligible. Read the tracking policy and program terms together.

Fella uses an Apple campaign link rather than claiming a browser-cookie handoff into the app. Each Fella partner receives a unique App Store link containing an Apple campaign identifier. App Store Connect campaign data supports attribution, but it does not make a download, install, click, app open, or free user commissionable. Fella commission is tied only to a qualifying paid conversion under the current program terms.

Fella's public affiliate page does not specify a referral code, cookie window, cross-device identity method, real-time reporting guarantee, or an exact public rule connecting campaign activity, paid conversions, refunds, and cancellations. General Apple capabilities and other SaaS program rules should not be presented as additional Fella promises.