tracking
Affiliate ID
The unique identifier in every link that tells the system the commission is yours.
What is Affiliate ID?
An affiliate ID is the unique alphanumeric identifier assigned to your account by an affiliate network or program — embedded in every affiliate link you create — that the tracking system uses to match a click or conversion back to your account and credit your commission.
Affiliate ID In Practice
Your affiliate ID is the permanent identifier that makes your affiliate links yours. It is embedded in the URL structure of every tracking link you generate — typically as a parameter like ?ref=yourID, &aff=yourID, or embedded in a longer tracking URL. When a visitor clicks your link, the tracking system reads this ID from the URL and stores it (in a cookie, server-side click ID, or postback record) so it can later associate the conversion with your account. Your affiliate ID is different from your Sub-ID: the affiliate ID is assigned by the network and identifies your account; the Sub-ID is an optional parameter you add yourself to track which of your campaigns or content pieces drove a specific conversion. Most affiliates have a different affiliate ID on each network they use — your Impact ID is different from your PartnerStack ID — so a link from one network will not credit commissions to your account on another, even if you promote the same merchant.
Example of Affiliate ID
Your Impact publisher account has an affiliate ID of 12345. When you create a tracking link for the Envato Elements program through Impact's link builder, the generated URL contains your ID — something like impact.com/c/12345/envato. When a visitor clicks that link, Impact's system records the click associated with ID 12345. When the visitor subscribes to Envato Elements, Impact matches the conversion to click 12345 and credits the commission to your account. If you accidentally shared a link with a different affiliate's ID — or created a direct link without any affiliate parameters — the commission would be credited to that other affiliate or lost entirely.
Related Tools & Services
- Envato Elements Affiliate Program — Example program through Impact where your affiliate ID is embedded in every generated tracking link