Tracking Links and Sub-IDs: How to Prove What Converts
How affiliate tracking actually attributes a player to your campaign, why sub-IDs matter more than they look, and the tracking habits that separate partners who scale from those who guess.
What a tracking link does
When someone clicks your affiliate link and lands on the operator's site, the programme stores a reference to you — usually in a cookie, sometimes in a redirect parameter, sometimes both. If that visitor registers and deposits inside the cookie window, the player is attributed to you and you earn commission on them, sometimes for years.
That chain has more weak points than most partners realise: browsers restrict cookies, apps open links without a clean referrer, and a visitor who researches for a week before signing up may fall outside a short window.
Why sub-IDs are the single best habit you can build
A sub-ID is an extra tag on your link that says which placement produced this click. Instead of one link for "my site", you get:
...&sub=homepage-banner-1...&sub=bonus-page-cta...&sub=telegram-post-14...&sub=newsletter-oct
Now your dashboard can answer questions that are otherwise impossible: which page layout converts, which channel brings depositors rather than clickers, which headline earned its position.
Without sub-IDs you know you earned money. With them you know why, which is the only thing you can scale.
Reading attribution realistically
- Last click wins, usually. If several partners touched a visitor, most programmes credit the last one. Do not count on being credited for an impression months earlier.
- Windows are shorter in practice than on paper. A 30-day cookie is not a 30-day guarantee. Mobile app journeys quietly erode tracking.
- Ask about postbacks. Server-side posting of the registration event into your own analytics gives you visibility that cookies cannot, and some programmes offer it.
Habits that keep your data clean
- One sub-ID per placement, named consistently.
telegram-post-14, nott14— future you will not remember the abbreviation. - Do not recycle links. If you change a banner, change the sub-ID, or you lose the comparison.
- Record what happened. A short log of "what I changed and when" turns raw stats into learning. Most partners skip this and repeat the same tests.
- Reconcile monthly. Compare your own click numbers with the dashboard. Large gaps usually mean a broken link or restricted geographies, not a mysterious drop in traffic.
- Test one variable at a time. Changing the offer, the placement and the creative together teaches you nothing.
When numbers do not add up
If clicks exist but sign-ups do not, the problem is usually the offer or the audience match. If sign-ups exist but first-time depositors do not, the audience is wrong or the promise was misleading. If deposits exist but commission is low, look at the deal's deductions and carryover rules before blaming the programme — or your traffic.
Ready to send your first campaign?
Apply to the partner programme, earn revenue share on the players you send, and put what you read here to work with tracked links and creatives.
Apply as a partner