Cookieless Affiliate Marketing: How to Use Coupons for Effective Tracking
Cookies have been a core part of affiliate marketing for a long time, allowing platforms to track user activity from the moment they click a referral link until they complete a purchase.
However, with growing privacy regulations (such as GDPR and CCPA) and browsers tightening their cookie policies, many affiliate programs are facing reduced effectiveness.
Browsers and tools are increasingly blocking cookies or requiring explicit consent, making it harder for traditional affiliate tracking to work.
With more users opting out of cookies or using privacy-enhancing tools, affiliate programs relying on cookie-based tracking are becoming less effective.
Fortunately, there’s a privacy-friendly solution that avoids the complexities of cookies: coupon-based affiliate marketing.
In this article, we’ll explore how you can create a cookieless affiliate program using Coupon Affiliates, an easy-to-implement affiliate plugin for WooCommerce based stores.
Why Go Cookieless?
Here are some reasons to consider moving away from cookies:
- Privacy regulations: Compliance with stricter laws governing data collection is now mandatory in many regions.
- Browser restrictions: Some popular browsers are now blocking or limiting third-party cookies by default, impacting tracking accuracy.
- User preferences: Many users are actively blocking cookies via browser extensions or privacy settings.
By adopting a cookieless approach, you can ensure your affiliate program continues to thrive in a privacy-first internet.
The Coupon Affiliates Solution
With Coupon Affiliates, you can build a coupon-based affiliate system that eliminates the need for cookies. By default it still does use some cookies, but there are options to completely disable these and go cookieless.
This method offers several advantages:
- Coupon-based tracking: Affiliates promote specific coupon codes, which customers can use during checkout. These codes directly link the sale to the affiliate without needing to track the user’s browsing behaviour.
- Referral links that auto-apply coupons: Affiliates can use custom referral links that automatically apply their coupon codes when a customer clicks them, making the purchase process seamless and straightforward.
- Cookieless tracking: Since Coupon Affiliates uses coupon codes instead of relying on cookies, you completely sidestep any issues related to browser cookie-blocking.
How To Switch Your Program To Cookieless
Here’s a breakdown of how you can use Coupon Affiliates to create a cookieless affiliate program:
1. Install the Coupon Affiliates Plugin
To get started, you’ll first need to purchase the Coupon Affiliates plugin from our website, or you can download the free version via the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
You will then want to upload the plugin to your WordPress website, by hovering over the Plugins button in the left-hand sidebar and select “Add New”.
Once the Coupon Affiliates plugin is installed, follow the setup wizard and configure the settings to launch your coupon-based affiliate program.
2. Assign Unique Coupon Codes to Affiliates
Each affiliate receives their own unique coupon code that they can promote through their website, social media, or email campaign.
Whenever a customer uses that code during checkout, the affiliate automatically receives credit for the sale.
With the Coupon Affiliates plugin installed, simply edit the WooCommerce coupon code, and assign the user to that coupon to make them an affiliate.
Alternatively, use the affiliate registration system to build a form for them to submit to join your affiliate program. Once they submit this form and are accepted, it will generate their new coupon code automatically based on a template.
3. Custom Referral Links
Coupon Affiliates allows you to create custom referral links for affiliates that automatically apply their assigned coupon code.
For example:
https://yourstore.com/?coupon=AFFILIATECODEThis link can be shared by affiliates, and when customers click on it, the coupon code will be auto-applied without needing cookies.
4. Disable Cookie Tracking
Finally, if you decide to still use “referral links” to auto apply coupons, but don’t want to store cookies in your visitors browsers, then you can go to the Coupon Affiliates “Debug” settings tab, can toggle the settings off, to completely disable cookies from being stored at all from referrals.
5. Automated Reporting and Analytics
With Coupon Affiliates, affiliates can track their performance through a personalised dashboard. They can view statistics such as sales generated, commission earned, and usage of their coupon codes – all without any cookie-based tracking being required.
Benefits of Cookieless Affiliate Programs
By adopting a coupon-based affiliate system with Coupon Affiliates, you benefit from:
- Higher accuracy: Traditional cookie-based tracking can be blocked or expire before the purchase is completed. Coupon-based tracking is more reliable as it directly links the sale to the affiliate via the code.
- Better privacy compliance: No cookies mean less hassle in terms of complying with complex data privacy laws. Coupon-based affiliate programs are inherently more privacy-friendly.
- Ease of implementation: With Coupon Affiliates, setting up a cookieless affiliate system is simple and does not require significant time investment.
- Improved trust: Customers increasingly prefer brands that respect their privacy. A cookieless approach reassures customers that they are not being tracked unnecessarily.
Conclusion
As we move towards stricter privacy measures, cookie-based affiliate programs are facing growing challenges.
However, with Coupon Affiliates, you can easily transition to a cookieless, coupon-based affiliate system that respects user privacy while maintaining accurate tracking.
By leveraging unique coupon codes and custom referral links, you can continue to run a successful affiliate program without relying on cookies.
If you’re looking to future-proof your affiliate marketing strategy, consider adopting Coupon Affiliates as your cookieless solution.
Check out the free version or get the premium version (with a 7-day free trial).
Elliot Sowersby is a WordPress developer from Yorkshire, United Kingdom. He is the founder and lead developer of Coupon Affiliates and RelyWP.
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