Which Video Made the Sale? Affiliate Tracking by Video

Affiliate networks report sales per tracking link, not per video, so a link you mention in ten videos shows one combined total. To know which video made the sale, each click has to carry something that identifies the video: a separate tracking ID or sub ID per video, or a click ID that a tracking tool links back to the video the visitor came from. Without that, the network's report can't answer the question.

Why networks can't see your videos

When a viewer taps an affiliate link, the network records the click and drops a cookie or similar marker. If the viewer buys within the program's window, the network credits the sale to that link. The network knows the link, the time, and any extra values you added to the link, such as a sub ID. It does not know that the viewer had just watched your tent review rather than your packing list video.

Most creators also use the same few links over and over. A favorite camera bag might appear in thirty videos, a pinned comment and a bio. The network sees one link, so the report shows one number.

Short-form video makes this harder. On TikTok, Shorts and Reels, viewers usually reach you through your bio link, which every video shares. YouTube also stopped making links in Shorts descriptions and comments clickable in August 2023, citing spam. So for short videos, the link itself often can't tell you which video sent the viewer.

The methods, and their limits

1. A separate tracking ID or link per video

Some programs let you create extra tracking IDs. Amazon Associates calls them tracking IDs; other networks let you create several links for one offer. Use a different one in each video.

• Works for: a small number of long videos with clickable descriptions.
• Limits: it is manual, there is often a cap on how many you can create, and it does nothing for bio-link traffic. See Amazon tracking IDs and sub tags.

2. A sub ID per video

Most networks accept a free-text sub ID on the link, and report it with each sale. The parameter name varies: subId1 on Impact, sid on CJ, clickref on Awin, sub1 on Everflow, ascsubtag on Amazon.

• Works for: seeing sales per video inside one network's reports.
• Limits: you build a new link for every video and every network, each network's report is separate, and you see sales but not clicks per video side by side. Bio links still can't carry a per-video value.

3. Promo codes per video

A code like STORM10 for one video shows up on orders that use it.

• Works for: brand deals where the brand tracks codes for you.
• Limits: codes spread beyond your audience, and many buyers who came from your video won't type one.

4. A click ID that remembers the video

Instead of encoding the video into each affiliate link, a tracking tool can give every click its own ID and remember where that click came from: which video, which place, which link. The tool passes the click ID to the network as the sub ID. When the network reports the sale back, by server postback or in a downloadable report, the tool looks up the click and credits the sale to the right video.

• Works for: any number of videos and networks, with one set of links.
• Limits: the network has to return the sub ID, by postback or report. And the tool only knows the video if the viewer arrived through something video-specific.

Solving the bio-link problem

Method 4 still needs the viewer to arrive in a way that names the video. For short videos, the practical answer is a short address you can say out loud and that viewers can type or tap, such as vyrl.at/yourname/storm. It lands on the same page as your bio link, but every click from that visit is credited to the storm video. Video links and share links covers how to choose words and where to put them.

Viewers who skip the video address and open your plain bio link still count. Their sales show up under the link and the place (TikTok bio, YouTube channel), just not under a video.

A worked example

The numbers below are an illustrative example, not real data.

A creator mentions one tent, through one Impact link, in two videos and in their bio. At the end of the month, Impact's report shows that link with 1,200 clicks, 30 sales and $540 in commission. That's all Impact can say.

With each click tagged by video, the same month breaks down like this:

Judged by clicks, the TikTok looks like the winner, with more than twice the clicks of the review. Judged by money, each click from the review earned about seven times as much. If the creator planned next month by clicks alone, they would make more of the content that earns the least per click.

None of this means short videos are worse. A TikTok that sends 700 clicks may be building the audience that later watches the review. But you can only weigh that trade-off if you can see both numbers. For more on reading these figures, see affiliate earnings per click, or try the earnings calculator with your own numbers.

How Vyrl handles it

Vyrl uses method 4. Each video gets a word, so vyrl.at/yourname/storm is that video's address. Each place you post your page gets a share link, such as /tt for your TikTok bio. When a visitor taps one of your links, Vyrl records the click with its video and place, then adds the network's sub ID parameter with the click ID. Sales come back by server postback from Impact, CJ (when CJ enables postbacks for you), Awin and Everflow, or by uploading your Amazon earnings report.

The dashboard then shows commission and earnings per click by video, by link and by place, plus a live click feed. One rule matters: share your Vyrl links, never the network's raw link, or the sale can't be matched to a click. Revenue by video is part of the Creator plan; see pricing.