| January 17, 2007 |
| What is an Affiliate Cookie Life and is Amazon's Too Short? (Part 1 of 2) - (Read Part 2 of 2) |
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Most of us know what an Internet cookie is. It is a small parcel of text that a web server would command your browser to save off until the next time the same browser visits the same web domain. At that time the browser is to send the exact same piece of text back to the server. This cookie is typically placed on your computer by web sites you visit and is done quietly, most of the time without you even being aware of this event. Cookies pose no harm to your computer or to your privacy other than to indicate to the web server when the same browser returns back to the site.
These cookies also have a lifetime associated with them. Some are immediate session cookies. These cookies are only in existence until the user closes the browser window. Other cookies may have expiration on them. They will be saved on your computer's hard drive and sent back to the web server by the browser until a certain date specified by the server when the cookie was originally provided to the browser.
So what is an Affiliate Cookie and what is meant by an Affiliate Cookie Life?
The purpose of an affiliate program is for a merchant to credit a particular affiliate when the affiliate web site refers someone to the merchant. In the Internet language this means that someone would click on a link to the merchant from the affiliate web site and make a purchase. In the case of Amazon.com, any affiliate referring someone who ends up purchasing a product from Amazon will be paid by Amazon anywhere from 4% to 8.5% of the purchase amount depending on volume of monthly referrals made by that affiliate.
Sometimes, however, an affiliate refers a user to the merchant and the user does not make a purchase right away. Instead, the user looks at the merchant's web site, closes the browser and returns directly to the merchant to make the purchase after some period of time.
So, will the affiliate receive credit for a delayed purchase made by the customer? The answer depends on how much time passes between the original click and purchase. When the user first clicks over from the affiliate site to the merchant, two things typically happen:
- A cookie is placed on the user's browser by the merchant, and
- The user's cookie is associated with the affiliate site, so that when the user makes a purchase, the affiliate is credited with the referral.
This cookie has a certain lifetime placed on it by the merchant. This lifetime may be from a few hours to several weeks if not months. Until the cookie expires, any repeat visit by the user to the merchant site will be tagged with the original cookie. This means that any purchase made by the user will result in the referral credit being issued to the affiliate site by the merchant.
However, if this purchase is made after the original cookie expires, this cookie is not transmitted by the browser to the merchant server and the affiliate will not be credited with the referral.
Thus, the longer the affiliate cookie life, the more likely it is that the affiliate will be credited with the sale and the better it is for the affiliate.
Cookie lifetimes vary. eBay affiliate cookies expire after 7 days. Toys-R-Us affiliate cookies expire after 14 days. Amazon.com affiliate cookies expire after 24 hours.
In Part 2 of this post I will examine the interesting relationship between the affiliate cookie lifetime, commission rates merchants pay affiliates and other considerations merchants go through when setting such payment parameters. I will also examine whether Amazon's cookie life of 24 hours is too short.
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Gene Kavner, Former World-Wide Director, Amazon Associates Affiliate Program, 2005-2006.
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