What is an Affiliate Tracking ID (TID)?


	What is an Affiliate Tracking ID (TID)?
	Last Edited - 08/20/2012 11:30am PDT
	Category Path - Shopping Cart Software Components > Administration Area > Modules > Affiliate Marketing > FAQs & Tutorials

The Concept of Tracking ID (TID) Numbers

TID Overview
The Modular Merchant Affiliate Marketing module tracks affiliate traffic and sales by using Tracking IDs (TID), which are unique ID numbers given to Affiliates for use in links they place on their website.

key concept

In this article, and throughout the Affiliate Marketing module, Tracking ID is referred to as TID.

SID vs. TID

An Affiliate's SID # is not the same as the Affiliate Tracking ID # (TID). Keep this in mind especially when using the Place an Order Tool. If the Affiliate's SID is 10399, but their TID is 5, you would assign their TID (5) to the order, not the SID (10399).

Links that include a TID number will track the affiliate's traffic and sales. A link that includes a TID may look something like this:
http://www.ExampleStore.com/?tid=123

An Affiliate can create as many unique TIDs as they like. Some affiliates create one TID number, which they use in every link to your website. Others create a different TID number for each individual link on their website that they want to track traffic and sales for. This second approach allows the affiliate to track which specific links are generating traffic and sales.

Why use many TIDs instead of just using one for each Affiliate?
In some affiliate programs each affiliate is given just one ID number, which they include in all of their links that point to your online store. For example, if I am your affiliate and my unique ID number is one, then the link I would use to track my traffic and sales would be: http://www.ExampleStore.com/?id=1. Sure, this will track the activity I send to your store, but what if your store contains multiple products, or an affiliate has links on multiple pages of his/her website, and they want to be able to track which link is performing? In order to capture those type of analytics, we need to take things a step further.

In Modular Merchant, each affiliate can create as many unique Tracking ID numbers as they wish. Each one will which track traffic, sales and commissions independently. This would allow an affiliate to use one TID on one page of their website, and a different TID on another page. They could then track which page is resulting in more hits and sales, and make improvements to their website accordingly.

example

An example of Tracking IDs in action:
Let’s say that I have an affiliate, Juan, who wants to market my new product, Vintage Toothbrushes. He already have several other links on his website that point to my store, and now he wants to create a webpage specifically for marketing the toothbrushes, so he can determine if his marketing for the product is any more effective than what he's doing to advertise my other products.

From within his Affiliate Account area in my storefront, Juan creates a new Tracking ID specifically for use on the page of website that will advertise the toothbrushes. Let's say the ID of his new Tracking ID number is 42. He then adds this TID to the link on his webpage dedicated to the Vintage Toothbrushes. The link looks something like this:
http://www.ExampleStore.com/?tid=42

When people click that link on Juan's website, they will be taken to my store, and the click will be recorded in my store's logs. Juan will earn a commission if the person places an order.

But here's the kicker: Since Juan created a separate TID specifically for tracking the traffic and sales generated from his page advertising the Vintage Toothbrushes, he can compare that TID's traffic and sales metrics against those for the other TIDs on his website and determine how well his marketing efforts for it are doing.

Do I really need to create dozens of Tracking IDs?
Nope. If my affiliate Juan didn’t care about tracking the performance of each page of his website, he could create just one TID number and use it on every page of his website. This approach wouldn't have any affect on the commissions he earns, he just wouldn't be able to compare one TID's performance metrics against another. However, since he's still earning commissions on the sales his site generates, I'm not sure he'd complain. Juan's a pretty easy-going guy, once you get to know him.