How does automatic tracking work in affiliate programs?
Have you found the perfect influencer or publisher for your affiliate marketing program? You’ll need to keep tabs on their progress — that’s where tracking affiliate programs comes in.
When an affiliate signs up for your program, you’ll give them an affiliate link with a unique ID. Every time a customer purchases a product with that link, you’ll know which affiliate led them to you, be it through influencer campaigns, email marketing, coupon sites, or other avenues.
But how do you track all your affiliate links, especially if you have several players in your affiliate network? Of course, you could jot them down — but affiliate tracking software is much more convenient.
, you won’t have to worry about tracking and data accuracy.
Plus, because it’s first party, the data belongs to you.
All integrated? Great. After installing the tracking codes, you can invite affiliates to your software and start automating your sales tracking.
The great thing about automated software like Tapfiliate is that your affiliates will get their own login area where they can see their own data, access any assets you want them to promote, and see their sales come in in real-time.
We recommend that before you invite your network, put yourself in their shoes and sign up as an affiliate. Explore how it feels and create a test transaction to make sure everything’s working properly.
Look for sales in your advertiser or affiliate account — they should appear in real-time.
Now, all you have to do is pick the right tech.
Best automatic affiliate program tracking software
Let’s explore some of the market’s top automatic affiliate program tracking software, starting with yours truly. We’ll cover key features, pricing, and more about these affiliate tracking tools.
1. Tapfiliate
Here at Tapfiliate, we lead our affiliate marketing efforts with two goals in mind. First, to optimize your affiliate marketing strategy and make you money. Second? To help people enjoy advertising again.
We’re especially skilled in scaling affiliate programs for eCommerce (including dropshipping) and SaaS businesses, but we work with business owners from all verticals.
From customizable, personalized dashboards to robust and accurate tracking, our all-in-one platform is your personal organizer, project manager, and performance strategist. Curious about which affiliates bring you the most customers? You can identify and reward them easily through our affiliate tracking software.
Pricing: $59 - $149+ per month
Key features:
Real-time coupon code and direct-link tracking: Our robust tracking automatically links every purchase to your affiliate partners.
Sales tracking: See sales performance easily on your affiliate dashboard.
Affiliate network: Our Admitad Partner Network’s affiliate pool helps you connect with over 100,000 potential affiliates.
Performance bonuses (partner rewards): Adjust conversion tracking targets and revenue milestones to automatically award affiliates with bonuses.
Track influencer campaigns: Coupon codes enable clickless tracking, helping you monitor coupon code redemptions from influencer campaigns — a fab, essential feature for IG, TikTok, and Facebook marketing.
Automated workflows: Triggered emails and webhooks help you automate your life and carve more time for important things (like that much-needed golf trip).
Offline to online purchases: Working with an affiliate on an event? Or perhaps your target audience is a sucker for that industry magazine. Bring your offline customer base online seamlessly with unique, clickless coupon codes. We can track them, too!
Want to start using automatic tracking software? 👉get a 14-day free trial with Tapfiliate
2. Voluum
Voluum is an ad tracking and conversion tracking software accessible through the cloud. Some reviewers don’t praise it as a dedicated affiliate marketing software; however, it’s a fantastic choice for various ad campaigns.
It integrates seamlessly with Google Ads, TikTok, and curiously enough, dedicated iGaming affiliate platforms. We especially like its automated bid adjustments and campaign rules! Display your findings with clean, real-time reporting features.
Pricing: $499 - $1,999 per month
Core features:
- Affiliate marketing dashboard
- Custom conversion tracking
- Web visit tracking
- Workspaces
- Trend analysis
- Real-time reporting
3. Everflow
Everflow categorizes its services in eCommerce channels, B2B partnerships, and ad networks. This affiliate software is especially competent for click tracking, zooming in on web visitor time on your site, and distinguishing between true engagement and suspicious clicks.
Everflow uses direct linking to track multiple marketing channel performance and record revenue from specific affiliates. Users praise its accurate reporting and reactive platform but lament its occasional slow load times.
Pricing: Starts at $750/month
Essential Features:
- Instant cart setups
- Click level details
- Click-to-conversion time reporting
- Partner rewards
- Automated reports
- Engagement event tracking
4. Cake
Led by principles of simplicity and innovation, CAKE is a leading affiliate marketing solution active in 50+ countries. The company guarantees 99.9% uptime, deep custom targeting, and real-time affiliate attribution to help you measure success.
One downside is its limited customizability for detailed reporting. Some users report extensive partner-specific and day-specific reporting, but can’t adequately generate custom reports across multiple affiliates.
Pricing: Not listed
Core features:
- Location targeting
- Fraud prevention
- Real-time reporting
- Two-way APIs
- Click and conversion caps
- Product-based tracking
- Discount code tracking
5. Tune
Tune specializes in tracking affiliate programs for financial and subscription-based businesses. You can use it to automate endless tasks in your affiliate marketing strategy, from payment processing and performance optimization to fraud prevention.
Higher-tier plans for this affiliate management software get you a dedicated customer success manager and useful time-to-action (click-to-conversion) reporting. However, the company isn’t as experienced in supporting eCommerce and influencer campaigns as others, like Tapfiliate.
Pricing: $599-$1,500+ per month
Core features:
- Funnel metrics
- Real-time reporting
- Advanced targeting
- Desktop and mobile tracking
- Offer optimization
6. OSI affiliate
OSI Affiliate has many experienced use cases, from eCommerce businesses and SaaS and medical and real estate industries. This affiliate marketing platform makes it easy for your affiliates to share custom social graphics and boost engagement — just keep track with unique coupon codes!
They lose points for unintuitiveness, though. Some reviewers report a high learning curve.
Pricing: $47-$97/month
Core features:
- Easy customer referral marketing tracking
- Smart rewards
- Discount codes
- Advanced reporting
- Email templates
- Social media sharing
- Custom web pop-ups
7. Refersion
Refersion helps brands create customized links for affiliates for easy tracking. Unfortunately, users don’t have much autonomy in generating similarly customizable reports, with one reviewer citing having to contact a Refersion representative for specific reports.
Its biggest benefit? The platform is extremely user-friendly, with visually appealing graphics and data visualizations.
Pricing: Starts at $99
Advanced features:
- Tiered and customizable commission structures
- Key performance tracking
- First-party tracking
- SEO link building
- Individualized affiliate dashboards
- Robust reporting by campaign, product, and creative
8. Impact
Impact features impressive, comprehensive tracking for every type of conversion — email marketing signups, app installations, subscription upgrades, and affiliate traffic.
But you might not want to rely on the platform for sourcing affiliates. While there’s an affiliate discovery feature, reviewers cite the partner options as “low-quality,” with minimal revenue increases.
Pricing: Not listed
Advanced features:
- Branded features
- Multi-layered tracking
- Event, channel, and device tracking
- Cookie and non-cookie tracking for accurate affiliate attribution
9. Affise
Affise boasts an impressive 98% customer satisfaction rate, helping businesses leverage partnerships for profit. Customers can easily track campaigns and test new strategies with Affise’s insights.
The company’s detailed reporting includes click, impression, and conversion tracking — and that umbrellas down to C2S, Google Parallel, cookieless, promo code, and S2S tracking. Talk about comprehensive! But the downsides are limited event tracking and minor bugs, according to some reviewers.
Pricing: $500 - $1,500 per month
Core features:
- Promo code tracking
- Conversion tracking
- Click tracking
- Flexible targeting settings
Get started with automatic tracking today
Tracking affiliate programs isn’t a nice-to-have — it’s a must-have for your digital marketing strategy. You can’t scale without understanding which affiliates bring you revenue and traffic, and how your hard-earned income is being spent.
Plus, you’ll become more confident in your business with the immense awareness and knowledge you’ll learn about your customers.
You’re not just looking for basic affiliate link trackers — your customers and affiliates demand more appeal, which you can only offer through the valuable insights tracking software can offer you.
Ready to get started with tracking affiliate programs? Tapfiliate has a 14-day trial waiting for you to redeem. Start your free trial today!