Affiliate marketing glossary
Cross-device tracking
In one sentence
Cross-device tracking links a click on one device to a purchase on another, so an affiliate is credited when a customer discovers a product on mobile and buys on desktop.
This matters disproportionately for creators. Social content is consumed on mobile, but considered purchases, furniture, electronics, anything above a few hundred dollars, frequently complete on a larger screen. Without cross-device tracking, that commission is simply lost.
Support depends on the advertiser's implementation, not the publisher's. It is worth checking before investing content in a high-value program.
Common questions
Cross-device tracking, answered
How does cross-device tracking work?
The advertiser matches the click and the purchase to the same person, normally because the customer is signed in on both devices. Without a shared identifier there is nothing to match on, so support is decided by the advertiser's implementation rather than by anything the publisher does.
How much commission is lost without it?
It varies by category and there is no honest single figure, but the loss concentrates in exactly the places it hurts most: expensive, considered purchases discovered on a phone and completed on a laptop. Furniture, electronics and travel are the categories where it is worth checking before committing content.
Can I do anything to improve cross-device tracking?
Not directly, because it is advertiser-side. What you can control is checking which programs support it before building around them, and preferring the ones that do when the purchase is likely to be considered rather than impulsive.
Keep reading
More from the glossary
Every term here is written to answer one question completely, then point at the next one worth asking.
Sub-affiliate network
A sub-affiliate network is a company that holds approved relationships with affiliate programs on major networks and lets smaller publishers and creators promote those programs under its account, sharing the commission it receives.
Affiliate network
An affiliate network is a platform that connects advertisers running affiliate programs with publishers who promote them, handling tracking, reporting and payment between the two.
EPC (earnings per click)
EPC is the average commission earned per click sent to an advertiser, calculated as total commission divided by total clicks over a given period.
Last-click attribution
Last-click attribution credits the entire commission to the final affiliate link clicked before a purchase, which is the default model across almost all affiliate networks.
Deep link
A deep link is a tracked affiliate link that points to a specific product or category page on an advertiser's site rather than to its homepage.
Sub-ID
A sub-ID is a custom parameter appended to an affiliate link that lets a partner segment their reporting by campaign, platform, post or placement.
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