What is an Affiliate Cookie Life and is Amazon's Too Short? (Part 1 of 2)

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?     Continue reading on AffiliateBrand.com

Comments

[Vlad]

I am not sure I see the point of having a cookie life of 3 years. This is a long a nough time for a person to buy a new computer never mind deleting the cookie. Gene, great article!

[Gene Kavner]

Chris -- Excellent points. I also agree with you on the issue that anyone changing browsers or computers before making the purchase will cause the cookie lifetime issue to become moot -- cookie is not be transferred between browsers or computers.

Dave -- As you can see from my Part 2, I agree completely with your position that the bulk of sales will all happen in the first 24 hours.

I believe you will both agree with my assertion in Part 2 that the cookie lifetime is not the most important metric to base one's participation in a particular affiliate program.

Dekel -- you are welcome!

[Dave Cole]

I'm generally with Chris on this one. From my experience, the gross-majority of sales will occur within 24 hours of the referral, if not within 1 hour of the referral. If an affiliate is focused on building product buzz and becoming part of that compelling conversion funnel that eCommerce sites spend millions a year dialing in, most sales will happen. It is a good selling point for younger affiliate programs though, because a longer cookie duration does essentially concede some ground to the affiliate. I managed one program and moved the cookie from 30 to 90 days (promoted that we'd done this), and noticed a good spike in sign ups. On average though, I think I recorded only 1 additional sale that was recorded from a cookie that took more than 30 days to convert to a sale.

Looking forward to part 2!

[Dekel]

thanks for the lesson,it is explained very well.

[Chris Kramer]

I've worked on about 30 affiliate programs over the last 10 years and I've seen programs with cookie policies ranging from same session all the way up to 3 years. An acceptable duration greatly depends on a few factors:

1. What type of product are you selling and how long is the purchase consideration period?
2. What are competitive merchants using as their cookie life?
3. Is a merchant factoring in long or short cookie life when determining commissions?
4. Is a merchant crediting for multiple actions within that cookie life cycle?

In general I don't think an affiliate is going to benefit much from a cookie life of greater than 60-90 days due to people clearing cookies or switching machines (browsing at work, buying from home) etc. At the end of the day I think the smarter affiliates look at the total value a merchant brings. In the case of Amazon, the toolset and the brand awareness may compensate for a shorter cookie duration.