Hiya I am part of two major affiliate scheme websites and have a question. If visitors of my website find something they like and click (installing the 30day+ cookie) on it but then go on to look for discounts at the checkout stage, will the cookie from the discount web site overwrite mine? If so, surely that is not very fair as I was the initiator? Thanks
It depends on the conditions of the affiliate program. On most of the affiliate programs the last one who sends the visitors gets credited. But... on MarketHealth for example the first who sends a visitor to one of their products gets the credit, even if the visitor clicks the links of other affiliates before purchasing the product.
It is unfair you also have to consider people deleting cookies. The sad thing about cookie tracking is it is extremely flawed.
As an affiliate manager we always want to reward affiliates for bringing traffic. Unfortunately, its the last click that gets the credit. We experience that affiliate cookies trump our PPC when we land the customer on the site but they search for a coupon code when in the cart. The best thing you can do is to insure that you are landing them on the right page so they can make the purchase without fishing around.
I recently had that happen to me, but in my favor, as I was getting sales from a site that wasn't mine but sold the same product. I realized surfers were clicking on his site first, which set the cookie, but then they made their way to my site, where I ultimately got the sale.