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How the Revshare Cookie Works

Understand how we track affiliate referrals and ensure the right affiliate gets credit for every sale.

Emil Klitmose

Written by Emil Klitmose

Updated recently

A cookie is a small piece of data stored in a visitor's browser. When someone clicks an affiliate link, we save the affiliate's referral code in a cookie so we can remember who referred them.

Think of it like a digital receipt that says "this visitor came from Affiliate X." When they eventually make a purchase—even days or weeks later—we check the cookie and credit the sale to the right affiliate.

How Tracking Works

Here's what happens when someone clicks an affiliate link:

  1. Click — A visitor clicks an affiliate's link (e.g., yoursite.com?ref=john123)
  2. Cookie saved — We store "john123" in their browser
  3. Visitor browses — They might leave, come back later, or browse multiple pages
  4. Purchase — When they buy, we check the cookie and credit "john123"

This means affiliates get credit even if visitors don't buy immediately. The cookie persists across sessions, so a visitor who clicks today and buys next week is still attributed correctly.

Cookie duration is how long the cookie stays active. You can configure this per program:

  • 5–15 days — For impulse purchases or fast-moving products
  • 30 days — The standard for most businesses (recommended)
  • 60–90 days — For higher-consideration purchases
  • 180–365 days — For enterprise/B2B with long sales cycles

Choose a duration that matches your typical sales cycle. If customers usually take 2 weeks to decide, 30 days gives you a comfortable buffer.

Browser Limits (180 Days)

Even though you can set cookie duration up to 365 days, most browsers cap cookies at ~180 days.

This is due to privacy features like Safari's Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) and similar policies in other browsers. They automatically delete cookies older than ~180 days to protect user privacy.

What this means: If you set a 365-day cookie duration but a visitor doesn't return for 200 days, the cookie may have been deleted by their browser. The affiliate won't get credit for that sale.

For most businesses, this isn't a problem—customers rarely take 6+ months to purchase. But if you have very long sales cycles, be aware of this limitation.

The cookie only resets when a visitor clicks a new affiliate link. This is called last-click attribution.

  • New referral click: If a visitor clicks ?ref=affiliate2, the old cookie is overwritten. The new affiliate gets credit.
  • No new click: If a visitor returns without a ?ref= parameter, the existing cookie is preserved. The original affiliate keeps credit.

Example timeline:

Day 1: User clicks ?ref=affiliate1 → cookie set for affiliate1

Day 5: User returns directly (no ref) → cookie unchanged, still affiliate1

Day 10: User clicks ?ref=affiliate2 → cookie overwritten, now affiliate2

Day 15: User purchases → affiliate2 earns commission

Learn more: Read Why Last-Click Attribution to understand why this model is fairest for affiliates.