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How to Track Across Domains and Manage Multiple Affiliate Programs

Learn about how Tapfiliate uses cookies to track conversions/customers.

Anna Holovashchenko avatar
Written by Anna Holovashchenko
Updated today

In this article, we will discuss:

  1. Tracking Activity Across Multiple Domains and Subdomains

  2. Why Some Tracking Scenarios Are Not Supported

  3. Supported Scenarios and How to Implement Them

  4. Use Cases: Running Separate Affiliate Programs for Multiple Websites

  5. If You Need Help

Tracking Activity Across Multiple Domains and Subdomains

Understanding how your users navigate your websites is essential for accurate affiliate tracking. Before diving into the technical details, let’s clarify some key terms and scenarios:

Key Terms

  • Main Domain: Your primary website, e.g., mysite.com.
    ​Subdomain: A part of your main domain, often used for apps, landing pages, or blogs, e.g., app.mysite.com or landing.mysite.com.

  • Different Domains: Completely separate websites with unique domain names, e.g., mysite.com → myothersite.com.
    ​Different Locales / Top-Level Domains: Versions of your website for different countries or regions, e.g., mysite.com → mysite.es.

Imagine a user navigating your websites and completing a purchase. Understanding how the tracking works depends on where the user initially lands and where they convert.

Why Some Tracking Scenarios Are Not Supported

Tracking across completely separate domains is not supported—not just in Tapfiliate, but in most affiliate systems. Here’s why:

  • Cross-domain tracking limitation: Most affiliate platforms rely on first-party cookies, which only work on the domain where they are set. Cookies cannot be read across different domains for privacy and browser security reasons.
    ​

  • Top-level domain limitations: Similarly, different top-level domains (TLDs), even if they represent the same brand (e.g., .com vs .es), are treated as entirely separate sites by browsers.

In short: tracking users across different domains or TLDs is technically not possible with standard affiliate software.

Supported Scenarios and How to Implement Them

1. Main Domain → Main Domain

Example: mysite.com → mysite.com

✅ Supported out of the box. No extra setup is required.

2. Main Domain → Subdomain

Example: mysite.com → app.mysite.com

✅ Supported out of the box. Subdomains are typically part of the same website, so tracking works automatically.

3. Subdomain → Different Subdomain

Example: landing.mysite.com → app.mysite.com

✅ Supported, but requires a small modification:

  • In this case, you must modify your click tracking code so that the cookie is placed in the main domain.

  • Modify your click tracking script by adding the cookie_domain setting as documented below:

  • The cookie domain should be set to the main domain.

Use Cases: Running Separate Affiliate Programs for Multiple Websites

Tapfiliate allows you to manage multiple affiliate programs under a single account. Here are some examples of how this can work depending on your setup:

  1. Multiple websites on the same CMS (e.g., Shopify, WordPress)
    -     Use JavaScript or REST API integration.
    - Create a separate affiliate program for each website within your account.
    ​

  2. Multiple websites on different CMS platforms
    -     Use the ready-made plugins or customizable JS snippets for each CMS.
    - Each site can have its own affiliate program while being managed from one account.
    ​

  3. Multiple custom-built websites
    -     Use JavaScript or REST API integration for each site.
    - Maintain separate affiliate programs with centralized management.

If You Need Help

If you're not sure which setup fits your websites, we’re here to help.

  • You can start by watching our pre-recorded demo to get a clearer understanding of how the platform works.

  • And of course, feel free to reach out to our team anytime — we’re always happy to help and review your specific use case together.

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