How to Track Across Domains and Manage Multiple Affiliate Programs

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.