An affiliate link tracker records which partner sent each visitor, lead and sale, so you pay commission on evidence instead of on memory. If you run your own referral or partner programme and still settle commissions from a spreadsheet and a few forwarded emails, this is the piece that fixes it. Once it is set up on the levelpartner.ai platform, every partner gets a unique link, every click on it is attributed, and the sale lands against their name in the same system that holds the contact and the payment.
What the tracker actually does
The tracker does three jobs. It issues each affiliate a link that carries their identity. It remembers that identity when the visitor arrives on your page, so a lead who fills in a form days later is still credited. It then ties any payment that contact makes back to the affiliate, which is what turns a click into a commission line.
Because the affiliate manager sits inside the same account as your contacts, forms and payments, nothing has to be matched up by hand. The referred contact record shows who referred them. The commission shows which payment created it. Your finance lead can check both without asking sales.
Before you start
- A live page for partners to send people to: a funnel step, a website page or a booking page built under Sites.
- Payments connected in the account, because commission is calculated from payments taken through the platform.
- A product or offer set up in Payments that the programme pays out on.
- A written commission rule: flat fee or share of the sale, one-off or recurring, and how long the referral window lasts.
- A short list of the first partners you will invite, with their email addresses.
How to set it up
The procedure below creates a campaign and enrols your first partner. Once enrolled, each affiliate has a campaign-specific referral link with their ID in it. Test that link yourself before anyone else sees it: open it in a private browser window, submit the form on the landing page, check the contact shows the affiliate as referrer, then delete the test contact.
- Go to Marketing and open Affiliate Manager.
- Click + Add to start a new campaign.
- Choose the campaign source, such as a funnel or website.
- Pick the landing page your partners' links should open.
- Keep only commission-eligible products in the product list.
- Set the default commission as a flat fee or a percentage.
- Set cookie duration and payout terms under the additional settings.
- Click Publish, or Save as Draft to finish later.
- Open Affiliate, click + Add and select New Affiliate.
- Enter email, first name and last name, then Assign to Campaign.
What tracked links are for in a 60-person firm
Most firms with flat revenue already get referrals. The problem is that referrals arrive through a dozen doors: a partner phones a salesperson, an accountant forwards an email, a past client mentions you at a dinner. None of it is recorded, so nobody knows which relationships are worth investing in, and partners who send good work are thanked late or not at all.
A tracked link replaces that informal web with a record. You see that one bookkeeping firm sent eleven leads this quarter and four became clients, while another sent none. That tells you where to spend partner time. For agencies, consultants, mortgage brokers and real estate firms alike, the value is the same: referral income stops being luck and becomes a channel you can measure and grow.
Suppose the firm pays a flat £500, an illustrative fee, for each referred client who signs a first engagement. Say the tracker shows 36 referred leads from twelve partners in a quarter, and nine of them sign. If two partners account for six of those nine, the case for moving both onto a higher tier is plain. So is the case for no longer chasing the partners who have sent nothing in six months. The tracker gives you that split on evidence rather than impression.
The time it takes each week
Setup takes an afternoon if your landing page and payment product already exist. After that, the weekly work is about twenty minutes: check new referrals, approve or reject commissions, and answer partner questions. The tracker itself needs no attention. What needs attention is the partner relationship, which is where the weekly review on the affiliate dashboard helps.
The mistake most people make
Pointing every tracked link at the home page. A partner's audience arrives cold, lands on a generic page, and leaves. Build one landing page per campaign that names the partner type ("for clients of independent accountants") and has one form or one booking calendar. Attribution only works if the visitor converts on a tracked page in the first place.
When not to use it
Do not use tracked links if almost all your referrals come from two or three people you speak to every week. A thank-you call and a manual invoice are enough at that scale. Do not use them either if your sale is closed entirely offline with no payment in the platform, because the tracker cannot see a sale it never touches. In that case, record the referrer on the contact and pay by hand, or move invoicing into the platform first.
Troubleshooting
The lead arrived but no affiliate is credited
The visitor most likely reached the form through a different route, such as typing your address directly. Check that the form sits on the page the campaign points to, and that the partner shared the full link, not a shortened copy that drops the tracking part.
Commission did not appear after a payment
Commission only follows payments for the products linked to the campaign. Open the campaign, confirm the product is attached, and confirm the payment went through the platform rather than an external card terminal.
Two partners claim the same lead
The tracker credits the link the contact used within the referral window, according to the rule you set. Publish that rule in your partner terms so disputes are settled by the policy, not by argument. Our guide to automating the partner programme shows how to send partners a confirmation the moment a lead is credited, which removes most disputes before they start.
The link works on desktop but not in some apps
Some messaging apps open links in their own browser and strip parameters. Ask partners to share the link as plain text and test it in the apps they actually use.
Frequently asked questions
Can one affiliate have more than one tracked link?
Yes. Add the affiliate to several campaigns and each campaign gives them a separate link, so you can see whether their newsletter or their client emails perform better.
How long does attribution last after the first click?
As long as the referral window you set on the campaign. Choose a window that matches your sales cycle; a mortgage enquiry may take weeks to complete, while a booked consultation may happen the same day.
Do affiliates see their own numbers?
Partners log in to their own portal and see their clicks, leads and commissions. They never see your other contacts or other partners. If you are weighing a separate tool for this, read what to check when comparing affiliate software first.
Can I track partners who refer by phone rather than by link?
Not automatically. Add the affiliate manually to the contact record when the call comes in, so the referral and any later commission are still on file.