Linkcodes
Article Topics: NATS Admin
What is a Linkcode?
A linkcode is a referral URL tracked by NATS that allows NATs to identify the tour, program, campaign, and Ad Tool (if any) that are associated with an affiliate, ensuring the affiliate gets credit for the traffic they redirect to NATS.
Types of Linkcodes
There are three types of linkcodes that NATS will recognize, all of which are interchangeable with one another:
Encoded Links
Un-Encoded Links
Shortname Links
Locating Linkcodes
Affiliate linkcodes can be found in three separate locations: the Affiliate Area, the Site Overview page, and the Tour Overview page.
Affiliate Area
Affiliates can view linkcodes for every program, site, and tour they are enabled on.
You can navigate to the Linkcodes page by first heading to the Dashboard of the affiliate area and hovering over the "Ad Tools" tab which will produce a drop-down with the "Linkcodes" option.
Site Overview
Affiliates can also view linkcodes through the Linkcodes tab in the Sites Overview section of the Sites Admin.
You can navigate to the Linkcodes tab in the Site Admin by first navigating to "Site Management" and selecting the site you wish to get the linkcode for. From here, you can select the "Linkcodes" tab to view the Linkcodes.
Tour Overview
Affiliates can also view linkcodes for specific tours through the Linkcodes tab of the Tour Overview.
You can navigate to the Linkcodes tab in the Tour Admin by first navigating to "Site Management" page, selecting the "Tours" tab, then selecting the Tour you wish to get the linkcode for. From here, you can select the "Linkcodes" tab to view the Linkcodes.
Encoded Linkcodes
Encoded linkcodes are the most common variety of linkcode seen in NATS. All of the information required by NATS to tie an affiliate to a surfer is located in the string of characters at the end of the linkcode, which is base64-encoded.
Elements of an Encoded Linkcode
Link Domain - This is often the third level domain of the tour site that is actually a server alias to your NATS install. It is necessary for proper cookie tracking and surfer appeal.
Track - The alias to the NATS tracking script you are using.
NATS Code - The part of a NATS tracking URL that is used to credit an affiliate and record statistics.
Un-encoded Linkcodes
Un-encoded link codes display a period-delimited list of all information that would be in an encoded string within your URL. This is an alternate way to display affiliate link codes.
Elements of an Un-encoded Linkcode
Link Domain – This is often the third level domain of the tour site that is actually a server alias to your NATS install. It is necessary for proper cookie tracking and surfer appeal.
Track – The alias to the NATS tracking script you are using.
Affiliate Username - The username of the affiliate who referred this surfer.
Programid - The numeric ID of the program that the surfer's transaction will be paid out under
Siteid - The numeric ID of the NATS site your surfer is trying to visit.
Tourid - The numeric ID of the site's tour that your surfer will be redirected to.
Affiliate Campaignid - The numeric id of the campaign associated with the affiliate (0 = the default campaign for that affiliate)
Ad Toolid - If the surfer followed a link code associated with an Ad Tool, this will represent the numeric id of the ad tool the surfer saw. If no ad tool was used, this will default to 0.
Subid1 - This is used for extra tracking needed by some special Ad Tool types, such as gallery builder.
Subid2 - This is available for custom use.
Shortname Linkcodes
Shortname linkcodes look very similar to un-encoded link codes, with a crucial difference. Instead of using ID numbers like an un-encoded linkcode, this format uses the shortnames of the program, site, and tour you have specified in the URL.
Decoding Linkcodes
Encoded linkcodes can be decoded using base64 decoding, which uses ASCII characters and binary to encode/decode links.
NATS Admins can decode linkcodes using the "Decode Linkcode" tool which can be found in the "Tools" admin in NATS.
To decode a Linkcode insert the NATS Code and click "Decode."
This will display a list of information including the Affiliates, campaign, program, ad tool type, ad tool id, site, tour, sub id 1, and sub id 2.
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