Attribution Windows Explained: 7 Days, 30 Days or the Code at Checkout?

A shopper sees a creator's video on Tuesday, clicks the link, browses, leaves. On Saturday they come back through Google and buy. Does the creator get paid?

The answer is "it depends on your attribution window", and most brands have never consciously chosen theirs. They are running whatever the default was, which means they have either been paying for sales the affiliate had nothing to do with, or refusing to pay for sales the affiliate clearly drove, without knowing which.

This post explains how attribution actually works in a Shopify affiliate program, what the window setting does, why codes and links behave differently, and how to pick a length that is fair to creators without paying for your own organic traffic.

1. Two ways a sale gets attributed

Before the window, it helps to be precise about the mechanism, because the window only applies to one of them.

Static code attribution. The affiliate has a permanent code, say SARAH15. A sale is theirs if that code is applied at checkout. There is no window, because there is no click to measure from: the code is the attribution. If the shopper saw Sarah's post in March and types SARAH15 in September, Sarah is paid. If they saw Sarah's post and forgot the code, Sarah is not.

Link attribution. The affiliate has a link. When a shopper clicks it, two things happen in Reveshare: the click is recorded against the affiliate, and a short-lived discount code is minted for that shopper, valid for the program's code lifetime, which is 24 hours by default. The shopper is remembered for the program's cookie window, which is 30 days by default. A sale inside that window is attributed to the affiliate whether or not the shopper types anything.

Each program in Reveshare uses one method or the other, and the window settings only apply to link-based programs. If your program is on static codes, the rest of this post is about what you would gain by switching.

2. What the window actually decides

The cookie window is the number of days after a click during which a purchase is still credited to the affiliate. Three things change as you move it.

Who gets paid. A longer window credits more sales to affiliates, including sales where the shopper came back through another channel. A shorter window credits only sales that happen close to the click.

What you pay for. Every extra day in the window adds sales the affiliate influenced less directly. At some point you are paying commission on a purchase that your own retargeting or email flow actually closed.

How many disputes you get. Creators with content that has a long consideration cycle, like a furniture review, will dispute a 7-day window constantly, because their audience buys on day twelve. Creators driving impulse purchases from stories will never notice the difference.

30 days

It is long enough to cover most considered purchases, short enough that a purchase a month later is plausibly still the creator's, and it is what most creators expect from a serious program. Move away from it for a reason, not by default.

3. Choosing a length

There is no single right window. There is a right window for your product's consideration cycle and your other marketing.

1. Find your typical time from first visit to purchase

   Shopify analytics and most session tools will show you the distribution of days between a customer's first session and their first order. For an impulse product it is mostly same-day. For a considered one, a meaningful share happens in week two and three.

2. Set the window to cover most of that distribution

   If 85% of your first orders happen within 10 days of the first visit, a 14-day window covers the creator's real influence and stops paying beyond it. If a third of orders happen after day 14, you need 30.

3. Check what else runs in that window

   If you retarget heavily and run a strong email flow, a long window means the affiliate gets credited for sales those channels closed. That is not necessarily wrong, the affiliate did introduce the customer, but be aware you are paying twice.

4. Write it into the program terms

   Whatever you choose, say it on the join page and in the welcome email. "Sales within 30 days of a click on your link are yours." Most attribution disputes come from creators who assumed a different number.

4. When the code and the link disagree

A shopper clicks Sarah's link on Monday, then on Friday types Tom's code at checkout. Who gets paid?

There is no universally correct answer, but there is a clear principle: the shopper's explicit action at checkout wins. Typing a code is a deliberate statement of who the shopper is crediting. A click five days ago is an inference. In Reveshare, the code applied to the order is what the sale is attributed to. If the shopper used the code Sarah's link minted, Sarah is paid. If they typed Tom's code instead, Tom is.

This also answers the "last click vs. first click" question for most Shopify programs. Multi-touch attribution across affiliates is a network-scale problem. For a brand with one program and a few hundred partners, "the code on the order" is simpler, explainable to creators, and almost always fair.

5. Explaining it to creators

Creators do not need the mechanics, they need to know three things, and they need to know them before their first post.

• "How long after someone clicks my link do I get credit?" Give them the number. "30 days" is a sentence.
• "What if they forget my code?" With Sneakylinks, the answer is "you still get credit within the window". This is the single most reassuring thing you can tell a creator, and most programs cannot say it.
• "What if they use someone else's code?" "The code they type at checkout wins." Creators accept this immediately, because it is how they would want it if the code were theirs.

Put those three answers on the join page and in the welcome email. They prevent more support threads than any other paragraph you will write.

Conclusion

Attribution windows only exist for link-based programs, and that is the first decision: if you are on static codes, you have no window and no way to credit a creator whose audience forgot the code. On links, the window is a program setting that should match your product's consideration cycle, with 30 days as a sensible default for anything people think about before buying and shorter windows for impulse purchases and brands that retarget hard. Whatever you choose, the code on the order wins when there is a conflict, and the number belongs on your join page, not in a settings screen nobody reads.

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