DFF Tracking link SUBID

SubID or TrackingID is on optional parameter often supported by many affiliate network / program to allow affiliate to pass reference information along with a particular clickthrough.
The passed SubID information will be stored at the affiliate network and tracked. If a conversion (sale or action) is generated from that particular clickthrough referral, the SubID value will be passed along into the affiliate's commission report. Some affiliate network even include SubID when reporting clickthrough and/or impressions.

Example Usage of SubID

The most common usage and the reason why SubID or TrackingID exists was because of reward sites such as FatWallet. Reward sites need to have a method to be able to know which one of their members to give reward for sales conversions. The only way to track this is to pass in the unique Member ID that is unique to each reward site which will be reflected in their commission report if the clickthrough referral converts.

SubID is optional, but useful

While SubID is optional, we default the value to 'dff' so that you can track which conversion was generated from DFF. You can change this value as you wish. We recommend to put something short and meaningful. Avoid using punctuation characters and symbols because the SubID value will be passed in the Tracking URL and the symbols may not be supported by the affiliate network or program.

Where can I enter my Default SubID for DFF?

The same place where you enter your affiliate IDs.
Login as Affiliate >
Click on Settings Tab >
Click on Affiliate ID
Click here to go to Affiliate IDs settings page.

Custom SubID

If you are creating a reward site where you need to pass a unique value into SubID according to which user has logged into your website, you need to use Custom SubID.
Using Custom SubID will force DFF to override your existing SubID value you have set from Affiliate Login > Settings > AffiliateID.
Custom SubID will be passed along the clickthrough tracking URL conforming with each affiliate networks' special URL conventions.

To use custom SubID, you simply pass in the SubID value in the DFF script parameter when calling the DFF script or tool. As you may know DFF uses many different prefixes for parameter naming.
Depending which prefix is being used, you should follow the same prefix structure for the SubID parameter. Please see the examples below:

1. If the script takes parameter name starting with 'dff_' then you should add parameter &subid=. . . . .
2. If the script takes parameter name starting with 'dffget_' then your should add parameter &subid=. . . . .
3. If the script takes parameter without prefix such as affid=. . . . . then you add parameter &subid=. . . . .

To use custom SubID with XML / JSON web services, you will add the &subid parameter yourself because you will be given the click-through URL from DFF which looks like this:

http://www.datafeedfile.com/dff_prdtclick.php?affid=...&prdtid=...&subid=...
http://www.datafeedfile.com/dff_dealclick.php?affid=...&dealnum=...&subid=...

NOTE: If your SubID may contain punctuations / symbols make sure you URL encode the Custom SubID value first.

Default SubID versus Custom SubID

Default SubID can be assigned for each affiliate network from Settings > Affiliate IDs. Default SubID will always be passed unless a Custom SubID is specified. When a Custom SubID is specified in the URL query string parameter the Custom SubID will be used instead of Default SubID.

How do I check to make sure SubID is working

To check and make sure the SubID is being passed correctly, you have to get copy the click-through link into your clipboard and paste it in a new browser window along with adding the &debug=1 extra query string parameter. So once you copy the DFF click-through link your debug link should look like this:

http://www.datafeedfile.com/dff_prdtclick.php?affid=...&prdtid=...&subid=...&debug=1

That will allow you to pause the redirect click-through process and examine the outgoing URL.

Does all affiliate network support SubID?

Not all affiliate network / independent affiliate program DFF has support SubID tracking. Here are the few that we know does not support SubID tracking:

1. Amazon
2. Shopzilla