Definition

Attribution

Attribution is the process of crediting a conversion to the marketing touchpoint that caused it. In affiliate marketing it is typically last-click: the most recent affiliate whose link the buyer clicked (within the cookie window) gets the commission.

Attribution runs on infrastructure that can fail invisibly: the click must register at the network, a cookie or server-side record must be written, and the merchant's conversion tag must fire and match. Link health covers the first leg; your network dashboard is the ground truth for the rest.