SubIDs in Commerce

What is a SubID?

A SubID is an individual campaign/domain that can be associated with a parent campaign/domain for your Commerce integration. This, in turn, acts as an automated way to create new campaigns/domains for your users in your account. 

SubIDs can act as individual campaigns/domains, have KPIs tied directly to them, and create links that separate them from other SubIDs. This integration type is perfect for any publisher creating large networks of publishers with Sovrn Commerce. 

How are SubIDs generated?

SubIDs are programmatically created, meaning that they require an API call or properly formatted link to be generated. When you send an API call or correctly formatted link, the SubID will take a few minutes to process and then appear in your account as a completely new campaign/domain.

How do I get started with SubIDs?

To send SubIDs with Sovrn Commerce, your account must be enabled to provide these extra parameters. Please contact support@sovrn.com with a description of your SubID integration to get started. Our support team will evaluate your request and determine if SubIDs are the proper type of integration for your publication type.

How do I properly format a SubID creation?

To send a SubID properly, your account must first be enabled to send SubID integrations. An API call with SubID integrations utilizes the following structure:

The Redirect Header: https://redirect.viglink.com?

The Parent API Key: key=PARENT_API_KEY

The name of the SubID (must be the domain/location URL in which the affiliate link will be placed): &subId=YOUR_SUBID_NAME

A destination URL (must be a domain from an approved merchant): &u=https://www.macys.com

Your request URL should look something like: https://redirect.viglink.com?key=PARENT_API_KEY&subId=YOUR_SUBID_NAME&u=https://www.macys.com

Once the above formatting is correct, you can either send a GET request to that endpoint or place the above URL in your publication to be clicked on. Once the GET request has been completed or the click has been sent, the SubID should appear in your platform within 5-20 minutes.

Can I append other parameters to a link with SubIDs?

Yes! Sovrn Commerce supports a handful of other tracking parameters you can append to the end of your links, such as UTM parameters or CUIDs (custom tracking ID numbers). You can find more information about UTM parameters and CUIDs in Commerce here.

I'm not seeing a SubID appear on my platform after I send a request or click.

There are a handful of reasons why you may not see a SubID appear on the platform. If it has been more than 20 minutes and the SubID is still not appearing:

Some of the parameters in your request may be missing or incorrect.

Double-check that all the parameters in your request or clicks are in the URL. Some common errors we see are incorrect or missing API keys, missing URLs, or missing SubID names.

You're sending a click to an unsupported merchant.

Double-check that the &u= parameter contains a link we can monetize. If the destination URL does not point to a supported merchant (e.g., the destination URL is Google.com), then the SubID may not appear.

Your account hasn't been enabled for SubIDs yet.

To submit SubIDs to Sovrn Commerce, you must have them enabled by our support team. Please read this section to learn more about getting SubIDs enabled by our support team before sending requests.

If you have followed the above steps and you are still not seeing a SubID appear, please reach out to our support team for further assistance.

How do I change the parent API key for the SubID call?

To change the parent API key used to generate a SubID, you must contact our support team to enable another campaign/user. Please contact our support team at support@sovrn.com with the information about the new campaign/user to begin this new integration process.

What reports are available to determine the performance of SubIDs?

There are a handful of ways you can see the performance of various SubIDs in your Sovrn Commerce integration. We recommend utilizing the reporting APIs to see further breakdowns of performance, such as the Transactions API endpoint or the Aggregates API endpoints. Within these endpoints, each SubID will appear as a separate campaign/domain within your reporting based on the naming convention you set up in the &subId= parameter.

Your dashboard also offers a handful of ways you can analyze the performance of your SubIDs with some downloadable reports. You can see more information about these analytics here.

Need more help? 

We're here to support you. If you still have questions, please reach out to Sovrn Support.