A lot of affiliates use link cloaking software to easily cloak and manage all their affiliate links in one place. We've built Ivanhoe.io in such a way that the most popular link cloakers support Ivanhoe.io sub-id's by default. If you don't know how, please read this carefully. In this article we will show you exactly how to use Ivanhoe.io with popular link cloaking software like Pretty Links and Thirsty Affiliates.
It's all about parameter forwarding
Your link cloaking software needs to support URL parameter forwarding in order to save a sub-id and forward it in the actual affiliate tracking link. With the Ivanhoe.io tag installed on your website, it's pretty simple to get the sub-id replaced with a unique Ivanhoe.io sub-id. Let's check the example below:
EXAMPLE - Affiliate tracking link:
https://ds1.nl/c/?si=1400&li=1361444&wi=129617&ws=
In this affiliate tracking link we can add a value as a sub-id right after "ws=" which results in the following tracking link:
https://ds1.nl/c/?si=1400&li=1361444&wi=129617&ws=IVANHOE
So if you have installed the Ivanhoe.io Tag on your website, we will replace IVANHOE with a unique Ivanhoe.io sub-id, such as: 619pdIdTsivant
Now if you use cloaked links without parameter forwarding the Ivanhoe.io Tag can't replace IVANHOE with a correct sub-id because there is nothing to replace in the cloaked link. For example:
https://ivanhoe.io/features/
As there is no IVANHOE inside the URL, the Ivanhoe.io Tag is not replacing anything. This will result in a visitor being redirected to an affiliate tracking link without a correct sub-id. In this case no visitor profile can be built!
Enable parameter forwarding!
At this point, you need to enter parameter forwarding to pass sub-id's from the cloaked link into the affiliate tracking link. When generating the cloaked link make sure to enable parameter forwarding!
The only things you need to do next is placing the cloaked link on a page where you have installed the Ivanhoe.io tag and enrich the cloaked link with sub-id data. It will look like this:
https://ivanhoe.io/features?IVANHOE
In the above example your visiter will be redirected with a correct Ivanhoe.io sub-id inserted in the affiliate tracking link! Technically this will happen:
- Cloaked link contains IVANHOE, which will be replaced by the Ivanhoe.io Tag with a correct and unique sub-id. The cloaked link will look like: https://ivanhoe.io/features?619pdIdTsivant when hovering the link!
- The Ivanhoe.io sub-id will be forwarder into the affiliate tracking link by your link cloaking software that supports parameter forwarding.
- Each visitor clicking on the cloaked link will generate a unique sub-id. This gives us the opportunity to generate a visitor profile, fully anonymous!
How to use parameter forwarding in Pretty Links?
When generating a link in the pretty links plugin, you'll find "Advanced options". When clicking on it you'll have the opportunity to enable "Parameter forwarding".
When Parameter Forwarding is enabled Pretty Links will automatically forward all parameters you placed at the end of the cloaked link.
How to use parameter forwarding in Thirsty Affiliates?
In general the workflow is exactly the same as how it works in Pretty Links. Except Thirsty Affiliates is calling it "Pass query string to destination URL". It can be found on the right side when adding a new link or editing an existing one.
Use your existing sub-id's with Ivanhoe.io sub-id's
If you are already using (dynamic) sub-id's you can use them together with Ivanhoe.io sub-id's. Just seperate the IVANHOE sub-id with a separator like this: IVANHOE-yoursubid
Need help on cloaked links?
Feel free to contact us! We will help you getting started with your cloaked link software as soon as we can!