Should influencers get a discount code or an affiliate link?

Usually both. A code carries the creator's credit where nobody clicks, such as podcasts and spoken read-outs, and a link credits the click without giving away a discount. Decide before launch which one wins when both land on one order.

What happens when someone else uses a creator's discount code?

It depends on your setup. On impact.com an Always Credit code pays the creator unless a partner in a higher credit group has the last click. Awin's Voucher Attribution pays the exclusive publisher. UpPromote pays the code's owner; Refersion pays the link's owner by default.

Can a browser extension take the commission for a creator's sale?

On a last-click programme, an extension whose click lands after the creator's can be credited instead. Most networks in the PMA's survey say they require extensions to stand down when another partner referred the shopper. Creators have sued PayPal over this; as of October 2026 no court has found liability.

Do creators have to disclose discount codes?

Yes, in the US and the UK. FTC staff advise clear disclosure even when the code is personalised, and the UK treats a code that pays the creator as advertising. In both, the brand shares responsibility, so put approved wording in the brief.

Should your creators get a discount code, an affiliate link or both?

Usually both. Then decide which wins when they collide: creator codes leak to coupon sites and extensions, and your settings decide who gets paid.

Benson

PartnershipsUpdated 12 October 202616 min read

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In short

Usually both. A code credits the creator on any order that carries it, so it works in podcasts and videos where nobody clicks; a link credits the click and needn't carry a discount. Because codes leak to coupon sites and extensions, decide before launch which one wins when a code and another partner's click land on the same order.

A creator posts a video about your product on a Tuesday. It does well. Orders carrying her code arrive all week, and you send her a thank-you note.

Three weeks later the code is still turning up, a few orders a day, from shoppers who arrived through Google, your own emails or nowhere you can see. Someone on the team finds it listed on a coupon site.

Then the creator emails. Her followers keep telling her they bought, but her affiliate dashboard shows fewer sales than she expected. She asks whether the tracking is broken.

It probably isn't. You may be paying her for orders she didn't send and missing orders she did, both at once, depending on how her code and link are set up. This guide covers what each one tracks, who gets paid when they collide, what that costs, and how to set creators up so they're paid for the sales they cause. It's part of our guide to which affiliate partners to pay, and for what.

What does a link track, and what does a code track?#

A link tracks the click and the session after it. A code tracks the order, whoever types it in. That's why most creators need both.

A link sets a cookie or passes a click id, and the creator is credited if an order follows inside the programme's window. Most programmes then pay the last click: almost 80% of respondents to the Performance Marketing Association's 2026 US brand survey still use last-click attribution. [Performance Marketing Association, Jul 2026] (opens the source) So a link loses the follower who buys on a laptop a week after watching on their phone, and the order where another partner's click lands after hers.

A code is credited on the order itself, so it survives the podcast, the read-out and the switch of device. Rewardful, which sells affiliate software, argues that links can't be clicked in podcasts, YouTube or TikTok. [Rewardful, Feb 2026] (opens the source) That overstates it for a description box, but much of a creator's influence happens where nobody records a click.

45.9%

of marketers answering Influencer Marketing Hub's 2026 benchmark use promo or discount codes to measure creators, the most-used method. Affiliate links came second, at 26.0%.

Influencer Marketing Hub, May 2026

The publisher earns from links to influencer tools, so read its survey of 600-plus marketers as a direction. The costs differ too: a link needn't carry a discount, while a code always does, and anyone can type it.

Shopify Collabs assumes both: creators earn on links or codes, and invite programmes give each creator one of each. [Shopify Help Center, Apr 2023] (opens the source) [Shopify Help Center, Oct 2026] (opens the source) As of 12 October 2026, though, Shopify says Collabs isn't accepting new creator sign-ups. [Shopify Help Center, Oct 2026] (opens the source)

What happens to a creator's code after it leaves the video?#

It gets used by people the creator never reached. Followers paste it into deal forums, coupon sites list it, and coupon extensions pick it up from one shopper's checkout and try it at everyone else's.

The extension route scales: a code that works for one user can be offered to all of them, for as long as it works. At a PMA webinar on coupon codes in September 2025, one panellist put it plainly: public vanity codes can be scraped. [Performance Marketing Association, Jan 2026] (opens the source) Private codes travel too.

Once the code is loose, the orders it's on arrive with a code from one partner and, often, a click from another. Which of them gets paid is a setting.

Who gets paid when a code and a click disagree?#

Whoever your network or app was set to favour, and the main ones favour different partners. We checked each setting below on 12 October 2026.

impact.com. A tracking promo code belongs to one partner, and only that partner can be credited for it. Its Credit Policy (Engage → Content → Promo Codes → Create Promo Code → Tracking) has three options: Always Credit (the code always gets credit, and that partner's clicks stop being tracked), Credit If Involved (only if the partner drove clicks) and Credit If Winner (only if the partner drove the winning click). [impact.com Help Center, Oct 2026] (opens the source)

Two rules sit on top. impact.com's FAQ says purchases driven by other partners using an assigned code become invalid conversions, reversed so no partner is paid. And credit groups (Preferred, Standard, Non-Preferred) take precedence over promo code tracking: in its example, a Standard partner's Always Credit code loses to a Preferred partner's last click. [impact.com Help Center, Oct 2026] (opens the source) Partners without a group are Preferred by default. [impact.com Help Center, Oct 2026] (opens the source) So a leaked order can pay the creator, a partner in a higher group, or nobody, and an exclusive code protects her only if no other partner outranks her group.

Awin. Voucher Attribution (Coupon Attribution in the US [Awin, Oct 2026] (opens the source)) credits sales on the code alone, with no Awin link or cookie, and an exclusive code's commission goes only to the publisher you assign, even when another publisher spreads it. It's under Toolbox → Links & Tools → My Offers → Add Voucher, and needs unconditional tracking or the channel parameter, plus the code passed in your tag. [Awin Help Center (developers), Apr 2026] (opens the source) Separately, Awin puts extensions on a Soft Click status where it sees fit, so their cookies don't override influencers and content partners.

$7.1M

in commission went to upper-funnel partners such as influencers and content sites in 2025 under Soft Click, Awin says, on more than $100M of sales it says the rule protected. Awin sells the network.

Awin, Jul 2026

Shopify affiliate apps settle the same collision in opposite ways. In UpPromote, coupons outrank links: if a shopper clicks affiliate A's link and uses affiliate B's coupon, B is paid. [UpPromote Docs, Oct 2026] (opens the source) In Refersion, the link wins by default and the coupon conversion is unqualified, though support can switch the priority. [Refersion Help Center, Jul 2026] (opens the source)

Where	Setting	A creator's code used on another partner's click
impact.com	Always Credit	Creator paid, unless the other partner's credit group ranks higher
impact.com	Credit If Winner	Creator not paid; a conversion another partner drove with her code is reversed
Awin	Voucher Attribution	The exclusive publisher is paid on every sale Awin tracks with the code
UpPromote	Default priority	The code's owner is paid
Refersion	Default de-duplication	The link's owner is paid, unless support switches it

None of these covers creators in a Shopify app and extension partners in a network. Each system credits its own partner, so one order can pay twice. Awin's channel parameter exists for this: it tells Awin which channel had the last click, so commission isn't paid to more than one traffic source. [Awin Help Center (developers), Apr 2026] (opens the source)

What does a leaked creator code cost?#

The discount, plus at least one commission, on an order that was usually happening anyway. Anyday's founder told Modern Retail that paying the influencer on a leaked code is "a double whammy hit on margins". [Modern Retail, May 2024] (opens the source)

P.F. Candle Co.'s founder told the same publication that ordinary redemptions are a cost of doing business [Modern Retail, May 2024] (opens the source), which is fair for a public promotion. A creator code adds a commission.

One leaked order, credited three ways (illustrative numbers)Illustrative example

A shopper reaches checkout with a $120 basket, and a coupon extension applies your creator's 15% code. At a 50% gross margin, the full-price order would have left you $60. With the code the shopper pays $102 and you keep $42 before commission. Your creator earns 10% and the extension's publisher account 5%, both on the $102.

The creator is credited, because her code is set to always win: $42 − $10.20 = $31.80.
The extension's click is credited and her code isn't: $42 − $5.10 = $36.90. On Awin's US Access plan, its 3.5% tracking fee takes another $3.57, leaving $33.33. [Awin, Oct 2026] (opens the source)
Both are credited, because she sits in a Shopify app, the extension sits in a network, and nothing de-duplicates them: $42 − $10.20 − $5.10 = $26.70, before any network fee.

If the shopper would have paid full price anyway, an order worth $60 to you is now worth $26.70 to $36.90. Across 100 leaked orders a month that's $2,310 to $3,330 of lost margin, and in the first and third cases $1,020 of it is creator commission on sales she didn't cause.

The opposite case costs the creator. Her follower clicks her link, then an extension's click lands at checkout. On a last-click programme, with her code not on the order, the extension is credited instead. That's the gap in her dashboard.

Why is creator credit a bigger question now?#

Because more affiliate money is moving to creators, and the argument over who gets their last click has reached a federal court.

The PMA's 2026 survey of US brands found spend shifting away from coupons toward content, influencer and creator partnerships. [Performance Marketing Association, Jul 2026] (opens the source)

Creator budgets as a whole, sponsorship included, are growing too:

£1.2bn

IAB UK's forecast for UK creator partnership revenue in 2026, up from £966m in 2025, in a study run by the IRM.

InPublishing (reporting the IAB UK / IRM study), Sep 2026

The court case is about the collision in this guide. In December 2024, YouTuber MegaLag published a video alleging that PayPal Honey replaced creators' affiliate links with its own at checkout. [MegaLag (YouTube), Dec 2024] (opens the source) Creators filed a proposed class action within weeks; PayPal disputed the claims, saying Honey follows industry rules, including last click. [TechCrunch, Jan 2025] (opens the source) After an earlier version was dismissed with leave to amend in November 2025 [Performance Marketing Association, Nov 2025] (opens the source), the court denied PayPal's motion to dismiss the second amended complaint on 22 June 2026, so the claims go forward. [US District Court, N.D. California, Jun 2026] (opens the source) A class certification hearing is set for 11 February 2027 or later. [US District Court, N.D. California (docket), Dec 2024] (opens the source) These are allegations: as of 12 October 2026, no court has found liability.

The second amended complaint leans on merchants' own terms that pay the last click (the order names Amazon, Dell and Bergdorf Goodman), and the court declined to parse those contracts at this early stage. [US District Court, N.D. California, Jun 2026] (opens the source) How your terms define a qualifying click is worth a second look; the affiliate agreement guide covers the clauses.

Rakuten Advertising removed Honey on 12 January 2026; within nine days impact.com suspended it and Awin suspended its payments. [PPC Land, Jan 2026] (opens the source) [PPC Land, Jan 2026] (opens the source) Since 10 June 2025 the Chrome Web Store has required a user action before an extension applies any affiliate link, code or cookie [Chrome for Developers, Mar 2025] (opens the source), which still lets an extension find your creator's code, show it and get the click. Creators notice: a YouTuber in the class action told Digiday the bigger harm may be to their direct brand partnerships, many of which pay more commission than Amazon. [Digiday, Jan 2025] (opens the source)

How should you set up creator codes and links?#

No setting pays creators only for the sales they cause. There are choices, each with a catch.

1. Give each creator both, and decide which wins before launch. A link for the description, a code for the read-out. Set the collision rule on purpose (the Credit Policy on each impact.com code, Voucher Attribution on Awin, a priority change through your app's support) and tell the creator. The catch: every rule trades her credit against your commission on leaked orders, and none knows whether the code came through her video or an extension.

2. Make the code worth less away from her audience. Shopify added a Collabs setting in 2023 that limits affiliate discounts to new customers [Shopify Changelog, May 2023] (opens the source), GoAffPro has a "Give discount to new customers only" option [GoAffPro Docs, Oct 2026] (opens the source), and any Shopify code can have one use per customer and an end date. Keep it at least as good as your public offer: Superfiliate's guide notes that a 15% welcome code on the site undercuts a 10% creator code, so followers use yours and she loses the credit. [Superfiliate, Oct 2026] (opens the source) The catch: customer restrictions depend on knowing who the shopper is, and rotating a leaked code breaks it in her old videos.

3. Give each follower a unique code. Affiliate and influencer codes were 15.11% of identified use cases in Seguno's 2025 benchmark of 162,000 unique code sets on Shopify; Seguno sells a unique-code app. [Seguno, Aug 2025] (opens the source) The catch: a creator can't read a unique code out in a video, so you need a page or link that hands one out, which brings the link back. The guide to unique versus shared codes works through that trade.

4. Pay less on the orders that look leaked. impact.com's Promo Code Exception Lists pay different rates, including $0, on chosen codes [impact.com Help Center, Oct 2026] (opens the source), and Awin can vary commission by voucher code on its Accelerate and Advanced plans. [Awin Help Center, Sep 2026] (opens the source) The catch: these rules key on the code or the customer, not on how the code reached the order, so a cut lands on her real followers too. The commission rates guide covers setting the numbers.

5. Measure your biggest creators properly. A creator agency CEO told Digiday that codes and UTMs oversimplify the shopper's journey. [Digiday, Feb 2025] (opens the source) For a creator you pay a lot, run a holdout or a regional split; the holdout guide covers the design. The catch: it takes traffic and weeks.

Whichever you choose, write it into the creator agreement.

Your creators' disclosures are your responsibility too

In the US, the FTC's Endorsement Guides (16 CFR Part 255, revised in 2023) can hold the advertiser liable for an endorser's missing disclosure, and expect you to brief and monitor creators. [US Federal Trade Commission, Jul 2023] FTC staff say "affiliate link" alone may not tell people the creator is paid, while "Paid link" should work. [US Federal Trade Commission, Oct 2026] In the UK, a link or code that pays the creator counts as advertising, brand and creator are both responsible under the CAP Code, and in 2020 the ASA ruled an Instagram story labelled "affiliate" insufficient (Asos.com). [ASA and CAP, Mar 2023] [Committee of Advertising Practice (AdviceOnline), Mar 2023]

How Benson protects creator credit#

Benson works where creator credit gets lost: on the storefront and on the codes.

See where her code turns up. Benson identifies coupon-extension sessions, and the Checkout rules page lists the codes used most in them, so a creator code that has reached the extensions shows up by name. Code watch then shows whether it's contained, replaced, or its replacement is spreading too. Detection is free on every plan.

See where her credit moved. Attribution integrity, on Stop and above, records the attribution each shopper arrives with: affiliate click ids from Awin, impact.com and CJ, UTM tags, the ref parameter and any first-party affiliate cookies you list, such as your creator app's. When the credited source changes after the cart, Benson records the overwrite, shows any extension detected in the same session, and estimates the commission it moved at your rates. That's what you show a creator who asks why her dashboard is short, and the printable network report lists overwrites by network, with the method stated. Inside one network its own rules choose between publishers, so Benson records a change of publisher there without counting it as an overwrite.

Sample store

Where the shopper arrived from, and where the credit changed. Sample data.

Decide what her code does in extension sessions. With the strict code policy, on Stop and above, only codes on your allowlist work in coupon-extension sessions; anything else gets a short message instead of a discount. Allow her code, and followers who run an extension keep their discount. Mark it private, and it stops working in those sessions, while followers without an extension still get it. Either way it's a setting, not a rotation that breaks her old videos.

Hide the pop-up from her followers. Block, on Stop and above, hides extension pop-ups on your home, product, collection, search and cart pages and in the cart drawer. A rule can match the UTM source or medium a shopper arrived with, so it can cover shoppers from your creators' links, with a holdout to measure it. On Shopify, no app can change what an extension shows inside checkout, so Benson's protection there is the code policy.

Give her a link that carries her code. On Own, the widget's personal links open your store with one code ready to apply, count their opens and orders, and can expire. Your creator shares one link, and you see her orders in your own dashboard.

How codes leak, how to find the ones that have, and how to contain them.

If one creator's code is already loose, start with the leaked-codes playbook. Or see Benson on your store and find out which codes and extensions are in your sessions first.

Questions merchants ask

Should influencers get a discount code or an affiliate link?: Usually both. A code carries the creator's credit where nobody clicks, such as podcasts and spoken read-outs, and a link credits the click without giving away a discount. Decide before launch which one wins when both land on one order.
What happens when someone else uses a creator's discount code?: It depends on your setup. On impact.com an Always Credit code pays the creator unless a partner in a higher credit group has the last click. Awin's Voucher Attribution pays the exclusive publisher. UpPromote pays the code's owner; Refersion pays the link's owner by default.
Can a browser extension take the commission for a creator's sale?: On a last-click programme, an extension whose click lands after the creator's can be credited instead. Most networks in the PMA's survey say they require extensions to stand down when another partner referred the shopper. Creators have sued PayPal over this; as of October 2026 no court has found liability.
Should creator codes be for new customers only?: It makes a leaked code worth less, and Shopify Collabs and apps such as GoAffPro have a setting for it. Restrictions depend on knowing who the shopper is, so test how your store treats guests. Some merchants pay more commission on new customers instead.
Do creators have to disclose discount codes?: Yes, in the US and the UK. FTC staff advise clear disclosure even when the code is personalised, and the UK treats a code that pays the creator as advertising. In both, the brand shares responsibility, so put approved wording in the brief.

Sources#

Partnerships16 min read

Should your creators get a discount code, an affiliate link or both?

What does a link track, and what does a code track?#

What happens to a creator's code after it leaves the video?#

Who gets paid when a code and a click disagree?#

What does a leaked creator code cost?#

Why is creator credit a bigger question now?#

How should you set up creator codes and links?#

How Benson protects creator credit#

Questions merchants ask

Sources#

Which affiliate partners should you pay, and for what?

Should each channel get a shared, unique or single-use discount code?

Is your cashback partner finding sales, or just claiming them?

Find out what's leaking. 14 days of Own, no card.

What does a link track, and what does a code track?#

What happens to a creator's code after it leaves the video?#

Who gets paid when a code and a click disagree?#

What does a leaked creator code cost?#

Why is creator credit a bigger question now?#

How should you set up creator codes and links?#

How Benson protects creator credit#

Questions merchants ask

Sources#

Keep the decision moving

Which affiliate partners should you pay, and for what?

Should each channel get a shared, unique or single-use discount code?

Is your cashback partner finding sales, or just claiming them?

Find out what's leaking. 14 days of Own, no card.