BCL Performance Marketing: Ethical Affiliate Marketing Australia: How long should I set my cookie duration?

Let's take the short term view - you want as many sales as possible for as little commission as possible. Set your cookie length to session only or one day duration and all the sales made because your customers took a little extra time to consider their purchase, check alternatives, talk to their partners etc, are yours... free of commission. Great for your bottom line... or is it?

Affiliates will also look at your cookie duration, check your website, consider the likelihood of their audience buying inside or outside the cookie duration you offer and estimate what % of sales they send you will not pay commission. They also check what your competitors are offering. Then they'll decide how much, or if, to promote your program.

That means in the long term, you could miss out on sales they send to your competitors. Will you still be pleased with the few extra dollors you saved in October when you consider how much you are missing out on in the Christmas sales rush?

As an affiliate, I'd say you need a good reason to offer less than 30 days. 90 days shows that you are willing to consider the shopping around period before major events like Christmas and weddings.

Many users clear out their cookies on a regular basis so offering longer periods is not likely to cost you much extra and is likely to get you extra promotion and extra sales too.