Affiliate tracking and sub-IDs in Everflow

Tracking is what turns traffic into decisions. Without it you know your total earnings and nothing about where they came from. The Secrets AI affiliate program runs on Everflow, which gives you live click and conversion reports, earnings breakdowns, a Source ID field, five sub-ID fields, server-to-server postbacks and API access. This guide explains how a click becomes a commission, how to name your sub-IDs so reports stay readable, and where conversions most often go missing.

How tracking works, end to end

1. The click

Your affiliate manager gives you a tracking link. When someone clicks it, the request goes to Everflow first. Everflow records the click with its time, device, country, the Source ID and any sub-ID values you appended, assigns it a unique transaction ID, and redirects the visitor to the Secrets landing page.

2. Sub-IDs travel with the click

You set the Source ID when you generate the link in Everflow and append sub-IDs as query parameters:

{your tracking link}?source_id=reddit&sub1={your click ID}&sub2=r_aicompanions&sub3=comparison_nov&sub4=profile

Everflow stores those values against the click's transaction ID. Whatever happens to that visitor later is reported with the same values.

3. The conversion

The visitor signs up, then pays. When a qualifying event happens, Secrets reports it to Everflow with the transaction ID, and Everflow attributes it to your click. On CPA, the qualifying event is a qualifying paying user. On RevShare, every purchase the referred user makes (subscriptions, renewals, upgrades, token purchases) is reported and credited at 40%, for the life of the user.

The attribution window is not published. Ask your affiliate manager if you need it for planning.

4. The postback

If you run your own tracker or a link page that issues its own click IDs, you can have Everflow notify your system when a conversion happens. That is a server-to-server postback: Everflow calls a URL you provide and fills in macros from the original click. You set it up under Postbacks in Everflow, and your manager can help.

The macros most setups need are {sub1}, {payout_amount}, {transaction_id}, {offer_id} and {sub2} to {sub5}. Macro names are case-sensitive, so {Sub1} or {sub_1} will not fill.

The pattern is fixed: put your tracker's click ID (or the ad platform's gclid, fbclid, ttclid or rdt_cid) in sub1 on the way out, then have the postback return {sub1} so your tracker can match the conversion to the original click, along with cost data you hold on your side. Google, Meta, TikTok and Reddit do not accept a plain GET postback. They need authenticated POST requests through their Conversions APIs, which is why most affiliates point Everflow at a tracker and let the tracker forward the conversion. Everflow auto-deactivates a postback after 10 consecutive failures within 72 hours, so test it before you scale.

A sub-ID naming scheme

Source ID plus five sub-ID fields is enough for almost any operation if each has one fixed meaning. The convention the program uses:

Field	Meaning	Examples
Source ID	Traffic source (channel or site)	tiktok, reddit, ig_organic, seo_blog, push_network_a
sub1	Click ID, reserved (postbacks return {sub1})	your tracker's click macro, or gclid / fbclid / ttclid / rdt_cid
sub2	Campaign (account, subreddit, list segment, ad campaign)	tt_anime_en_01, r_aicompanions, welcome_seq
sub3	Creative (video, post, banner, email)	charcreate_v3, 300x250_chara, email_2
sub4	Placement (where the link sits)	bio, sidebar_top, incontent_2, footer
sub5	Optional extra	geo, launch date, or anything else you want to split by

Rules that keep reports clean:

• One meaning per field, everywhere. If sub2 is campaign on TikTok, it is campaign on Reddit too. Mixing meanings makes cross-channel reports useless.
• Lowercase, underscores, no spaces. TikTok, tiktok and tik tok become three rows in a report.
• Short and readable. You will read these values in tables. r_aicompanions beats reddit_community_ai_companions_main.
• Version creatives. charcreate_v3 tells you which iteration won.
• No personal data. Never put names, email addresses or other personal information about users in sub-IDs.
• Write it down. Keep a simple sheet listing every value in use and what it means.

If you do not use your own tracker, leave sub1 empty rather than reusing it for something else. Use sub5 for any extra split, such as geo or date of launch, and keep it consistent.

Building reports

Everflow has four reports that do most of the work:

• Offer Report (Reporting → Offer): the daily read of clicks, conversions, revenue and CVR per offer.
• Conversion Report (Reporting → Conversion): every conversion with status, payout, country, device, sub1 to sub5 and transaction ID.
• Flex Report (Analytics → Flex): a pivot table you can group by Offer, Country, Device, Offer URL, Source ID, sub1 to sub5 and Hour of Day.
• Variance Report (Analytics → Variance): two date ranges side by side.

Offers show up by name, such as PPS T1, PPS WW and Revshare. Useful views:

Source comparison

In the Flex Report, add Source ID as a column. Compare clicks, conversions and earnings across channels. This tells you where to spend time and money.

Campaign drill-down

In Flex, filter to one Source ID and add sub2 as a column. Shows which accounts, subreddits or campaigns carry the channel. Typically a small number of campaigns produce most of the conversions.

Creative testing

In Flex, filter to one sub2 and add sub3 as a column. Compare conversion rate per creative, not just clicks. A creative that gets clicks but no paying users is costing you attention.

Placement analysis

In Flex, add sub4 as a column, especially for sites and remnant inventory. Combine with impression counts from your ad server to calculate effective CPM per slot, as shown in the unsold ad inventory guide.

RevShare cohorts

On RevShare, earnings from a source keep arriving after the click. Look at earnings by Source ID or sub2 over a longer date range to see which sources produce users who keep paying. That is how you decide which sources to keep on RevShare and which suit CPA better (see CPA vs RevShare).

Landing page comparison

In Flex, add Offer URL as a column and add a Clicks > 300 filter so you only compare pages with enough traffic to trust. Sort by CVR.

Click ID audit

In the Conversion Report, turn on the sub1 column (Table Actions → Columns Customization) and check that every recent conversion carries a real value. A blank sub1 means the click ID was never captured at the link, and no postback fix can recover it.

Before and after

Use the Variance Report to compare this week with last week, or the days before and after a creative swap, instead of eyeballing two date ranges.

API access

For anything the dashboard does not show, Everflow API access lets you pull data into your own sheets, dashboards or databases. Ask your manager about getting API credentials.

Common tracking leaks

Missing sub-IDs

Links copied without parameters, or link pages that drop the query string, send untagged clicks. Spot-check live links regularly by clicking them and confirming the click appears in Everflow with the expected values.

Link shorteners and redirects that strip parameters

Some shorteners, link pages and redirect chains discard query strings. Test every hop. If a tool strips parameters, bake the sub-IDs into the destination URL it stores rather than relying on pass-through.

In-app browsers

Clicks from inside social apps open in embedded browsers. Users sometimes start in the in-app browser and finish signup elsewhere. Some loss here is normal. Reduce it with a simple, fast landing path and clear prompts.

Broken macros

A postback with an unfilled macro, or an ad server click macro that is not supported, produces literal text like {click_id} in your reports. Check a test conversion end to end before scaling.

Duplicate or mismatched click IDs

If sub1 does not contain a unique value per click, your tracker cannot match postbacks correctly. Confirm the macro your tracker uses produces a new value on every click.

Wrong link for the model

If you run CPA and RevShare at the same time, make sure each placement uses the link for the model you intended. Label links clearly in your notes.

Not telling your manager

If clicks show up but conversions look implausibly low for a source that should convert, raise it with your affiliate manager early. They can check the conversion side of the setup that you cannot see.

A quick tracking checklist

• Every live link has a Source ID, and sub2 to sub4 filled. sub1 carries a click ID if you run a tracker or paid traffic.
• Values follow one documented scheme.
• A test click appears in Everflow with the right values.
• Link pages and redirects pass parameters through.
• Postbacks, if used, return {sub1} and fire on a test conversion with a 2xx response.
• Reports are reviewed weekly by source, campaign, creative and placement.

Next steps

• Apply the scheme to video accounts with the short-form video guide.
• Use it per slot on your sites with the unsold ad inventory guide.
• Read the onboarding steps for setting up links and postbacks.
• Apply to the Secrets AI affiliate program.