When should Campaigns, Customer Groups or Sub-Affiliates be Used?

by Ralitsa Petkova

Last updated: 09-Jun-2026

MyAffiliates provides several ways to organise and track traffic, customers, and affiliate activity. The most commonly used methods are campaigns, customer groups, and sub-affiliate accounts. Each serves a different purpose.

Campaigns

A campaign is a tracking identifier used to categorise traffic generated by an affiliate.

All affiliate traffic, whether generated through banners or tracking links, is recorded under a campaign. By default, traffic is recorded under Campaign 1.

Campaigns are used exclusively for reporting and traffic segmentation. They do not affect commissions, attribution rules, or customer groups.

Campaign Rules

• Campaign IDs are unique per affiliate
• Campaign IDs can range from 1 to 65000
• Campaigns do not need to be pre-created or registered
• Campaign IDs can be used dynamically within tracking links
• The same campaign ID can be used across multiple customer groups
• Campaigns do not affect commission calculations

Example Campaign URLs
http://record.acmegaming.com/_ufy984ffiu34fhf043hf0430if/1/
http://record.acmegaming.com/_ufy984ffiu34fhf043hf0430if/2/
http://record.acmegaming.com/_ufy984ffiu34fhf043hf0430if/3/
http://record.acmegaming.com/_ufy984ffiu34fhf043hf0430if/999/
http://record.acmegaming.com/_ufy984ffiu34fhf043hf0430if/65000/

Reporting
Front-end reports can be filtered or broken down by campaign, allowing affiliates to analyse the performance of individual traffic sources.

Note: Campaigns can be displayed in reports in one of two ways:

• If a campaign has been created and assigned a name, the campaign name will be displayed in reports. (Shown in RED on the screenshot below)
• If a campaign ID is used directly in a tracking link without being created or named, only the campaign ID will be displayed. (Shown in BLUE on the screenshot below)

Both approaches are fully supported and function identically for tracking purposes. The difference only affects how campaign information is presented in reporting.

When to use a campaign
Use campaigns when you want to:

• Track different traffic sources separately
• Compare the performance of marketing activities
• Analyse traffic from different websites, pages, advertisements, or channels
• Segment reporting without affecting commissions or customer attribution

Customer Groups
A customer group is a separate pool of customers assigned to an affiliate. Each customer group operates independently and can have its own commission structure and configuration.
Customer groups are commonly used when different sets of customers need to be tracked and commissioned separately.

Customer Group Rules

• Customer groups must be created before they can be used
• An affiliate can have one or more customer groups
• Each customer group has its own commission structure
• Customer groups operate independently of one another
• By default, all traffic is assigned to the customer group designated as the default group unless explicitly overridden
• Each customer group can have its own negative commission handling rules (Discard, Carry Forward, or Pay)
• Customer groups can have their own unique tracking links when the Promotional Flag feature is enabled

Reporting
Reports are displayed separately for each customer group.
The columns shown within each customer group report are determined by the Deal configuration assigned to that group. Within each customer group, data can be further analysed by:

• Date
• Campaign
• Media
• Landing Page
• Other available reporting dimensions

When to use a Customer Group
Use customer groups when:

• Different groups of customers should be calculated under different commission structures
• New customers should be assigned to a new Deal while existing customers remain on their current Deal
• Customer activity and commission calculations need to be separated for reporting or operational purposes
• Different negative commission policies are required for different groups of customers

Sub-Affiliates

The Sub-Affiliate feature allows affiliates to refer other affiliates to the programme. When an affiliate joins using another affiliate's referral link, they are recorded as a sub-affiliate of the referring affiliate (parent affiliate).
Sub-affiliates can, in turn, refer additional affiliates, creating a hierarchical structure of affiliate relationships.

Sub-Affiliate Rules

• The Sub-Affiliate feature must be explicitly enabled within the system
• A parent affiliate can refer one or more sub-affiliates
• Sub-affiliates can refer their own sub-affiliates, creating multiple levels of hierarchy
• By leveraging customer groups, the parent can get paid different rates for different groups of sub-affiliates
• A sub-affiliate account operates independently from the parent affiliate account
• Each sub-affiliate can have its own customer groups, campaigns, commission plans, and promotional materials
• Sub-affiliates cannot view statistics belonging to their parent affiliate
• Parent affiliates may be granted access to some or all sub-affiliate statistics, depending on system configuration
• Commission earned by a sub-affiliate can be configured to be paid directly to the parent affiliate account

Reporting
From the affiliate front-end perspective, the Sub-Affiliate programme behaves like any other commission plan.

Reports can be viewed and analysed using the standard reporting dimensions, including:

• Date
• Campaign
• Media
• Customer Group
• Other available reporting dimensions

When to Use Sub-Affiliates
Use sub-affiliates when:

• Affiliates need to refer and manage other affiliates
• A parent-child affiliate relationship needs to be established
• Commission needs to be earned from the activity of referred affiliates
• Multiple levels of affiliate relationships need to be tracked and managed

Summary