How attribution works

The three ways Yonto ties a sale to a creator — tracked link, discount code, and Shopify webhook — and what each one catches.

When you pay a creator, you want one answer: did they actually drive sales? Yonto answers that by watching for the same sale through three independent paths. If any one of them fires, the sale is credited to that creator — and you see the revenue, the cost per customer, and the real return.

The three paths#

Every campaign gives one creator a unique tracked link and a unique discount code. From there, a sale can be attributed three ways:

1. The tracked link#

When a shopper taps the creator's link, Yonto records the click and sends them to your store with a click id in the address. The link itself sets no cookie. What carries the click through to the order depends on your store: on Shopify, Shopify keeps the address the shopper landed on with the order; on stores that run our pixel, the pixel keeps the click id in a first-party cookie on your site for 30 days. Either way, a shopper who clicks, browses and checks out later without the code is still credited to the creator.

2. The discount code#

Each creator gets a code (like MAYA10). A code is credited where the order reaches us together with its codes: from a connected Shopify store, or reported from your own server. There it is an unmistakable signal of who sent the shopper — no cookie required. Our browser pixel never sees codes, so on WooCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, BigCommerce, Webflow or a custom site running the pixel alone, the code rewards the shopper but a sale is credited through the link.

Warning.the discount code must match exactly — it's case-sensitive. MAYA10 and maya10 are treated as different codes, so hand the creator the code exactly as Yonto generated it.

3. The Shopify webhook#

If you connect Shopify, Yonto receives each order server-side the moment it's placed and matches it to a creator by the discount code first, then by the click id in the address the shopper landed on. This is the most reliable path: it doesn't depend on any code on your storefront, and it can't be blocked by an ad blocker.

What each path catches#

Parameter	Type	Description
Tracked link	click id	A purchase after the click, code or not — within 30 days on pixel stores, or in the same visit on Shopify.
Discount code	exact match	An order that used the creator's code — on Shopify, or when your server reports the order.
Shopify webhook	server-side	Every order, matched by code or by the click id it landed with — no storefront code needed.

The limits — why the number is a floor#

Attribution is never perfect, and we'd rather be honest about that than sell you a flattering number. Some real sales simply can't be proven:

Cross-device journeys — someone sees the link on their phone but buys on a laptop.
Cleared cookies or private browsing — the 30-day cookie (on stores using our pixel) never persists.
Cookie-consent rejection — if a shopper declines tracking cookies, the click can't be linked to their later purchase.
Dark social — the post gets screenshotted and shared in a group chat, and the buyer searches for you directly.

So treat your Yonto numbers as a confident floor — the sales we can prove, not the ceiling of everything the creator influenced.

Note.click counts are never affected by cookie banners — they are recorded at the redirect, before any storefront cookie. Discount-code sales aren't either, where the order reaches us from Shopify or your own server. On a store using our pixel alone, consent decides whether the click survives to the order.

When a shopper declines cookies#

If a shopper rejects tracking cookies on your store, Shopify honours that and withholds the tracking details from the order — the referrer and the tracked-link marker never reach us. We don't try to work around that. Re-identifying someone who opted out would break the consent they were given, and it's the opposite of honest measurement. So a link-only visit from someone who declined simply isn't attributable — and that's by design.

Here's what still works when consent is declined, and what doesn't:

Parameter	Type	Description
Discount code	works on Shopify	The code is part of the order, not a tracking cookie, so Shopify's order notification credits it either way.
Click count	always works	Recorded at the redirect, before your store sets any cookie.
Tracked link (cookie)	needs consent	Only attributes when the shopper accepts cookies, so Shopify keeps the link marker on the order.

Tip.on Shopify, this is why the discount code is your most reliable signal — it attributes no matter what the shopper decides about cookies. On other platforms, report orders from your server if you want the same.

Putting it together#

In practice the three paths overlap and reinforce each other: the webhook catches the order, the cookie explains where it came from, and the code confirms it. You get a single, de-duplicated count per creator — and when a campaign loses money, it shows in red, plainly.

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