Affiliate link tracking for mobile apps

You've got an app that makes money. Someone with an audience offers to promote it. You agree on a commission per sale. And then you both realise neither of you has a clean way to track which sales came from them.

This is where most small app affiliate programmes fall apart. Not because the concept is complicated, but because the tracking usually is.

Why affiliate tracking is harder for apps than websites

On the web, a cookie follows the user from click to purchase. It's not perfect, but it mostly works. When someone clicks an affiliate link, the website knows they arrived through that link and credits the sale.

Apps break that chain. A user clicks a link, gets sent to the App Store, downloads your app, opens it, and maybe buys something three days later. The App Store sits between the click and the purchase, and Apple doesn't pass referral data through to your app.

So unless you've set something up on your end, you have no idea whether that purchase came from your affiliate partner or from someone who found you through search.

The spreadsheet phase

Most indie developers start with spreadsheets. Give each affiliate a discount code. Check your purchase records. Count how many times each code was used. Calculate commissions. Send a PayPal transfer.

This works when you have two affiliates. It stops working around five. And it completely falls over when you have affiliates across different platforms posting different content at different times.

The other problem with discount codes: they leak. Someone posts the code on a deal site, and suddenly you're paying commissions on sales that had nothing to do with your affiliate.

What tracked links solve

A tracked link is a URL that belongs to a specific affiliate. When someone clicks it, that click gets recorded. When the same person later makes a purchase in your app, the purchase gets tied back to the click.

No discount codes to manage. No spreadsheets. No arguing about whether a sale was organic or referred.

Each affiliate gets their own link. They share it however they want. You see exactly how many clicks, installs, and purchases each link generated.

How the tracking actually works

The flow looks like this:

1. You create a tracked link for each affiliate partner
2. The affiliate shares their link on their platform
3. Someone clicks the link and lands on a redirect page
4. The redirect captures the click ID and sends them to the App Store
5. They download and open your app
6. Your app's SDK checks for a matching click and associates the user with that affiliate
7. When the user makes a purchase, the SDK reports it back with the affiliate attribution

The matching between step 4 and step 6 usually works through a combination of timing, device information, and IP address. It's probabilistic matching. It won't catch every single install, but it catches most of them, and it's the same approach the big attribution platforms use.

Setting this up with LinkOwl

LinkOwl was built for exactly this kind of setup. You create a link for each affiliate, drop the SDK into your app, and purchases get attributed automatically.

Here's what the setup looks like:

Create your affiliate links. Log into your LinkOwl dashboard and create a new link for each partner. Give it a name you'll recognise, like "jessica-tiktok" or "devblog-sidebar". Each link gets a unique URL.

Add the SDK to your app. If you're using React Native or Expo:

npm install @linkowlnew/react-native

Then initialise it when your app starts:

import { LinkOwl } from '@linkowlnew/react-native';

// Call this early in your app lifecycle
await LinkOwl.initialize('your-api-key');

For Swift apps, add the package via SPM from github.com/g8bknrr9wn-web/linkowl-swift and call LinkOwl.configure(apiKey:) in your AppDelegate.

Connect RevenueCat (optional but recommended). If you use RevenueCat for subscriptions or purchases, add the LinkOwl webhook URL in your RevenueCat dashboard. Purchases get attributed automatically without any extra code in your app.

Share links with affiliates. Send each partner their unique URL. They put it in their bio, video description, blog post, wherever they promote your app.

That's it. When purchases come in, you'll see them in your dashboard attributed to the right affiliate.

Calculating commissions

Once you can see purchases per affiliate, calculating commissions is straightforward. If you've agreed on 20% per sale and an affiliate drove 15 purchases at £2.49 each, you owe them £7.47.

LinkOwl doesn't handle payouts directly. What it does is give you the data you need to calculate them accurately. Export your purchase data, apply your commission rate, and pay your affiliates through whatever method works for you.

Some developers run this monthly. Others do it quarterly. The important thing is that the numbers are based on real tracked purchases, not estimates.

What about Apple's rules?

Apple doesn't prohibit affiliate or referral programmes. What they care about is that you don't incentivise users to game the system. Paying a content creator a commission for promoting your app is fine. Paying users to install your app or leave reviews is not.

The distinction matters: your affiliates are marketing partners, not end users manipulating rankings.

Scaling from one affiliate to twenty

When you start, you might have one or two partners. Creating links and tracking them manually is manageable. But affiliate programmes tend to grow in bursts. A YouTuber mentions your app, their followers ask for affiliate links, and suddenly you need ten new tracked links.

With per-link tracking, this scales without extra work on your side. Create the link, send it over, and the tracking happens automatically. You don't need to update your app or change any code. New links work immediately.

The dashboard shows you which affiliates are performing. Some will drive lots of clicks but few purchases. Others will send fewer people but convert better. That data helps you decide where to invest more, which affiliates to prioritise, and whether your commission structure makes sense.

Pricing that makes sense for small programmes

Most attribution tools charge monthly fees starting around $200. That pricing assumes you're running campaigns at scale. If you have three affiliates generating twenty sales a month, paying $200 for attribution tracking eats your entire margin.

LinkOwl charges 5p per attributed purchase. Twenty sales costs you £1. You only pay when a tracked sale actually happens. If an affiliate sends traffic that doesn't convert, you pay nothing for those clicks.

For small affiliate programmes, this is the difference between attribution being practical and being a luxury you can't justify.

Getting started

If you're thinking about launching an affiliate programme for your app, start small. Pick one or two creators who already like your app. Set them up with tracked links. See what the data tells you after a month.

You'll learn which platforms convert, what kind of content drives purchases versus just clicks, and whether affiliates are worth the commission you're paying. All of that comes from having real data instead of guessing.

Set up your first tracked affiliate link at linkowl.app.