Ensuring Fair Attribution: How Awin Works with Browser Extensions

One of the best things about affiliate marketing is the range of partners you can tap into. You can drive awareness with influencers at the top of the funnel, or conversions with browser extensions right at the bottom, all on one program. 

If you’re new to the channel, you might be wondering how a platform like ours manages to prevent commissions from being overriden. Advertisers tend to only reward one click in the customer journey. Usually that would be the final one, right? 

To ensure all publisher contributions were fairly accounted for, we took a series of actions all the way back in 2010. 

How did we get here?  

While simple to implement, affiliate marketing’s traditional last-click attribution can throw up some challenges when certain partners appear moments before checkout.  

Without the right attribution safeguards in place, partners could strategically position themselves at the final steps in the purchase journey and overwrite all the partners that led the customer to their decision.  

Historically, our industry attempted to manage this challenge through stand-down policies. The partners could voluntarily agree not to overwrite all those previous steps in the journey, or advertisers could change their program settings to ensure fair attribution. 

However, these approaches lacked standardization and relied on partner compliance and manual configuration by advertisers.  

In 2010, Awin addressed the challenge through a built-in cookie hierarchy that ensures each partner is fairly rewarded for their contributions.  

How Awin ensures fair attribution 

These days, customers rely heavily on influencers and content to drive inspiration. However, they’re also savvy enough to go looking for a coupon or cashback to make a saving.   

If advertisers were only going to credit one partner for assisting a sale, how would we reward those early interactions? 

The challenge became all the more pressing following the onset of browser extensions. These partners are so far down the bottom of the funnel, they actually trigger when someone is on a retailer’s site.  

What is a browser extension?

Browser extensions are a type of software that users install into their web browser to add functionality or enhance their browsing experience.  Incentive partners such as Honey, TopCashback, and Quidco offer browser extensions that automatically surface cashback offers or coupon codes while a user is shopping online. Here’s how it works:  User visits a retailer's website.   The extension detects the website and pops up with any available deals or cashback rates for that retailer.  Any working codes can be added to their cart and used for a saving.

All publishers that offer browser extensions are required by the Awin Code of Conduct to declare they do. Where appropriate, they're placed on a Soft Click cookie status. 

Soft Click means the browser extension's cookies do not override cookies from influencers and content partners when tracked through the Awin platform. 

How does Soft Click work? 

For the full lowdown on Soft Click, watch this episode of the Performance Marketer’s Toolkit: 

 In short, Soft Click partners can only receive commission from sales if they are either the only click within the customer’s purchase journey, or the last click when another Soft Click partner was involved.   

If there is a partner in the journey that isn’t set to a Soft Click cookie status, like an influencer, the commission is allocated to them.  

All Soft Click publishers are clearly identified on their profile page within the Awin UI.   

What this all means  

Awin’s Soft Click allows advertisers to work with lower-funnel partners like browser extensions without adversely affecting their relationships with upper-funnel ones, like influencers and content sites.  

Awin encourages this relationship as part of our policy to ensure fair attribution. We recommend it be used alongside our Voucher Attribution tool to ensure campaigns are effectively measured.  

Each advertiser can determine the attribution rules for their program and may choose not to have this proposition in place for their browser extension partners.  

Does Soft Click work? 

For years, Soft Click has created a fair ecosystem on the Awin platform and the numbers back it up.  

Today, more than 600 partners operate on a Soft Click. Those lower-funnel partners generated $2.7 billion for Awin brands in 2025 alone, earning $177 million in commission in the process.  

In that same period, Soft Click protected over $100 million in revenue, delivering $7.1 million in commission to upper-funnel partners.   

Both lower and upper-funnel partners are thriving on Awin. They now deliver value at every stage of the customer journey. Not despite each other, but alongside each other.  

Awin’s ongoing commitment to fair attribution  

Soft Click is one of the many initiatives that Awin is using to preserve the future of the affiliate channel. We continue to take the necessary steps for it to remain a fair and transparent ad model that drives value for all parties.   

Beyond Soft Click, we recently launched our Conversion Protection Intiative (CPI) to ensure all publishers are fairly paid for the value they add. The initiative has already recovered $578 million in advertiser revenue and $37 million in partner commissions by mandating higher standards of tracking across our platform. 

We also give our advertisers the flexibility to partner with influencers and other publishers on payment options outside of last click, such as campaign exposure (tenancy) fees. Advertisers can even set rules to prioritize the clicks that provide the most value with our Attribution Manager. 

From influencers at the top of the funnel to browser extensions at the bottom, Awin ensures every partner gets what they deserve.