Click pixels and direct tracking: recording a click without a redirect
When to track a click without sending traffic through a redirect — the sitewide SDK versus a single-affiliate tag, which URL parameters the pixel captures, and how the click ID still reaches your conversion pixel.
Most affiliate clicks are tracked with a redirect: the visitor follows a link on your tracking domain, the click is recorded, and they are forwarded to your landing page. But some ad platforms and partners dislike that redirect hop. A click pixel is the alternative — a small script on your landing page that records the click in place, with no redirect at all. The affiliate links straight to your page with tracking parameters in the URL, and the script reads them, reports the click, and stores the click ID for your conversion pixel to use later.
Redirect versus direct tracking
Both approaches end the same way — a click ID (ll_cid) stored in the visitor's browser so the eventual conversion attributes — but they differ in where the work happens. With a redirect link, nothing is installed on your page; the tracker does everything before forwarding the visitor. With direct tracking, the link is your landing page's own URL with parameters appended, and the click is only recorded if the pixel script is present on that page. Choose direct tracking when a partner refuses redirects; choose the redirect link everywhere else for its zero-install simplicity.
Two ways to install the script
When you generate the pixel you are offered two shapes, and you install exactly one per page:
- The sitewide SDK include is a single line with no baked-in IDs. Install it once and every affiliate's parameterized link attributes correctly, because the IDs travel in each link. It records a click only when the visitor's URL actually carries tracking parameters and stays silent for everyone else, so it is safe across a whole site or a page fed by many affiliates. This is the right choice for most landing pages.
- The single-affiliate placement tag is the same one-line script with specific IDs baked into it. Because those baked IDs credit every visitor who arrives without tracking parameters, use it only on a page whose traffic all belongs to one placement.
If your site cannot load third-party scripts, you can download the SDK and host it yourself; the tracking address is already inside the file.
What the pixel captures
Any tracking parameter on the landing page URL is picked up and attributed. The core set an affiliate's link carries is the offer (o), the affiliate (aff), the campaign (cmp), the channel (ch), the creative (cr), and the first sub-ID (s1). Beyond those, the pixel also captures the remaining sub-IDs, UTM values, and ad-click IDs like gclid and fbclid as optional enrichment. Any unreplaced placeholder is simply ignored, never an error.
However you install it, a recorded click stores the click ID and visitor ID as first-party cookies on your own domain, so a later conversion attributes even if the pixel forgets to pass the click ID along.
Two things to check
Reading the click ID back at conversion needs the same domain — if your checkout lives elsewhere, carry the click ID through your funnel. And if your page sets a strict Content-Security-Policy, allow your tracking domain so the script can load and report, or it will be silently blocked.
To confirm it all works, send yourself a parameterized visit and look for the click in your Clicks report.
Want us to stand up direct tracking on a real page and watch the click land? Book a demo and we will wire it with you.