When you're approved into a program that has affiliate links enabled, you get a unique short link. Sharing this link lets your audience reach the brand's store with their click tracked back to you, so you get credit when they buy.
This article explains how the link works, how to figure out what kind of link you have, and what to do when a sale does not get credited.
Where to find your affiliate link
Log in to your ambassador account at amb.buzzbassadorapp.com. Your affiliate link is on your dashboard, alongside your referral code (if your program has one). Click to copy.
If you don't see an affiliate link on your dashboard, your program doesn't have affiliate links enabled. In that case, you'll share your referral code with your audience instead, and they'll enter it at checkout to get the discount and credit you with the sale.
Your link is a short link
Every affiliate link is now a short link in the same format for everyone: the brand's website, followed by /buzz, followed by the first two letters of your first name and the first two letters of your last name. For example, John Doe's link would look like website.com/buzzjodo.
This format is the same regardless of which link type is running behind the scenes, so you can't tell what type of link you have just by looking at it. See the next section for how to check.
How to tell what kind of link you have
Since every link looks the same, the easiest way to identify yours is to click it in a new or private browser window and watch what happens:
A pop-up appears saying something like "[Name] sent you [discount]": this is a BuzzLink. Only BuzzLinks show this pop-up. *Each brand customizes their BuzzLink pop-up differently, so the exact wording may vary.
Nothing appears when you click, but a discount is automatically applied at checkout: this is either a Referral Code Link or a UTM link with auto-apply enabled. Both behave identically from your (and your followers') point of view, so there's no way to tell these two apart just by observing, and it doesn't affect how you share your link either way.
Nothing appears when you click, and there's no discount at checkout: this is most likely an affiliate link with no discount attached. You're still tracked via a cookie, but your followers won't see a discount from clicking your link.
You can also check whether your link has a discount attached at all by looking at your Perks section, it tells you exactly what discount your followers get (if any).
What happens when someone clicks your link
What happens after the click depends on which of the four link types is running behind your short link:
BuzzLink:
1. They land on the brand's store.
2. A pop-up appears with a unique, one-time discount code for them to redeem.
3. A cookie is stored in their browser, so the sale is credited to you whether or not they actually redeem the code.
UTM Link with auto-applied discount:
1. They land on the brand's store.
2. Your discount code is automatically applied to their cart, no pop-up appears.
3. A cookie is also stored, so you still get credit even if they remove the code before checkout.
UTM Link without a discount:
1. They land on the brand's store.
2. No discount is applied. They'll pay full price unless they enter a code manually.
3. A cookie is stored, so the sale is still credited to you via the cookie alone.
Referral Code Link:
1. They land on the brand's store.
2. Your code is automatically applied to their cart, no pop-up appears.
3. No cookie is used with this link type, so the code has to stay applied all the way through checkout for you to get credit.
If you want to be 100% sure which link type you have, the fastest way is to ask the brand directly, they can tell you exactly which type your program uses.
Tips for maximizing attribution
A few practical things help your sales actually get credited:
Share your link directly whenever possible: in a swipe-up, a link in bio, a pinned comment, or a Linktree. The cookie does the work as long as your follower clicks through.
Encourage your followers to go straight from your link to checkout. The fewer detours through other links or other members' codes, the cleaner the attribution.
For BuzzLinks, encourage your followers to actually redeem the code in the popup. The cookie credits you either way, but redeeming the code is what gets the customer their discount.
Want a custom short link?
If you'd rather not use the default /buzz-plus-initials format, reach out to [email protected] and we can customize it from our end, for example to your name or your Instagram handle instead.
Why a sale might not be credited to you
If a sale does not show up under your account, it is usually one of these:
Your follower clicked your link in one browser but checked out in another. Cookies do not follow across browsers (or between regular and private/incognito mode). Same issue if they switched devices, like clicking on their phone and checking out on a laptop.
Your follower has cookies disabled or blocked. Some browser settings or extensions block tracking cookies entirely.
Your follower waited too long. The cookie expires after a set time (usually 30 days). If they took longer than that to buy, the credit drops.
Your follower clicked another affiliate's link more recently. Only the most recent affiliate link click is tracked. If they clicked yours, then someone else's, the other member gets credit.
Your follower entered a different discount code at checkout. A manually entered code at checkout always wins over any link click. If your follower typed in someone else's code, or even a non-affiliate code (like a sitewide sale code), your code is removed.
Your follower removed the discount code at checkout (Referral Code Link only). If your link runs on a Referral Code Link with no UTM parameters, attribution depends on the code staying applied at checkout. If they remove or replace it, the credit drops.
These are limits of how affiliate tracking works on the web, not anything specific to Buzzbassador. Most of the time, things just work.
Notes:
Your short link never changes, even if the brand changes your link type or program settings. Only what the short link redirects to behind the scenes updates, so you can keep sharing the exact same link forever without needing to swap it out.
If you believe a sale should have been credited to you and was not, reach out to the brand directly: they have access to the order details and can investigate.