Version 2.44. Updated December 2023.

Introduction

Signature is an option that enables you to track and generate more detailed reports on the commerce activity of your sites. This article is your guide to implementing Signature.

Using Signature

Many different sites and business models are a good fit for using Signature for their tracking needs. Here are some ways publishers use Signature; click the + for more information on each publisher type:

How It Works

Signature can track commerce to the transaction level for each member, organization, and subsite with the member ID field.

Member ID Field

The member ID field is the identifier that represents each of your members or organizations, and it is denoted by a &u1= that you must append to your advertiser partners’ link code. The value following the equal sign represents your member, organization, or subsite and is created by you. This identifier can be up to 72 alphanumeric characters in length. Each individual member, subsite, and organization should be correlated to a certain alphanumeric character string, such as Jane Doe = 1234 and Bob Smith = 5678.

This unique identifier you create then makes it possible for you to distinguish between members and organizations within the Signature Orders Report.

Using the Member ID Field

You must place &u1= plus the identifier at the end of the first href string in links. The member ID is case sensitive: a lowercase “u” and the numeral “1” must be used for the member ID identifier to be tracked.

We suggest using a placeholder such as &u1=defaultmemberid. If you only have a few codes to edit, it is easiest to do so manually. For those employing a login for site services, a unique identifier can be passed to the link code or swapped out in place of defaultmemberid in several different ways, including JavaScript.

An advertiser link that has been properly appended with the member ID might look like this:

<a href=http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=/FYI6fQ9PWs&offerid=7097.10000015&type=3&subid=0&u1=Bob123>Rakuten Affiliate Network Referral Program</a><IMG border=0 width=1 height=1 src="http://ad.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/show?id=/FYI6fQ9PWs&bids=7097.10000015&type=3&subid=0">

In this example, &u1=Bob123 is representative of one particular member or organization of the publisher using Signature.

Advertiser Compliance

Signature works exclusively with advertisers within our network. More than 99 percent of our advertisers are compliant with Signature technology. If an advertiser is not able to work with you, it will be noted in their details page in your Publisher Dashboard. Additionally, transaction-level data will only be recorded within your Signature Orders Report if you have acquired the advertisers’ links through our network.

Accounting

You are responsible for all the accounting related to your members or organizations. The payments you receive from advertisers or from the network will be aggregate payments that reflect the total commissions earned from all the members, organizations, and subsites combined according to the payment period agreed upon. You can divide and distribute the aggregate commissions among your members, organizations, and subsites.

You will not receive an outlined invoice with all the transaction-level data for your members or organizations. Use the Signature Orders Report and Signature Activity Report to facilitate the accounting process, as outlined in Performance Reports below.

The checks will be made out and sent to the company or person you have designated within your account. If your payment contact is different from your primary contact, indicate this in your account.

Performance Reports

Use the Signature Activity Report and the Signature Orders Report to track the commerce activity of your sites. View instructions for running these reports in the Reporting Interface.

Signature Activity Report

This report records all the click-throughs that are generated from your site to the sites of your partner advertisers. The following fields are included in the Signature Activity Report; click the + for definitions:

Signature Orders Report

This report itemizes transactions made by each member, organization, and subsite. The following fields are included in the Signature Orders Report; click the + for definitions:

In the report, each line-item transaction represents a unique product that is purchased. Many products can be purchased during a single shopping session. This is why one order ID may be represented on several lines of the report.

Returns and Cancellations

When items purchased are returned or orders made are cancelled, the returns and cancellations will be deducted from your reports. They will appear as separate lines in the Signature Orders Report, with the same information as the original transaction, except that the sales and commission columns will reflect negative amounts and the process date and time will be different.

Keep in mind that returns and cancellations are posted to your account as the network receives this information from the advertisers. The timing of this is dependent on each advertiser’s return and cancellation policy. Contact advertisers directly for specific information regarding their return and cancellation policies.

Signature Orders Report Download Feature

To make the process for receiving the Signature Orders Report more efficient, you can automate the process and receive transaction and member ID information daily by:

• Scheduling the report to be sent to you via email or FTP/SFTP/SSH on the date of your choosing.
• Downloading the report via API. This enables you to get reporting data for a specified period without logging in to the Publisher Dashboard. You can download the report up to 300 times in one day.

The report can be downloaded using the following URL syntax:

https://ran-reporting.rakutenmarketing.com/en/reports/signature-ordersreport/filters?date_range=this-month&include_summary=Y&network=1&tz=GMT&date_type=transaction&token=token

You will need to input your security token after &token=. Learn more about using reporting APIs.

Best Practices

Choosing Advertiser Partners

Our list of Premium Advertisers recognizes advertiser programs that conform to publisher-friendly practices. These Premium Advertisers:

• Pay publishers monthly.
• Pay publishers based on a maximum $25 threshold.
• Offer seven return days or more in their baseline offers (this does not apply to advertisers with pay-per-click programs).
• Supply complete and current contact information in their profiles.
• Use our network’s check-cutting service. This allows us to publish detailed information on payment status in their payment reports and provides a trackable process for consistent, timely commission payments.
• Ensure prompt authorization of publisher payments so publishers are paid at the end of the following month.
• Are active and in good standing.
• Provide excellent customer service and logical navigation on their site.

Additionally, we recommend that you:

• Read advertisers’ offer terms and legal agreements.
• Use dashboard Payment Reports to identify the advertisers who have paid you in a timely manner.

Reporting Transactions to Members, Organizations, and Subsites

When reporting transactions to your members, organizations, and subsites:

• Be advised that advertisers have 90 days from the date of a transaction to report a return or cancellation.
• Develop a schedule for reporting any money or points that takes returns and cancellations into account.
• Consider posting transaction data to a “pending verification” area your members can view until you are comfortable with releasing funds.
• Provide detailed information about when transactions will be reported to manage your members expectations.

Constructing Member IDs

When constructing members IDs:

• Script the pages with a default member ID, such as defaultmemberid, that is replaced with the actual ID of the member when they log in to your site.
• Once a member or visitor is assigned a unique ID, the same ID should be assigned to the member when they visit the site again. Do not randomly generate a new ID each time the member revisits your site.
• If applicable for your business model, construct member IDs that contain both:
  • An identifier for the member who is shopping.
  • An identifier for the organization or charity designated by them.

Fraud Prevention

Take these steps to help prevent fraud:

• Redirect all clicks away from your site through your own servers prior to sending the visitor though the network link to detect the IP address of your members.
• If you work with per-form and cost-per-click advertisers, watch for an unreasonable number of click-throughs to a particular advertiser for the same IP address in any 24-hour period.
• If you work with cost-per-click advertisers, use click data to reward members and not your server’s click data.
• Flag very large purchases as a precaution.

Payment to Members, Organizations, Or Subsites

We invoice advertisers for publisher payments within five days following the close of a month. Payment is due at the end of that month. The advertiser will either issue publisher payments directly to publishers or to Rakuten, in which case we will issue payments to the advertiser’s publisher partners on their behalf within three to five business days.

Issue payment to members, organizations, or subsites after you have received payment from the advertiser.

Promoting Advertisers

Promote advertisers in your online and offline marketing initiative, including sending emails and newsletters to your member base. Leverage top real estate on your site for top tier offers with advertisers.

Using Additional Reports

In addition to the reports listed in the Performance Reports section above, we recommend you track activity with the following reports; click the + for more information:

You need to be enabled to receive Signature Reconciliation Feed Reports. Learn more about requesting enablement.