Campaign attribution#

Understanding which orders come from your tracking page campaigns is crucial for measuring ROI and optimizing performance. Karla offers three attribution methods with different trade-offs between setup effort, accuracy, and platform support.

Pick a method#

Method 1: Referral parameter tracking#

When customers click links from Karla (tracking pages, emails, push notifications), a platform-specific referral parameter is added to the URL. Your e-commerce platform captures it to identify Karla-originated orders.

How it works:

1. Customer clicks a Karla link (e.g., from a tracking email).
2. Karla automatically appends its attribution parameters to the URL. This happens transparently through the Karla app for your shop provider — you don't need to configure anything.
3. The parameters are captured during checkout.
4. Karla retrieves attributed orders via the platform's API.

The parameters carry more than just "this came from Karla" — they also encode the campaign that was shown, the specific product the customer clicked on (for product promotions), the source (tracking page, email, push), and other contextual data. This lets you analyze performance per campaign and per product in the portal, not just "Karla vs. everything else."

Limitations:

• Platform-specific — Shopify and Shopware only.
• May not work if the customer already has an active session with your shop.
• Tracking pages embedded as iframes won't appear in some platform analytics reports.

Platform-specific guides:

• Shopify referral attribution

Method 2: Discount code attribution#

Add a discount code to your campaign in the Karla portal. Orders using that code are automatically attributed to the campaign.

How it works:

1. Configure the campaign with a discount code in the portal.
2. Ensure the discount code is exclusive to this campaign.
3. Customers apply the discount at checkout.
4. Karla tracks orders via the discount code.

Benefits:

• No technical setup — configure in the portal, works immediately.
• Cross-platform — works on Shopify, Shopware, WooCommerce, and custom stacks.
• Not affected by browser settings, ad blockers, or JavaScript.
• Easy to verify in your platform's order reports.
• Works regardless of session state or other plugins.

Limitations:

• Only works for campaigns that offer a discount.
• The discount must be exclusive to Karla for attribution to be accurate.
• Over-attribution risk — if customers share the code outside Karla (social media, coupon sites), those orders will be incorrectly attributed.

Best practices:

• Create unique codes per campaign so you can track performance individually.
• Use time-limited codes to minimize sharing and leakage.
• Rotate discount codes for ongoing campaigns.
• Keep codes simple but unique — e.g., KARLA-WELCOME-DEC instead of SAVE10.
• Monitor for code sharing by checking if attribution exceeds engagement metrics.

Verification:

• Shopify: Orders → filter by Discount code.
• WooCommerce: Orders → filter by Coupon code.
• Custom platforms: query orders by discount/coupon field.

Method 3: API attribution (custom)#

For maximum flexibility, implement custom attribution tracking and send the data to Karla via the Orders API.

How it works:

1. Capture attribution parameters in your own tracking system (URL params, cookies, session data).
2. When creating orders via the Karla API, include the order_analytics field.
3. Karla uses this data to attribute orders to your campaigns.

Benefits:

• Works on all platforms — Shopify, Shopware, WooCommerce, Magento, custom.
• Full control — implement exactly the attribution logic you need.
• No JavaScript required — server-side implementation.
• Not affected by browser blockers — tracking happens on your backend.
• Highest reliability — you control the entire attribution flow.

Limitations:

• High setup complexity — requires custom development.
• Maintenance required — you're responsible for the tracking logic.
• API integration needed — you must create/update orders via the Karla API.
• Testing required — you need to validate the attribution data flow.

Best practices:

1. Always include source — the source field is required (e.g., trackpages, email, sms).
2. Use consistent source values — standardize identifiers across your implementation.
3. Include campaign IDs — use the campaign field to track specific campaign performance.
4. Set appropriate medium — use transactional, promotional, or notification.
5. Sanitize URLs — remove sensitive data from landing_url (passwords, tokens, PII).
6. Capture early — store attribution data at the start of the customer session.
7. Include timestamp — always set captured_at when attribution is detected.
8. Test thoroughly — verify attribution is working correctly in production.

When to use this method:

• You're on a platform not supported by Methods 1–2.
• You want complete control over the attribution process.
• You already have a custom order integration with Karla's API.

Reference:

• Order Attribution API reference

When to use each method#

Analytics and A/B testing#

Once attribution is set up, you get per-campaign analytics in the portal:

• Impressions — how many customers saw each campaign
• Click-through rate — engagement with the call-to-action
• Conversion tracking — purchases driven by the campaign
• Revenue attribution — direct sales impact

A/B testing recommendations#

• Use API attribution for the most accurate test results.
• Run tests for at least 7 days to account for weekly patterns.
• Ensure sample sizes are statistically significant (>100 orders per variant).
• Test one variable at a time for clear insights.

Related#

• Campaigns in the portal — create and manage campaigns.
• Orders API — full order_analytics reference.