The APMA Independent Attribution Audit, published in November 2025, set out seven recommendations intended to improve consistency, transparency and confidence in affiliate attribution.
With Honey back in the news and a wider discussion about the value of browser extensions in the affiliate industry ongoing, it’s never been more important to be on top of this topic.
Make it a new year’s resolution. If you cannot confidently answer these questions, whether you work for an agency, brand, network or publisher, you need to spend some time this month familiarising yourself with our audit and wider guide:
- What’s the difference between soft click and stand down?
- Which affiliates does this impact?
- What is the wider impact on an affiliate programme?
- Do you know what solutions you can access and how they work?
- Have you documented and tested your approach to attribution rules?
What’s in the attribution rules audit?
The audit recognises that multiple attribution protections already exist, but that understanding and implementation vary across advertisers, agencies, networks and platforms.
A key area of focus is the distinction between stand-down and soft-click attribution.
Both protect earlier-funnel activity, but they operate differently. Stand-down is typically publisher controlled and applied at an affiliate or technology level. Soft click is applied by the network or platform and operates behind the scenes, preventing certain interactions from overwriting existing attribution based on predefined rules. Some networks offer both approaches, others offer one, and there is currently no single industry standard.
As a trade body that is focused on educating the industry, we explain the technologies in detail and encourage you to decide which is the best fit for you. Also, you need to put in place regular monitoring to ensure the technology is running at all times. This is where networks and platforms can often help.
To guide you in how you prepare your own response, the APMA has put together seven recommendations we encourage you to implement or push for with your suppliers.
The seven recommendations
The audit’s seven recommendations are designed to help organisations assess which combination of protections is most robust for their programmes:
Encourage wider use of attribution protections beyond default last-interaction models. Understand the models and decide how they impact your whole affiliate community.
Apply clear stand-down rules for relevant affiliate types, particularly cashback and loyalty when they have extensions, software or rebate catchers. Some networks also apply these rules to technology companies that offer abandonment or onsite solutions.
Limit manual overrides that contradict agreed attribution logic. This is a tough one as there’s no ‘perfect’ solution here. Make sure you understand why and decide which solution fits your business aims best.
Improve consistency in tagging and configuration to avoid unintended outcomes. This one is a clarion call to networks and agencies to work on a unified approach to tagging conventions. There’s not much you can do here, but we are in ongoing conversations with our network and platform members.
Clearly signpost stand-down and soft-click requirements to improve transparency. It would be great if networks and platforms created an identifier so it was easy to see which affiliates are subject to their attrubution rules.
Encourage dual implementation where available to increase resilience. Having both soft click and stand down in place ensures a failover solution.
Ensure equivalent protections apply to subnetworks, preventing safeguards being weakened through alternative supply paths. This is a biggie. Some sneaky affiliates will try and circumvent attribution rules by applying through subnetworks. Challenge your subnetworks on this point. Also ask what your networks are doing to address this significant issue.
Recent industry discussion has reinforced why these distinctions matter. Where controls sit at different points in the ecosystem, clarity around implementation, monitoring and accountability becomes essential.
What you need to do now
If you are a brand or agency, here’s your checklist:
Understand how your programme actually operates
Be clear on whether soft click, stand-down, both, or neither are in place.Document which affiliates are subject to soft-click and/or stand-down rules
This should be explicit, not assumed.Ask your network or platform to confirm the full list of affiliates subject to attribution rules
Including how those rules are applied in practice.Clarify the approach to subnetworks
Understand which affiliates are subject to soft-click or stand-down when traffic flows through subnetworks.Regularly monitor and audit affiliate behaviour
Attribution protections should be reviewed over time, not treated as a one-off configuration.
The full audit and recommendations are available for FREE when you fill in the form below…_____________________________________________________________________
