Track affiliate sales live using the Reporting API

This guide shows how affiliate partners can track sales on Tiqets.com in near real time by:

1. Adding tracking parameters to their outbound Tiqets links.

2. Retrieving attributed orders via the Reporting API endpoint .

It’s designed to be friendly and practical so you don’t need to be deeply technical to implement the basics.

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What you’ll achieve

By the end of this guide you will be able to:

• Attribute completed orders back to the click that generated them.

• Segment performance by campaign or placement.

• Feed conversions into your own reporting or ad platforms (for example, by matching on GCLID).

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How it works (high level)

1. A customer clicks from your site/app to Tiqets.

2. You add a unique click identifier to the Tiqets URL: tq_click_id.

3. Optionally, you add a campaign label: tq_campaign.

4. When an order is completed, you call the real time Reporting API and read your values back in the response:

   • tq_click_id ➜ returned as click_id

   • tq_campaign ➜ returned as campaign_name

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Step 1 — Add tracking parameters to your Tiqets links

When sending a customer to Tiqets.com, append these query parameters to your Tiqets URL.

tq_click_id: A unique reference for each click

Rules of thumb

• Use any unique identifier you can generate and store on your side.

• Keep it stable so you can match it later.

• Do not include PII (no email addresses, phone numbers, names, etc.).

Examples of good values

• An ad platform click ID (for example, a Google Ads GCLID) if you plan to reconcile conversions back to that campaign.

• A UUID generated by your system.

tq_campaign: Campaign context for better reporting

Common examples include:

• tq_campaign=top_banner_promotion

• tq_campaign=homepage_card_3

• tq_campaign=blog_article_cta

This is especially useful if you want to optimise performance by placement, content, or creative.

Example outbound link

https://www.tiqets.com/en/amsterdam-attractions-c75061/tickets-for-van-gogh-museum-p974079
  ?partner=your_partner_name
  &tq_campaign=top_banner_promotion
  &tq_click_id=GCLID_EAIaIQobChMI...

Implementation tips

• Make sure values are URL-encoded.

• Store tq_click_id (and optionally tq_campaign) alongside the click timestamp in your own system.

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Step 2 — Retrieve attributed orders via the Reporting API

Once orders are completed, you can retrieve them from the Reporting API.

Endpoint

GET /v2/reports/orders

Important to use the reports endpoint and not /v2/orders/ as this endpoint is dedicated for partners using our Booking API.

Useful query parameters

For live tracking, you’ll typically query a recent date range and paginate through results.

• start_date: start day for orders that were finalised

• end_date: last day for orders that were finalised (defaults to tomorrow)

• page_size: number of results per page (default 10, max 100)

• page: page number

Example request (cURL)

curl -X GET "https://api.tiqets.com/v2/reports/orders?start_date=2025-12-18&end_date=2025-12-19&page_size=100&page=1" \
  -H "Authorization: Token YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourCompanyName-AffiliateReporting/1.0 (contact: [email protected])"

What to look for in the response

In each order record, you’ll find the key attribution fields:

• click_id , this matches what you sent as tq_click_id

• campaign_name , this matches what you sent as tq_campaign

• order_reference_id , a stable identifier you can use for deduplication

• order_fulfilled_at , when the order was finalised

Here’s a trimmed example:

{
  "success": true,
  "orders": {
    "order_reference_id": "123123123",
    "click_id": "click_idrandom_number",
    "campaign_name": "top_banner",
    "order_fulfilled_at": "2025-11-04T13:34:18.824991+00:00",
    "sale_order_value_incl_vat": 92.98,
    "commission_excl_vat": 11.16
  },
  "pagination": { "total": 5, "page": 1, "page_size": 100 }
}

Always plan to handle pagination — if total is greater than your page_size, fetch the next pages until you’ve processed all results.

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Step 3 — Match conversions back to your campaigns

A common workflow looks like this:

1. When the user clicks out, store tq_click_id (and optionally tq_campaign) with your own click record.

2. Poll the orders endpoint regularly for recently finalised orders.

3. For each order, match click_id back to your stored click record.

4. Use campaign_name for breakdowns by placement/campaign.

5. Use order_reference_id to avoid double-counting.

If you pass GCLID in tq_click_id, you can also use that value to feed the conversion back into Google Ads (or your preferred platform), depending on your own measurement setup.

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Recommended polling approach

To keep things simple and robust:

• Query a rolling window (for example, yesterday → tomorrow).

• Keep a local record of processed order_reference_id values.

• Poll at a steady cadence that meets your reporting needs.

As a rule of thumb, every 10–15 minutes is a good starting point for “live” reporting without putting unnecessary load on the API.

If you need faster feedback (for example, during a short promotional burst), you can temporarily increase this to every 5 minutes, but we recommend avoiding more aggressive intervals unless you have a clear need.

If you ever receive 429 Too Many Requests, simply slow down and retry with backoff.

This approach helps you pick up late-finalised orders without needing to reprocess your entire history.

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Best practices

• Never send PII in tq_click_id or tq_campaign.

• Use order_reference_id for deduplication.

• Respect API rate limits and handle 429 responses gracefully.

• If your tq_campaign values contain spaces or special characters, ensure they are properly URL-encoded.