A shopper watches a creator review a pair of headphones in October.
On White Friday she taps a sponsored listing for the same headphones on a retailer app, then closes it.
On Cyber Monday she finds a code on a deals site and buys.
Which channel gets the credit?
In most reporting, whichever one she touched last.
That is last-click attribution.
It is a convenient answer, and in peak season it is often the wrong one.
Why Last-Click Attribution Can Mislead Brands During Peak Season
Each channel reports its own success, and each counts sales on its own terms.
The creator platform counts a sale when a code is used.
The retailer counts a sale after its ad was clicked or seen.
The affiliate network counts a sale after a partner click.
Add those reports together and the total often comes to more than the sales the brand actually recorded, because the same purchase has been claimed two or three times.
Then the first week of December is spent arguing about whose numbers are right, instead of deciding where the money goes next.
My position on this is simple.
Platforms should not mark their own homework.
Attribution needs independence.
The principle of media accountability and independent performance verification matters most when several platforms are reporting results against the same sale.
The proof for me is First Abu Dhabi Bank.
We put independent attribution in place through AppsFlyer, with Platformance running underneath it on outcomes, and new-to-bank customers from marketing grew from 28K to 159K a year in three years.
The shift came from seeing, independently, which channels were bringing in customers, and putting the money there.
Our First Abu Dhabi Bank performance case study also illustrates the value of connecting marketing investment to measurable customer acquisition.
What Affiliate Marketing Adds to the MENA Shopping Season
Affiliate marketing, one form of partnership marketing, extends a brand's reach through publishers, content sites, deal platforms and other partners who are paid when a sale happens.
In peak season, that brings three advantages.
1. Spend Follows Sales
Partners are paid for outcomes, so budget is tied to results.
It is pay-per-outcome in its simplest form.
2. Reach Beyond Your Own Channels
Partners bring audiences a brand cannot always reach directly, especially shoppers hunting for offers.
In Black Friday week, Google and Visa found deal-related searches rise by 69%.
3. Room to Adjust Throughout the Season
Terms, offers and the partner mix can change as the season moves from Singles Day to the Dubai Shopping Festival.
The discipline is in choosing partners for the quality of their audience and the honesty of their traffic, rather than for volume alone.
The value of this approach can be seen in our affiliate marketing campaign for a leading coffee brand in Saudi Arabia, where 88% of orders came from new customers.
PulsR, our partnership commerce network, works this way across MENA, with coupon sites, apps and social pages chosen for each brand and budget moved between them through the season.
For Nahdi, it delivered 75% more orders than forecast in the first month.
Why Brands Need One View of Marketing Attribution
The fix for double counting is one view of results that sits above the channels.
When creator, retail media and partner data sit in one place, you can see where channels support each other, where they overlap and where the money is working hardest.
Our analytics and attribution dashboard is built to give brands that view, so the weekly review in November works from one set of figures.
That same focus on independently verified results underpins outcome-based media buying and attribution, where campaigns are measured against defined business outcomes rather than media activity alone.
How to Measure Affiliate and Marketing Performance During Peak Season
Before the Season: Agree on Attribution Rules
Agree the numbers that matter, such as sales, cost per sale and return on ad spend, and the rules for how credit is shared across channels.
Write them down.
During the Season: Review and Reallocate Budget
Review one combined report each week, with retail media checked daily in peak weeks.
Move budget towards the channels delivering sales at the lowest cost while there is still time to benefit.
After the Season: Build the Next Peak-Season Plan
Record what worked by moment, by channel and by category.
That record is where the next plan starts, and the next peak comes quickly.
Ramadan is expected to begin around 8 February 2027, subject to the moon sighting, which is 10 weeks after Cyber Monday.
Five Attribution Questions to Ask Your Marketing Team
- Can we see creator, retail media and partner results in one report?
- How much of our reported sales is counted more than once?
- Are partners paid for real, verified sales?
- Which channel would we fund more if we trusted the numbers fully?
If the honest answer to the last one is "more than we do now", that is where to start.
Frequently Asked Questions About Affiliate Marketing and Attribution
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a form of partnership marketing in which brands pay partners, such as deal sites, content publishers and apps, a commission when their promotion leads to a sale or another agreed outcome.
Why Does Last-Click Attribution Mislead Brands in Peak Season?
In peak season, shoppers often see a creator, a retail ad and a partner offer before they buy.
Last-click attribution gives all the credit to the final step, which hides the channels that built the interest earlier and can lead brands to cut the ones doing the early work.
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