Awin

Overview

Awin is one of the world's largest affiliate and performance marketing networks, connecting over 25,000 advertisers with more than 1 million publisher partners globally. Publishers embed Awin's tracking scripts or conversion tags on their pages to record clicks and commission-eligible transactions across the network. Advertisers implement a Merchant Tag on their confirmation pages to attribute conversions back to specific publishers.

What This Script Does

Awin Merchant Tag (Advertiser Side)

Advertisers place the Awin Merchant Tag — typically loading www.awin1.com/merchant/tag.js — on order confirmation pages. When fired, this script reads the Awin click ID (awc) from the visitor's cookies or URL parameters, packages the transaction details (order value, order ID, commission group), and sends a server-side or pixel beacon back to Awin's attribution servers.

Publisher Mastertag

Publishers who use Awin's voucher code detection or Bounceless Tracking load a Mastertag snippet that sets third-party cookies under awin1.com and www.awin1.com. This tag also supports cross-device tracking via Awin's own identity graph.

Cookies Set

• awin_session — Third-party session cookie on awin1.com. Stores the current click session identifier linking publisher to advertiser visit. Duration: session.
• aw_source — First-party cookie set by affiliate publisher sites. Records the Awin channel source for attribution. Duration: 30 days.
• awc — First-party cookie or URL parameter. Contains the encoded Awin click ID passed from publisher to advertiser. Duration: 30 days.
• _aw_m_ — Third-party persistent cookie on awin1.com. Used for cross-device identity matching. Duration: 1 year.

Domains Contacted

• www.awin1.com — Primary tracking and attribution server. All click events, impression pixels, and conversion beacons are sent here.
• www.zanox.com — Legacy domain retained for backward compatibility with older Awin (formerly Zanox) integrations.
• uii.awin.com — Publisher identity interface endpoint.

Data Collected Per Interaction

• Referring publisher ID and program ID
• Full URL of the click origination page
• Advertiser product and category codes
• Order value, order ID, and commission group code on conversion
• Browser user-agent and IP address (for fraud detection and geolocation)
• Device type and OS derived from user-agent
• Timestamp of click and conversion events

Consent & Compliance

GDPR / ePrivacy: Awin's tracking cookies are third-party cookies placed across advertiser and publisher sites for the purpose of commercial attribution. Under the ePrivacy Directive, prior consent is required. The Article 29 Working Party has consistently held that affiliate tracking cookies fall outside the strictly necessary exemption. Awin provides a Consent Management integration and supports IAB TCF signals.

CCPA / CPRA: Awin shares consumer browsing and purchase data with advertisers and publishers for commercial purposes that qualify as a "sale" under CPRA. Site operators using Awin must include it in their CCPA data map and provide a Do Not Sell or Share opt-out.

EU-US Data Privacy Framework: Awin is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework for transfers of EU personal data to its US entities.

IAB TCF Purposes: Purpose 1 (Store and/or access information on a device), Purpose 2 (Use limited data to select advertising), Purpose 7 (Measure ad performance), Purpose 9 (Apply market research to generate audience insights).

Should You Block This Without Consent?

Yes. Awin's tracking tags set third-party cookies for commercial attribution across multiple domains, which is a marketing purpose requiring explicit prior consent under GDPR/ePrivacy. The conversion tag should fire only after the user has consented to marketing cookies.