Playbook: Switch affiliate-link managers and keep all your click data

Playbook: Switch affiliate-link managers and keep all your click data

Moving between link managers (Lasso / ThirstyAffiliates / AffiliateWP-style) usually means abandoning your historical click stats. You don't have to.

— Export the link table AND the click log separately. Most tools export links but bury the click history; check for a CSV before you commit.
— Map old slug → new slug in a spreadsheet. This becomes your redirect file AND your data-stitching key.
— Import links with their original creation dates if the tool allows, so your "top performers" report isn't reset to zero.
— Stand up the new manager in parallel for one week, route 10% of links through it, confirm tracking fires before full cutover.
— Keep the old click DB as a flat archive; you'll want the year-over-year baseline.

Gotcha: some managers tie clicks to an internal numeric ID, not the slug. If you renumber on import, your old click logs orphan and the migration looks like a traffic drop in reports.

Bottom line: export links AND clicks, preserve IDs, parallel-run 10% for a week. Lose the click history and you've blinded yourself to which reviews actually earn.