Learn about the customer lifetime value and how it works for partner programs.                      

What is Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) Attribution?

The Customer Lifetime Value attribution is an attribution model which rewards each channel that contributes to a conversion and keeps rewarding these channels along the full customer journey (future sales). This model differs from mono-attributive models (first-click or last-click), which only reward a single channel regardless of the involvement of additional channels in a sale.

In Travelpayouts only Flixbus US is using this attribution model.

What Are the Benefits?

You'll be rewarded for your contribution to every conversion, regardless of your position in the funnel path. The more you influence a sale, the bigger your contribution share and revenue will be.

The CLV attribution considers the entirety of the customer’s journey over a period of time. If you contributed to a user’s conversion, you might also be rewarded for conversions made by this same user in the future, even though you no longer generate contact.

How Does CLV Work for the FlixBus Affiliate Program?

There is no additional effort needed from your end. The affiliate program works just like any other.

A third-party algorithm analyzes the conversion funnel of each sale. The attribution takes place in two steps:

1. Calculation of the Channel’s Contribution

For every conversion, the algorithm calculates the weight of each contact (click or impression) involved and attributes the revenue accordingly. The weight of each contact is based on the contribution to the conversion probability, which considers factors like time between contacts or depth of user engagement.

2. Calculation of the Channel’s Contribution in Future Conversions

For each future conversion, the algorithm considers the contacts of the new conversion and those of past conversions. If past contacts still have an impact, the algorithm will attribute the revenue taking them into consideration. This means that you can get revenue for conversions that you didn’t have any contact with.

The conversions are uploaded daily on Tradetracker at noon (CET).

How Does This Work in Practice?

John booked a FlixBus ticket for the first time and paid 20 €. Before booking, he visited a deal portal (Partner1), then a blog (Partner2), and clicked on a search ad (SEA). Partner1 mainly influenced the conversion and receives 60% of the order amount (12 €), 30% goes to SEA (6 €), and 10% goes to Partner2 (2 €).

Two days later, John wants to book a second ticket and goes directly to FlixBus.com. For this reason, 70% of the order amount goes to the website. The algorithm still considers the influence of the previous contacts. Therefore, the remaining 30% is shared among Partner1, Partner2, and SEA.

How to Interpret Your Transaction Statistics

These are the important points to consider when studying the transaction report:

• The attribution includes the click date and time, as well as the date and time of the conversion. The format is the following: {click date and time}; {conversion data and time}.
• With the CLV attribution, the timespan between the touchpoint and conversion might be larger than you're used to, especially when you're rewarded for future conversions.
• The Registration Date corresponds to the date and time of the conversion upload.
• Characteristic: Each contact is unique. Therefore, you might get rewarded several times for the same conversion. The format is the following: {order id} — {touchpoint referral}
• The Order Total corresponds to the order share attributed to your account. This number can be zero if your contact hasn’t contributed to the conversion.
• Revenue amount is calculated based on the Order Total.

Exception for Cashback Publishers

To allow cashback publishers to reward their users, they must be submitted with the following attribution: the order will be attributed to a cashback publisher if they started a session during which the order is made. A session lasts 30 minutes.

Cashback publishers benefit from this exception as long as their new customer rate reaches 20%.

Modification of the Attribution

FlixBus reserves the right to change its attribution model. Publishers will be informed at least 30 days in advance of any upcoming changes.