Which affiliate to pay when a user has multiple cookies?

[minorgod]

I am using a large number of affiliate programs to market products for a client's web site (which must remain nameless). We've had great success, but just realized that we may be paying multiple commissions for a given order if the user has come to our site multiple times through different affiliate links.

For clarity, say user X comes to our site from a Google Affiliate network link, browses around, then leaves. Then they do another search somewhere else and end up at the same page from a Commission Junction link and that sets another cookie. When the user checks out, they will have a tracking pixel for both sites in their order confirmation page and we will end up paying out a commission to both affiliate programs.

The more I think about it the more complicated it gets. I realize that some of this might depend on the individual affiliate program conventions, the contractual obligations we have with the affiliate, the particular implementation, etc. -- but I'm wondering if there is a standard solution for this problem in general? Should I add some logic to my app to figure out which cookies to honor and only count the commission for the most recent affiliate referral? In some cases incoming affiliate links might be product specific so in those cases we could probably track whether the customer purchased the particular product from the particular affiliate referral and do some logic to enforce those rules, but suppose they got to the exact same product landing page from two different referral programs and then placed an order? Should they really both get credit for the referral or just the most recent one?

I'd appreciate any thoughts on this from experienced affiliate marketers in particular.

[Uncle Dog]

You'll just have to pay for now. It took one/some/all of the total visits to generate a sale, but which?

Maybe the very occasional (I can't imagine it happens frequently) extra cost is worth paying to get the order.

In future? Depends on your all your third parties - and the common denominators that you can work with. Should you only count the commission for the most recent affiliate referral? Yes. Perfect for you. Now try getting agreement from multiple affiliates.

[minorgod]

You'll just have to pay for now. It took one/some/all of the total visits to generate a sale, but which?....

Thanks for you comment. As an update to this question, I just found an answer on another site, but I'm still interested in everyone's comments. Seems like there's going to be some varying opinions on this subject and I'd like to hear them all before I talk to any affiliates about it.

[AustinG]

You should generally pay the person who last referred the user to your products. It only makes more sense and is only fair. If the first person did not market your product well enough to make a sales conversion the commission should only go to the person who managed to make a successful conversion.