What is Rakuten?

Rakuten is a global affiliate marketing network that connects advertisers with publishers to drive traffic and sales through performance-based partnerships. Advertisers use Rakuten’s platform to track conversions, attribute sales to referring publishers, and optimize affiliate campaigns. The platform provides tools for tracking identifiers, measuring user interactions, and ensuring that affiliate partners are properly credited for conversions. Rakuten helps brands expand reach and improve return on investment through data-driven affiliate attribution.

Product Type: Affiliate
Integration Type: Starter Kit & ID Sync

Capabilities

• Captures ranSiteID from Rakuten affiliate link URLs and stores it in first-party storage.
• Records a landing timestamp (landTimestamp) when a user arrives via a Rakuten affiliate link.
• Refreshes stored identifiers whenever a matching URL parameter is detected on a page load.
• Enriches server-side events with Rakuten identifiers for attribution to the correct affiliate partner.

Sync Details

• IDs:

  • ranSiteID – The site identifier passed in Rakuten affiliate URLs to track attribution.
  • landTimestamp – A timestamp recorded at the moment a user lands on the site via a Rakuten affiliate link, formatted as yyyymmdd_hhmm in GMT (24-hour).

• Description:

  • The sync captures ranSiteID from URL parameters in Rakuten affiliate links.
  • A landTimestamp is also generated and stored on the first page load from a Rakuten link.
  • Each value is stored in first-party storage for the duration defined by the Cookie Lifetime setting in the UI (defaults to 90 days).
  • Identifiers refresh on every page load when URL parameters are present.
  • Stored identifiers are added to all server-side event payloads to support affiliate attribution.

• Server-side Event Payload:
  Server-side events are enriched with Rakuten identifiers under context.providers.rakuten:

  JSON

  {
    "rakuten": {
      "ranSiteID": "abc-123",
      "landTimestamp": "20250627_1025"
    }
  }
  

• Cookie Name:

  • Cookie: _meta_rakuten_ranSiteID, _meta_rakuten_landTimestamp
  • IndexedDB: [your storage prefix]_rakuten_ranSiteID, [your storage prefix]_rakuten_landTimestamp

  For a general guide on ID Sync validation, see here.

Sync Setup Guide

1. Add a Rakuten Sync in MetaRouter

To gather the ranSiteID and landTimestamp values, you must add a Rakuten sync.

1. From the Pipelines page, find the pipeline associated with the web property you’d like to add a sync to. Hover over the three-dot dropdown and select “Build AJS File.”
2. In the Identity Syncs section, select the Rakuten sync.
3. Fill out the following fields:
   1. Cookie Lifetime (in days) – Defines how long the ranSiteID and landTimestamp remain in first-party storage before expiring. Defaults to 90. Example: 90.
4. Scroll down and click the Save and Build File button.
5. Deploy your AJS file to propagate changes to your web property.