Rakuten Advertising to impact.com: Partner Migration FAQ
Rakuten Advertising and impact.com have formed a strategic partnership, and Rakuten Advertising brands are transitioning to the impact.com platform. This FAQ answers the most common questions you have about creating and linking an impact.com account, what carries over, and how tracking, payments, and reporting work after a brand migrates.
Getting started with impact.com
Why do I need to create an impact.com account, and what happens if I don't?
When you create and link a new impact.com account to your existing Rakuten Advertising account, your brand relationships, terms, and tracking links are all transitioned automatically—you won't need to rejoin programs, and you won't need to swap links until a later date. The heavy lifting happens behind the scenes.
Does it cost anything to create or maintain my impact.com account?
No. Partners do not pay any platform fees.
What if I don't have an impact.com account yet?
Use the link provided by Rakuten Advertising to create your new impact.com account — look for an email from publisherupdates@rakutenadvertising.com with the subject line "Action Required: Connect or Create Your impact.com Account," sent to your SID's primary user. Creating your account this way is what automatically transfers over all your existing Rakuten Advertising relationships, so we encourage using it even if you're already familiar with signing up directly — it also gets your account auto-approved into the marketplace instead of waiting on standard review. Once the brand's program launches, you can review and modify your contracts inside that new account.
Do I need to fill out any migration forms?
No. You don't need to fill out any migration forms. Once you link your accounts, your existing Rakuten Advertising partnerships transfer to impact.com automatically.
How long does new partner onboarding take?
It depends on your path. If you're linking your Rakuten Advertising account via Rakuten's link, setup is the same day. Applying to impact.com directly can take a couple of business days for approval. Payout details aren't required to finish setup, but you'll need to add them before we can issue any payments.
What if a feature I rely on in Rakuten Advertising isn't available on impact.com?
We've reviewed functional capabilities across both platforms, and coverage is generally equivalent, though some features may look or work slightly differently. If something you rely on is missing, contact support, and we'll investigate.
What do I need to do to prepare for the migration, and how will I know when it's happening?
Make sure the master user email on your Rakuten Advertising account is current — that's the address we'll use to send your account-linking notification. If you're not already an impact.com partner, sign up now so you're ready to go. We're taking a phased approach: Rakuten Advertising will reach out directly as each brand you work with enters the migration process, and you'll get a final confirmation once that's ready.
How is this migration different from a normal platform migration?
The biggest difference is scale — a large number of brands are migrating within the same window of time, so Rakuten Advertising and impact.com have worked together to lessen the burden on partners:
Your active Rakuten Advertising contracts move over and go live on impact.com automatically, so you won't need new contracts created from scratch.
You have flexibility on link switching — impact.com continues to support Rakuten Advertising tracking links for a while, so you can spread that work out over time instead of switching everything at once.
There's no tracking downtime — your Rakuten Advertising integrations stay in place during the initial migration, so you shouldn't experience any loss of data.
Will I be given a list or report of the brands migrating in Wave 0?
You should already have been notified by Rakuten Advertising about which of your brands are included in an upcoming wave. If you haven't heard anything, reach out to your Rakuten Advertising account manager or customer support.
Your data, history, & tracking links
What account details copy over during the migration?
We automatically copy over your primary user details, media properties, and brand relationships. Your existing tracking links are redirected to impact.com and your partnership is not interrupted. For security reasons, you'll need to manually add your banking and payment info once you log in—see Set Up Your Bank Details.
I use different SIDs in Rakuten Advertising for different audiences. How does impact.com handle this?
To track different audiences, campaigns, or properties, you'll use our sub_id or shared_id parameters. Learn how these parameters work. We also offer payout groups, which let you earn different commission rates based on the specific media properties, locations, or links you use.
Does my Rakuten Advertising u1 value carry over to impact.com?
It depends on which links you're using after the migration date. If you switch to impact.com tracking links, use one of our SubID fields to populate the values you were passing in u1. If you continue using Rakuten Advertising links, your u1 values are automatically populated into the subId1 field in reporting, so you won't lose that data at the transaction level.
What happens to referrals or clicks that were already in progress when a brand migrates?
Any valid, pending referral carries over. You won't lose credit for activity that was already in flight. For example, if someone clicks your Rakuten Advertising link the day before a brand migrates and completes a purchase the next day, you'll still get credit as long as the sale falls within that program's agreed click/lookback window.
I'm a CSS (Comparison Shopping Service) partner—does impact.com have links I can use?
Yes. impact.com offers a direct-linking solution for CSS partners, but it only becomes available once a brand completes native integration with impact.com's tracking — brands will notify affected partners as soon as that's ready. When to switch your existing Rakuten Advertising links depends on your setup: if you're using parallel tracking, wait for us to contact you directly with guidance on timing; if you're not, switch once the brand has migrated to impact.com. Either way, there's no rush — your existing links will continue to redirect and track correctly until you switch.
Linking your accounts
How do I link my Rakuten Advertising account to my impact.com account?
Sign in to your existing impact.com account using the link you received from Rakuten Advertising, and we'll automatically link them together for you.
How will my existing accounts be mapped to impact.com?
Look for an email from Rakuten Advertising containing a magic link — that's what lets you map and link your existing Rakuten Advertising accounts to your impact.com account yourself. Make sure you (or someone on your team) has access to the impact.com account, so you're ready to complete the link when that email arrives.
How do I assign specific brand relationships to different impact.com accounts?
Each Rakuten Advertising SID admin receives a unique linking email and gets to choose which impact.com account that SID should be tied to — different SIDs can go to different accounts. For example, if you have 5 SIDs on Rakuten Advertising and 2 impact.com accounts, you could link 3 SIDs to account 1 and the other 2 to account 2.
I'm the master user on my Rakuten Advertising SID, but I don't have a login for our impact.com account. What do I do?
The account-linking magic link is only sent to your Rakuten Advertising SID's master user. If you're not already a user on the impact.com account you want to link to, you have two options: forward the linking email to an admin on that impact.com account, who can accept it, or ask that admin to add you as a user first, then complete the link yourself.
If I manage multiple sites, regions, or business units, do I need to use separate impact.com accounts?
It depends on your setup. Each impact.com account supports one reporting and payout currency, one payout destination, and one time zone. If your business units need different values for any of those, you'll need a separate impact.com account for each.
I have multiple impact.com partner accounts. Which one should I link to my Rakuten Advertising account?
Select the account you'd like to use to promote the brand that has migrated from Rakuten Advertising.
What if I link the wrong impact.com account? Can I change it later?
You can't undo this yourself, but don't worry—reach out to our support team and they'll reset the link for you.
Can I link my Rakuten Advertising account to more than one impact.com account?
You can link each Rakuten Advertising SID to one impact.com account. You can't link a SID to more than one impact.com account.
The impact.com account I want isn't on the list. How do I link it?
The list only pulls in active accounts registered to the email you used. If your account is missing, double-check that it's currently active and uses the exact same email address. You can also have your impact.com admin add you to the desired account, or forward the link to a user who has access to the impact.com account you'd like to link.
Can I merge or consolidate my impact.com accounts before linking my Rakuten Advertising account?
Yes. Follow this step-by-step guide to merge your accounts. Once that's done, come back to finish linking your Rakuten Advertising profile.
Will my commission rates or deal terms change?
No. Your rates and terms are locked in by your specific contract with the brand — picking a different impact.com account to link won't affect them, and neither will the migration itself. Your existing commercial terms (rates, bonuses, flat fees) carry over to impact.com, with the goal of full continuity. That said, terms are ultimately set by the brand, so it's worth confirming details once a program you work with has migrated.
Will I need to agree to new terms — impact.com's, or the brand's?
If you're already an impact.com partner, you've accepted our platform agreement, so there's nothing new to sign. Your existing Rakuten Advertising brand terms carry over as-is; you'll only need to review and accept something new if the brand actually changes its terms as part of the migration. If you're RAD publisher creating a new impact.com partner account, you'll have agreed to impact.com's terms of service as part of the sign-up process.
Why didn't I get an email with a magic link?
The magic link is sent only to the master user listed on your Rakuten Advertising SID — check that inbox (and its spam folder) first. If you still can't find it, reach out to Rakuten Advertising support to have it resent.
I'm part of RAD's master tag, will my integration automatically move over to impact.com as part of the migration?
If you have an active integration through Rakuten Advertising's master tag, impact.com should have already reached out with next steps for integrating with impact.com's Publisher Integration Hub. If you haven't heard from us, contact impact.com customer support.
What do I do if I receive an error message after selecting the magic link?
Try opening the link again in an incognito/private browser window and let the page fully load. If you still don't land on the your account has been linked confirmation page, contact Rakuten Advertising support for help.
Linking an account & program access
Do I have to rejoin all my Rakuten Advertising brand programs on impact.com, and why should I use the link Rakuten provided?
Not if you link your Rakuten Advertising SID to an impact.com account using the link Rakuten Advertising provided. Doing so guarantees no lapse in your partnership: it automatically connects you to your existing brands as soon as they launch on impact.com, creates your contracts automatically, redirects your existing tracking links, and gets you instantly approved into each brand's program instead of waiting days for manual review. If you don't link in time, your contracts go to a separate shell account instead — see "What happens if I fail to link my accounts before the migration?" for what that means for you.
How will I know when my brand's program goes live on impact.com?
We'll keep you in the loop via email. You'll get reminders in the days running up to the launch, plus a final confirmation on launch day. If multiple brands are launching on the same day, we'll combine those into one email so we don't flood your inbox. Contact Rakuten to see which advertisers are part of upcoming waves.
What happens if I fail to link my accounts before the migration?
If you don't link your account before the migration, we won't automatically match or create anything in an existing impact.com account for you — impact.com isn't making any automatic high-confidence matches. Instead, a separate account is created for each of your unlinked Rakuten Advertising SIDs, and any contracts (offers) live there instead. You'll need to contact each brand directly to have a new contract pushed to the account you actually want to use, and switch to impact.com tracking links right away, since the Rakuten Advertising redirect only works for linked accounts. We also can't merge accounts or performance data after the fact, so any activity tied to that separate account — including its payout — stays there permanently.
What happens if my Rakuten Advertising account is at a negative commission balance?
A negative balance won't affect your ability to link accounts. It stays on the Rakuten Advertising platform to be settled there, and your migrated contracts start with a $0 balance on impact.com.
Payments, reporting, & APIs
How will this affect my pending payouts? Do I need to set up payment and tax details again?
You'll receive communication once your brand has migrated to impact.com. We recommend you set up payment and tax details as soon as possible. See Withdraw Funds to Your Bank Account for more information.
Where will my commission payments come from after the migration?
Your final commission payouts will reach your Earnings Account. Rakuten Advertising will handle the initial invoicing to the brand, collect the funds, and transfer them securely to impact.com so we can pay you.
Where do I go to pull my tracking links and accept contracts?
You'll receive emails walking you through your next steps once the brand you work with begins to move to impact.com. For a head start, see creating tracking links and contracts.
Where can I find reporting tools and API documentation?
You can explore all available APIs on the impact.com Integrations Hub. To review your performance data, see Reporting for partners.
Can I keep using Rakuten Advertising's APIs, or do I need to switch to impact.com's?
Once a brand launches on impact.com, impact.com becomes the source of truth for that brand's data, and you'll need to transition to using impact.com's APIs for it. There's no fixed cutover date — you'll be notified as each brand's launch day approaches, with a confirmation from impact.com on the day it goes live. If you're new to impact.com, we recommend preparing your API integration ahead of time, but hold off on making the actual switch until after that specific brand launches. Historical data from before the migration stays on the Rakuten Advertising platform — you'll continue to access it there.
Will I still be able to log in to my old Rakuten Advertising dashboard?
Rakuten Advertising will send communication about access to your Rakuten account.
How are deduplication, modifications, and cancellations handled around the migration?
Deduplication, modifications, and cancellations are handled as usual by whichever platform is responsible for that action. That's determined by the action date: if it falls before the brand's migration date, it's handled on Rakuten Advertising; if it falls after, it's handled on impact.com.
How are pending claims or transaction inquiries handled after migration?
Follow the normal process for whichever platform the transaction happened on. If your inquiry is about a transaction from before the brand's migration date, file the claim on Rakuten Advertising. If it's for a sale after the brand's migration date, submit an Action Inquiry on impact.com.
Is there an API migration guide or field-mapping document available for partners?
There isn't a field-by-field mapping guide between the Rakuten Advertising and impact.com APIs at this time. You can review documentation for impact.com's endpoints on the impact.com Integrations Hub.
How do I distinguish between native impact.com brand/transactions and Rakuten Advertising advertisers/transactions migrated to impact.com?
Once a brand launches on impact.com, you can treat it the same as any native impact.com brand. If that brand later moves to a native integration, you'll need to update your tracking links to impact.com if you haven't already. For specific questions about how the APIs report on these differences, reach out to impact.com support.
Will the impact.com APIs provide a specific field, identifier, account/program type, or other method that allows me to reliably identify data originating from Rakuten Advertising?
No. Once a transaction is reported on impact.com, there's no difference in reporting between an action that originated from your Rakuten Advertising integration and one from a native impact.com integration — there's no separate field marking the source.
Will existing Rakuten brand IDs remain available after the migration?
Yes, for historical reporting purposes. Any new clicks or transactions after a brand migrates will be reported on impact.com instead. Contact Rakuten Advertising support for further details on historical Brand IDs.
When Rakuten brands are assigned new impact.com Program/Campaign IDs, will there be a mapping available between Rakuten Advertiser ID and the impact.com Program/Campaign ID?
You'll receive an email from impact.com with the new impact.com Program/Campaign ID once a brand launches on the platform. For confirmation of a brand's original Rakuten Advertising MID, contact Rakuten Advertising support.
Will existing Rakuten transaction/order IDs remain available, or will a transaction get a new impact.com ID too?
A transaction is never assigned two IDs, and it never moves between platforms. Any transaction (and any updates to it) from before the brand's migration date stays in Rakuten Advertising reporting under its Rakuten Transaction ID — you'll need to log in to Rakuten Advertising to access that historical data, since it isn't available through impact.com. Any transaction from after the brand's migration date appears only in impact.com reporting, under a new impact.com Transaction ID.
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