When a buyer clicks on your resource in a featured placement spot and then makes a purchase, that sale is attributed to your featured ad and the advertising fee applies. Attribution lasts for 30 days from the click, so if a buyer clicks your featured placement today and comes back to purchase it two weeks later, the advertising fee still applies. If a buyer finds your resource through any other means, such as organic browsing, a direct link, a referral, or any non-featured discovery, then the advertising fee does not apply to that purchase.

Our featured ads attribution uses the same underlying tracking system as our Referrals feature. When a buyer clicks on your featured placement, we record that interaction against the specific buyer and specific resource, server-side. This means attribution follows the buyer across devices and sessions, not just through a browser cookie.

Here's what that looks like in practice:

• Example 1 - Featured ad leads to a sale: A buyer sees your plugin in a featured spot on the Minecraft Plugins page, clicks it, browses the page, and buys it two days later on their phone. The sale is attributed to your featured ad, and the advertising fee applies.
• Example 2 - Organic discovery, no fee: A buyer finds a different resource of yours through a direct link someone shared with them, or through your creator page. Because they didn't reach that resource through a featured placement, no advertising fee applies to that purchase.
• Example 3 - Featured click but no purchase, then purchase later: A buyer clicks your featured placement, looks at your resource, wishlists it, and leaves without buying. Three weeks later, they look at their wishlist and decide to purchase it. Because the featured click was the most recent tracked interaction for that buyer and that resource (within 30 days), the sale is still attributed to the featured ad.
• Example 4 - Bundle attribution: A buyer clicks your featured placement for Resource A, which is part of a bundle. They decide to buy the bundle instead. The bundle purchase for Resource A is attributed to the featured ad.

Featured ads and referrals: last interaction wins

Because featured ads and referrals share the same tracking system, a single purchase will never be charged both a referral fee and a featured advertising fee. It's always whichever interaction happened most recently.

• Example 5 - Referral then featured click: A referrer sends a buyer a link to your resource. The buyer clicks it and browses your page but doesn't purchase. A few days later, the same buyer sees your resource in a featured spot, clicks it, and buys. The featured click was the most recent interaction, so the advertising fee applies and the referrer is not credited.
• Example 6 - Featured click then referral: A buyer clicks your featured placement and looks at your resource. Later that week, someone sends them a referral link to the same resource, they click it and purchase. The referral was the most recent interaction, so the referrer is credited and no advertising fee applies.

This "last interaction wins" approach ensures you're only ever paying one fee per sale, and it's attributed to whichever channel most recently drove the buyer to your resource.

A few other important details:

• Attribution is tracked per resource, per buyer. Clicking on a featured placement for Resource A doesn't affect purchases of Resource B.
• The advertising fee also applies to addon purchases and bundle purchases for that resource, provided the buyer's discovery came through the featured placement
• Attribution lasts for 30 days from the most recent tracked interaction. After that, the attribution expires