How Payment-Redirect Attribution Works
Payment-redirect attribution is the practice of preserving a visitor's campaign data across the jump to a payment gateway and back. When a checkout hands off to a bank or payment provider, the visitor can return in a new tab or a fresh session. Data held only for the old session is gone, and the purchase can appear as direct traffic.
For example, a visitor clicks a Meta ad, adds an item to the cart, and pays through a gateway that reopens the store in a new tab. If the campaign tags were stored only for the first tab's session, the purchase loses its source.
For a step-by-step fix, read how to track UTMs through payment gateway redirects.
How the Problem Is Solved
The fix is to store the last-touch campaign data somewhere that survives a new tab for a limited time, then read it when the visitor returns. Storing it in persistent browser storage with an expiry keeps it available across tabs without keeping it forever, and the expiry should fit your attribution window.
Linkrunner's Web SDK (beta) keeps last-touch UTMs for 24 hours from the campaign click in both session and persistent browser storage, so a gateway or 3D Secure return in a new tab keeps its credit. This is part of web attribution.
What It Does Not Fix
Sending payment confirmations from your backend remains the most reliable way to record a purchase. Redirect-safe storage protects the source of the purchase, not the purchase event itself. Collecting events through your own domain, as in first-party tracking, helps with delivery but is a separate concern.