Postbacks And Pixels: Everything You Need For P202, STM Tracker, POFPro or CPVLab (47)
Postbacks And Pixels: Everything You Need For P202, STM Tracker, POFPro or CPVLab
Introduction
Want to know when you've earned some money? And more importantly, which campaign, creative and landing page earned money when?
Well, then, you need to master the mysterious world of Postbacks and Pixels. And handily, here's a complete guide on just how to do that in Prosper 202 and CPVLab.
This is one area that can really confuse people who are new to the weird world of affiliate marketing - but it's actually really simple once you drill down past all the strange terms like "postbacks", "image pixels", "subids" and so on.
How To Set Up Conversion Tracking
Whenever you set up an offer URL from your affiliate network in your tracking program (here's a guide on how to do that), you should also set up tracking for that offer.
To do that:
1) Ask your Affiliate Manager whether you should be using a Postback URL or an Image Pixel for this offer.
2) Get the appropriate code - probably a Postback URL, but sometimes you'll need a Pixel - from your tracking platform. Here's how to do it in Prosper, here's how to do it in POFpro and here's how to do it in CPVLab. (Want other tracking platforms? See the end of this post.)
2) Alter it for your affiliate network's software and paste it into the appropriate box. See below for which networks use which software.
3) Your network will now let your tracking software know whenever you get a conversion!
It's as simple as that.
Trackers - index
Choose the tracker you're using to find out how to set up postbacks and pixels!
(POFpro and Thrive guides generously provided by Tom Fang - thanks Tom!)
Affiliate Network Platforms - index
Different affiliate networks use different software, and you'll need the appropriate guide. Here's list of which tracking system is used by which network:
- Adsimilis: HasOffers (although they're converting to Cake soon)
- Neverblue: Their Own System
- F5 Media: Cake
- Convert2Media: Cake
- A4D Performance: Cake
- Wolf Storm Media: Cake
If your network isn't on this list, you can check their listing at http://www.affpaying.com/all-cpa-networks to determine what tracking system they use. Check the network's full-page info, and look for "Tracking Software".
If we don't have a guide for your network's software, feel free to ask us for one below, and I'll get in touch with your network! (Or if you're an AM or network owner, feel free to give us a guide and I'll add it here!)
Tip: One thing to note: in many affiliate network systems, you can set "global" postbacks or pixels, which prevent you having to add your tracker's postback or pixel for every offer individually. This can be a big time-saver - ask your Affiliate Manager about this!
Pixel Or Postback URL?
There are actually two basic ways of tracking conversions: Postback URLs and Pixels.
Why? Well, Postback URLs are the newest and most reliable way of tracking conversions. "Pixels", by contrast, are an older technique - one that still works, but is usually less reliable.
If you want to be absolutely certain that you're tracking as many conversions as possible, you can use both, but for practical purposes, 90% of the time a Postback URL alone will work fine.
However, sometimes an offer isn't set up to use Postback - so in that case you'll need to use a pixel to track. Ask your affiliate manager to be sure.
How Postbacks And Pixels Work
It's actually super-simple.
You're running a piece of software that tracks all the people who click on your ads: Prosper 202, STM Mobile Tracker, CPVLab, or something else. That software assigns each visitor a unique number, called a "Sub ID"
When those visitors click through to your affiliate network and then to the offer you're promoting, your tracking software tells their software the "Sub ID" that it has assigned to them.
If one of those visitors converts, and thus earns you money, you probably want to know about that! So your affiliate network's software sends the Sub ID of that visitor back to your tracking software through a special link - a "Postback Link". (It actually sends this information in exactly the same way as a human filling in a form on the Web - just automatically!)
Your software then knows what visitors signed up - and made you $$$ - and which visitors didn't, and you can use that to narrow down what campaigns are and aren't working.
Pixels work in much the same way, but they can't send information back directly. So instead, they secretly send the converting user's web browser to load a 1-pixel image from your server. That means that your server can read the cookies on their browser, which include a cookie your tracking software set earlier - with, yes, their Sub ID in it!
So your tracking software knows that any time a user requests your "conversion pixel", it should read their cookies and count their Sub ID as a conversion.
If you want to learn even more about Pixels and Postback URLs, the Ipyxel blog has a really good post on them right here: http://ipyxel.com/anatomy-of-a-subid...sion-tracking/
Getting Pixel Or Postback Code From Prosper 202 Or The STM Mobile Tracker
In Prosper 202 or the Stack That Money Mobile Tracker, to get your tracking code:
1) Click on Setup->#8 Get Postback/Pixel
2) Copy ALL the code from the text box under either "Simple Global Tracking Pixel" (if you need a Pixel) or "Simple Global Post Back URL" (if you need a Postback URL):
That's it!
If you need a Pixel, you should end up with code that looks like
<img height="1" width="1" border="0" style="display: none;" src="http://tracker.yourtracker.com/tracking202/static/gpx.php?amount=" />
http://track.tracker.info/tracking202/static/gpb.php?amount=&subid=
Getting Pixel Or Postback Code From CPVLab
Whilst you're setting your campaign up, scroll to the bottom of the screen.
Under "Tracking Pixel: Add Pixel to the Affiliate Network(s)", copy all the code from the text box below "Image Pixel"
You should end up with code like
<img src="http://track.yourtracker.com/adclick.php" width="1" height="1" border="0" />
If you need a Postback, copy the URL from the "src="" section of the Pixel. In this case, you'd want to copy
http://track.yourtracker.com/adclick.php
http://track.yourtracker.com/adclick.php?subid=
Getting Pixel Or Postback Code From POFpro
Getting your global tracking pixel(s) or post-back URL in POFpro is super easy.
1) Go to the "Tracking" tab in the navigation bar.
2) On that page you can retrieve 3 items: image pixel, iframe pixel, and post-back URL.
For the post-back URL, you'll want to append whatever variable contains the sub ID from the network. For example, if you sent your sub IDs to "s2" for Cake networks, then your post-back URL would look like:
Code:
http://www.domain.com/ppro/tracking/track-postback.php?amount=&subid=#s2#
You can setup custom payout amounts by entering in a value for the "amount=" variable. If there is a value there, then whenever that pixel is fired, any conversions will be credited with that value as the payout. It would override the offer's default payout.
E.g. if you wanted to credit every conversion that fires this pixel with $1.50 payout, then:
Code:
http://www.domain.com/ppro/tracking/track-postback.php?amount=1.5&subid=#s2#
Click on the cogwheel at the top right of your Voluum page - that's the Settings button.
Once you're in the Settings screen, go to "Setup" (at the top of the tab), then look down the page for " Postback URL" if you need the Postback, or " Tracking pixel" (not "Tracking pixel URL") if you need the Pixel.
Click the "Clipboard" button next to either the Postback URL or the Tracking Pixel to copy them to your clipboard automatically.
Getting Pixel Or Postback Code From THRIVE
Getting your global tracking pixel(s) or post-back URL in THRIVE is super easy.
1) Go to the "Tracking" page from the left navigation bar.
2) On that page you can retrieve 3 items: image pixel, iframe pixel, and post-back URL.
For the post-back URL, you'll want to append whatever variable contains the sub ID from the network. For example, if you sent your sub IDs to "s2" for Cake networks, then your post-back URL would look like:
Code:
http://www.domain.com/path/postback.php?tid=&amount=&subid=#s2#
You can setup custom payout amounts by entering in a value for the "amount=" variable. If there is a value there, then whenever that pixel is fired, any conversions will be credited with that value as the payout. It would override the offer's default payout.
E.g. if you wanted to credit every conversion that fires this pixel with $1.50 payout, then:
Code:
http://www.domain.com/path/postback.php?tid=&amount=1.5&subid=#s2#
You can also do 1-click upsells by adding on additional revenue to an existing sub ID. As long as the "tid=" variable is unique for the sub ID that you're firing, then any value in the "amount=" variable will be added onto the sub ID as additional revenue.
E.g. if you wanted to convert an up-sell and add additional revenue of $5 to sub ID 12345, then you can make up a "tid=" value of "abc". As long as "tid=abc" doesn't exist yet for sub ID 12345, the additional $5 will be added to that sub ID.
Code:
http://www.domain.com/path/postback.php?tid=abc&amount=5&subid=12345
CPVLab guide now moved above.
Inserting Pixel Or Postback Code Into HasOffers
To add your Pixel or Postback code into an affiliate network's systems if they're using HasOffers:
1) Click on the offer you want to track conversions for.
2) Scroll down to "Conversion Pixels / URLs"
3) In the dropdown menu next to "Type", select "Postback URL" if you're using a Postback URL, or "Image Pixel" if you're using a pixel.
4) Paste your pixel or postback code into the text box below.
5) If you're using a Postback Code, add {aff_sub2} to the end of the Postback code, assuming you followed our tracking guide when setting your offer URL up. If not, see below. You should end up with a Postback that ends in "&subid={aff_sub2}"
6) Click on "Save", to the right of the text box that you just pasted your code into.
That's it, your tracking is now set up!
If you didn't follow our tracking guide, you need to know which subid number you are passing your tracking software's unique subids. Go to your offer URL in your tracking software, and check what text comes immediately before "=[[subid]]" if you're on Prosper, or "=" at the end of the URL if you're on CPVLab.
It'll either be "aff_sub", "aff_sub2", "aff_sub3", "aff_sub4" or "aff_sub5". Copy whichever one of those it is, and paste that at the end of your Postback URL surrouded by curly brackets - {aff_sub}, {aff_sub2}, etc.
So, for example, if your offer URL in CPVLab is
http://someURL.com/click/?s=2331&c=6293496&aff_sub=Campaign14&aff_sub3=
{aff_sub3}
at the end of your postback.
Inserting Pixel Or Postback Code Into Cake
To add your Pixel or Postback code into an affiliate network's systems if they're using Cake:
1) Click on the offer you want to track conversions for.
2) Click on "Testing and Tracking".
You'll now see a screen like this:
If you are using an image pixel, copy its code into the box below "Pixel HTML:", and press the Save button at the bottom. That's it - you're done!
If you're using a Postback URL and followed our tracking guide, paste your code into the text box under "Postback URL (Server Pixel):", then add "#s2#" on the end of the URL. You should end up with a URL that ends in "&subid=#s2#". Press Save, and you're done.
If you didn't follow our tracking guide, you need to know which subid number you are passing your tracking software's unique subids. Go to your offer URL in your tracking software, and check what text comes immediately before "=[[subid]]" if you're on Prosper, or "=" at the end of the URL if you're on CPVLab. It'll either be "s1", "s2", "s3", "s4", or "s5".
Paste that on the end of your Postback URL surrounded by "#" characters - so you should end up with a Postback URL code ending in "subid=#s3#", for example.
So, for example, if your offer URL in CPVLab is
http://someURL.com/click/?s=2331&c=6293496&s2=Campaign14&s3=
#s3#
Press Save, and you're done!
IMPORTANT: in the latest version of Cake, you can't pass your unique subids with "s1" any more. If your subid is being passed with "s1", we strongly advise you to change it in your offer URL to a different number (2-5). Ask your affiliate manager for more details on this.
Inserting Pixel Or Postback Code Into Neverblue
My Neverblue AM, Jos, very helpfully asked their tech team about this, and apparently all Neverblue offers are postback-compatible. You shouldn't ever need to use a pixel on Neverblue.
To insert a Postback URL for an offer on Neverblue:
1) Click on the offer in Neverblue's interface, then click on the "Advanced" tab.
2) Within the "Advanced" tab, click the "Postback URL" sub-tab (see image, below):
3) Paste your Postback URL into the text box below "Enter Your Non Site Specific Postback URL".
4) If you followed our offer URL setup guide, add "{subid2}" on to the end of your Postback URL. You should end up with a Postback URL ending in "&subid={subid2}". If you didn't follow our offer URL setup guide, see below.
5) Click "Save Changes". You're done!
If you didn't follow our tracking guide, you need to know which subid you are passing your tracking software's unique subids through. Go to your offer URL in your tracking software, and check what text comes immediately before "=[[subid]]" if you're on Prosper, or "=" at the end of the URL if you're on CPVLab.
It'll either be "subid", "subid2", "subid3", "subid4", or "subid5". Paste this, surrounded by curly brackets, at the end of your postback URL - so your postback URL should end in "&subid={subid}", for example.
So, for example, if your offer URL in CPVLab is
http://someURL.com/click/?s=2331&c=6293496&subid2=Campaign14&subid3=
{subid3}
Click "Save Changes", and you're done!
And that's it!
If you have any questions or comments, please do post them below.
Network AMs and owners: if you're using a non-standard platform and you'd like to have a section in this guide for people using your network, post a guide below, and I'll link it!
Other tracking platforms: if anyone wants to write a quick tutorial for pixels and postbacks in other tracking platforms, please do post 'em below, and I'll link to them from this guide.
Hope that was helpful, and if there's anything more you'd like to know, or anything that's not clear, or that you think might be wrong, please do let me know!
Thanks to David and Sean at Adsimilis, Jaimmie at F5, and Jos at Neverblue for all their help proofreading this guide and checking that I didn't get anything wrong!
This is fucking awesome caurmen! Thank you thank you!
Now, quick question in the Neverblue part, I followed your Offer URL tutorial, so my tracking pixel should end up (Using CPVLab) http://www.mytracker.com/adclick.php&subid={subid2} or should it be http://www.mytracker.com/adclick.php&subid2={subid2} (the diference is the 2 in the subid)
Awesome post! Definitely clarified some things I didn't completely understand before.
I have a question concerning global postback URL's with PeerFly. My global postback URL from Prosper is:
http://p202site/tracking202/static/g...amount=&subid=
Peerfly says I can input the %commission% %offer% %subid1% %subid2% %subid3% variables in to this as well.
I know for my affiliate link I have s1=[[subid]] , s2=[[c1]] , s3=[[c2]] all set up; I set my c1 and c2 variables to {age:} and {state:} tokens when I got my final link.
So if I want all this information passed through to P202 how do I set up my global postback? Is all I need to do format it like this to pass all the info:
http://p202site/tracking202/static/g...subid=%subid1%
My conversions aren't firing from PeerFly as of now and my converted subid's aren't showing up in the reports section either unfortunately
@fabian - it should end up being
http://www.mytracker.com/adclick.php&subid={subid2}
@egan - Hmm, it looks like your postback link is formatted correctly. If you check your conversion reports on Peerfly, do those show subids, and if so, what do those subids look like? They should be a string of numbers, somewhere between 1 and 8 of them, like "958" or "8049471"
@caurmen : do you why cpa networks forbid using s1 as subid ?
@caurmen thanks you man, awesome!
Originally Posted by hd2010
@caurmen, i'm using a slightly different method with cpvlab, and i think i'm missing the whole point here when it comes to subid's!
by adding the subid placeholder (aff_sub=) to cpvlab postback url, and then adding this to HasOffers for example. this will return the exact subid cpvlab passes and mark the conversion in cpvlab stats report in realtime..? without me going into the network downloading the subid report and then importing the report to cpvlab..? :-)
Hi Caurmen, I'm already using p202 & NeverBlue's postback and everything is working fine.
But now i would like to add few traffic sources toward a NB offer, without going through p202 (I would like to use the traffic sources' postback and conversion reports).
How could i do that?
Great thread !
@dario - So basically you want to go Traffic-Source -> offer direct? That's probably doable, although it does depend on whether the traffic source has a conversion tracking facility - some do, some don't. Which ones were you thinking of using?
@eleadstudio - You have to format the subid parameter appropriately for your network to make sure that this works correctly, but yes, that's basically correct! If you want to post what you're currently inserting into HasOffers as a Postback URL (feel free to change your domain, of course) I can check and see if it'll work, or if you need to make any adjustments.
Hi Caurmen
This is how I'm working at the moment, everything is simple & going well.
Traffic source1 => p202 => neverblue.
Traffic source1 doesn't provide pixel or postback tracking, i have to use p202. In case of conversion, neverblue's postback triggers a conversion in p202.
I would like to achieve this in the next few days:
Traffic source1 => p202 => neverblue (as usual)
New Traffic source2 => neverblue (p202 is not mandatory, they provide tracking pixel)
New Traffic source3 => neverblue (p202 is not mandatory, they provide both tracking pixel & postback url) think for example at Sitescout
In case of conversion, how can i use neverblue's postback to trigger p202 or the right traffic source's pixel / postback URL ?
Tom from iPyxel (the man behind POFpro) has sent us a guide to Postbacks and Pixels in POFpro -
--
Getting Pixel Or Postback Code From POFpro
Getting your global tracking pixel(s) or post-back URL in POFpro is super easy.
1) Go to the "Tracking" tab in the navigation bar.
2) On that page you can retrieve 3 items: image pixel, iframe pixel, and post-back URL.
For the post-back URL, you'll want to append whatever variable contains the sub ID from the network. For example, if you sent your sub IDs to "s2" for Cake networks, then your post-back URL would look like:
Code:
http://www.domain.com/ppro/tracking/track-postback.php?amount=&subid=#s2#
Custom Payout Amounts
You can setup custom payout amounts by entering in a value for the "amount=" variable. If there is a value there, then whenever that pixel is fired, any conversions will be credited with that value as the payout. It would override the offer's default payout.
E.g. if you wanted to credit every conversion that fires this pixel with $1.50 payout, then:
Code:
http://www.domain.com/ppro/tracking/track-postback.php?amount=1.5&subid=#s2#
@dario - I think you're in luck. Neverblue have a way to assign postbacks and pixels by traffic source. I'm not 100% familiar with it myself, so I'd suggest that you contact your AM and ask them - they should be able to guide you through it. But it's definitely doable.
This should be trivial, but I can´t get my pixel to fire with PeerFly. Anyone know how to set up Peerfly with CPVLab?
PeerFly seems to be a network a lot of people use, so I'll look into getting a tutorial set up for them this week.
Right, I'm on this. Sorry about the delay - look for a guide either next week or the week after. I'll go talk to Peerfly direct and get the skinny on the right way to do everything.
hey i followed your instructions from setting up with cpvlab and this thread andi got "flagged" for excessive subids? improper use of s1 parameter in links
you can't use s1 for subid, just use s2 for subid
yep, just figured it out with my AM thanks
Aha, I'm guessing your network is using Cake? Sorry to hear about your problem!
If you're on a Cake network, MAKE SURE you're not using s1 for your unique subids - as Magnum mentions, that tends not to go down very well 
Any luck on a Guide to setup Postback with Peerfly?
I'm still having issues with it firing a conversion.
BTW I'm tracking with Prosper.
Thanks.
you're seriously amazing. thanks so much!
thank you for the valuable lesson, this definitely gave me strong understanding of tracking principles
No problem! I'm in the process of updating this guide for 2015's new trackers, too - stay tuned!
Getting Pixel Or Postback Code From [URL="http://www.thrivetracker.com/"]THRIVE[/URL]
Getting Pixel Or Postback Code From THRIVE
Getting your global tracking pixel(s) or post-back URL in THRIVE is super easy.
1) Go to the "Tracking" page from the left navigation bar.
2) On that page you can retrieve 3 items: image pixel, iframe pixel, and post-back URL.
For the post-back URL, you'll want to append whatever variable contains the sub ID from the network. For example, if you sent your sub IDs to "s2" for Cake networks, then your post-back URL would look like:
Code:
http://www.domain.com/path/postback.php?tid=&amount=&subid=#s2#
You can setup custom payout amounts by entering in a value for the "amount=" variable. If there is a value there, then whenever that pixel is fired, any conversions will be credited with that value as the payout. It would override the offer's default payout.
E.g. if you wanted to credit every conversion that fires this pixel with $1.50 payout, then:
Code:
http://www.domain.com/path/postback.php?tid=&amount=1.5&subid=#s2#
You can also do 1-click upsells by adding on additional revenue to an existing sub ID. As long as the "tid=" variable is unique for the sub ID that you're firing, then any value in the "amount=" variable will be added onto the sub ID as additional revenue.
E.g. if you wanted to convert an up-sell and add additional revenue of $5 to sub ID 12345, then you can make up a "tid=" value of "abc". As long as "tid=abc" doesn't exist yet for sub ID 12345, the additional $5 will be added to that sub ID.
Code:
http://www.domain.com/path/postback.php?tid=abc&amount=5&subid=12345
Hi,
I'm new to AM and trying to set up my first link using ClickDealer and a
http://cldlr.com/?a=22906&c=44028&s2=
http://ht8n8.voluumtrk.com/2347595b-14b5-440e-9fc7-62c99b82e245?age={age}&sex={sex}&location={locatio n}&banner={banner}&lander={lander}
It seems like both go to the site with my unique url attached, but on my
Am I missing something?
Thanks!
Have you managed to get a conversion to show up in ClickDealer's interface? If not, and you've definitely gone through the signup process to test, talk to your AM immediately and find out what's up.
If the conversion's showing up in ClickDealer but not in
can anyone help me with this as im using
Conversion tracking makes it possible for you to know which targets are producing sales or signups. These results can be seen by Campaigns, Ad groups and Targets.
To enable the Conversion tracking, place ONE of the following codes between the "<body></body>" tags on the confirmation page for a purchase or signup, or any other page you are interested in knowing where your visitors have completed an action.
Regular Pages
<img src="http://ct.adxpansion.com/conversions.php?id=XXXX8" width='1' height='1'/>
Secure Pages
<img src="https://ct.adxpansion.com/conversions.php?id=XXXX8" width='1' height='1'/>
Once conversion tracking is in place, future conversions will appear in the reports under the Conv. column for the specific campaign, ad group and target.
I got the conversion to show up in ClickDealer's interface, but not in
@gaking - are those instructions from the traffic source or aff network?
@smalcolm - sounds like you've got a postback issue, then. Did you add
@caurmen thanks - what do you mean by set the subid token to whatever clickdealer uses? Are you referring to the #s2#? Here is the Postback URL I used http://ht8n8.voluumtrk.com/postback?...payout=#price#
hi there people,
i've stopped where it says Max CPC on prosper202, what am i suppose to put there?
i saw a video from here, but it was not specific on what to insert:
If you are bidding CPM, you will need to know your average clickthrough rate or the clickthrough rate you hope
to accomplish. For example, my goal with POF campaigns is to get 0.1% CTR so I’ll put my Max CPC as the CPM I am bidding.
I'm biding 0.43 should i put that on Max CPC? what about the Tracking ID c1, what exactly is that for?
Hey all,
Does anyone know how to do it with clicksmob? they use their own system and I'm totally lost!
@solidwater - Just guess for Max CPC on Prosper. You won't actually use that setting.
@anuj92 - I'm not familiar with their system, I'm afraid. Share a few screenshots and we might be able to help you out, though - or ask your AM for assistance.
Anyone Use Maxbounty, And CPVLabs,
What is the correct image Pixel and Postback pixel url to use
For Image pixel is it
http://trk.officialdailynews.com/adclick.php?subid=
And for the offer Link I have
http://www.mb102.com/lnk.asp?o=8854&...campaign5b&s2=
is this correct?
Its for Iframe Tracking For Maxbounty.
@edric2233 - I'm not 100% sure on MaxBounty specifically. The offer link looks good, but the image pixel should probably have #s2# at the end of it.
Anything about newbidder.com i,m new here i found newbidder as tracking softwere here on STM but i don,t know how to setup postback pixel.
Can you help me @Caurmen
Great, GREAT post Caurmen!
A lot of affiliates have questions about pixels and postbacks and how to set them up.
If you run campaigns with Addiliate, please find here a step by step integration guide with FunnelFlux, Offerslook, Go2mobi,
http://support.addiliate.com
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