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Can I track links from my affiliate network even though they're "encrypted"? (8)

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Hi all,

I'm trying to understand how tracking works and I've read lots of threads about this but most of the examples that are given show the affiliate links like this >>> http://ubernetwork.com/?a=1431&c=2114&s1= <<< (took this example link from Caurmen threads about understanding tracking)

The link i get from my affiliate network is like this NSFW>>> http://frtya.com/go/btbDW_rvQN/DEFAULT <<<NSFW This is a CrakRevenue link, btw. On their homepage they state that their affiliate links are "encrypted" (http://www.crakrevenue.com/about-tools) I'm guessing this is just a fancy word for shortened?

How would I go about adding the "name=values" to the link? Do I just add "?name=value&name=value" at the end of my link? The "DEFAULT" text on my link can be changed to anything on the CrakRevenue page btw.

It's 9 pm on Sunday so I can't message my AM on CrakRevenue about this, but I will tomorrow morning. I'm just trying to understand how these trackers work. I'll be tracking the links using Voluum.

Any help with this is greatly appreciated!!

Thanks.

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I asked CrakRevenue support about this and they weren't much help, their answers only raised more questions for me. But I don't know much about tracking so I didn't know what to ask them exactly.

If anyone can provide private support through DM I'll gladly sign up to Voluum under your affiliate link.

Thanks.

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Hi Victor,

CrakRevenue support here. We're sorry that there's been some confusion regarding this. Hopefully we can clear things up today.

About the tracking --
We don't really work with external tracking software at the moment.

We do, however, offer advanced & detailed tracking through your CrakRevenue link.

For instance, the "/DEFAULT" part of your link IS your tracker. You would simply replace '/DEFAULT' with a custom tracker, maybe '/Dec2015_top' etc.

So, your link is going to look something like this:
NSFW - frtya.com/go/btbDW_rvQN/any_tracker_can_be_entered_here

In the 'Statistics' tab of your CrakRevenue account, you'll then be able to search this custom tracker you entered and view total uniques sent, leads, ratios, EPC, and total income earned on any particular campaign.

If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Hope this helps!

Best regards,
The CrakRevenue Team

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Hello, I'm sure you do support postback functionality tho, right? And that's all he needs from you to use his own tracker.
Just tell him what parameter you need him to use to pass the click ID to you and help him structure the postback.


Tracking is confusing at the begining, but its actually quite an easy process. Let me explain it in the very simplest way I can. Every click you send to an offer via your tracking, lets use Voluum as an example here, is assigned a unique click ID. This ID is actually the only variable you need to transfer to the affiliate network (unless they literaly ask for more). Voluum stores this click ID in their DB with all the info it knows about the particular click. Once you make a conversion, the affiliate network uses the postback url, to send the click ID of the click that made the conversion back to Voluum. So now Voluum knows what click made the conversion.

And now you can use the reports in Voluum to see where the click came from, what banner was it, what spot ... all the info that Voluum has stored about the click that converted. The amount of info stored for each clicks depends on how many dynamic or custom tokens you have setup for that particular traffic source in voluum. This is different from network to network, some are predefined in Voluum already so you just pick what you want to track from a list. All the set tokens will be part of the link that you put into the traffic source, so the link that the surfers go to once they click your banners.

Since crakrevenue is an adult aff network, Im sure you use exoclick so lets use them as an example, the voluum link with set parameters will look like this :
http://www.somedomain.com/960tsdfsb0e-d5321-49f0-a031-59c1e8049c45?ad={variation_id}&sitename={src_hostn ame}&zone={zone_id}
These are all dynamic tokens that exoclick supports, they have more then these 3. In this case, Voluum will store this info for each click : exoclick's ID of the banner, site that the click came from and ID of the zone on the site.

EDIT : I forgot about the encrypted part. This is a common practice in the adult biz, mostly connected with the use of NATS tracking platform, which is kinda like the standard used by most paysite programs. What it does, is "hiding and shortening" the affiliate information by encrypting it into a chain of characters. When unecrypted the link would show the affiliate ID, type of programs (revshare/PPS), campaign name etc... the link would also be longer.

Did I help you at least a bit?

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Hi matuloo,

Generally speaking, we do not openly support Postback tracking.

We can in special cases offer it on a case-by-case basis, if the traffic volume and earnings justify it. It's something we'd have to set up manually.

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Maybe you should reconsider this, speaking from my own point of view, I would not start working with a network that doesnt offer postbacks.
I know you originally targeted site owners as affiliates you want to work with, and its true they dont care all that much about tracking, I've been running adult sites for more than a decade so I know this firsthand
But in the world of media buys, its absolutely crucial to have the postback functionality.

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Thanks for your help, guys.

Since the time I asked this question, I've learned a bit more about tracking. I now understand the basics of tracking, but thank you for your reply, Matuloo.

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You're welcome

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