Newbie-Friendly Explanation Of S2S Postback URLs (6)
Even with technical background I found it hard for myself to understand graphs like this:
When I saw pictures like this I was wondering - I get it, it's a complete flow but where does it start? How affiliate network is going to my tracker? What is postback? No source I've read so far on STM got it covered in straightforward way.
Let me tell it by a story:
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Campaigns are based on three pillars:
TRAFFIC SOURCE
OFFERS from AFFILIATE NETWORK
TRACKER
Those three pillars are separate companies, having no data about each other (in most cases).
Now Mr.Affiliate comes and want to make money online.
Mr.Affiliate is not stupid.
He knows that you can track campaigns.
He knows that you can optimize campaigns.
He knows that you can track conversions.
Thing is, that he does not know how to connect each of the three pillars together.
Mr.Affiliate asks for help - he wants to earn his money online but techy stuff holds him up. Mr.SuperAffiliate and Ms.SuperAffiliate give him bunch of new confusing words to remember and search in web.
Mr.SuperAffiliate and Ms.SuperAffiliate are both launching campaigns for such a long time that they are setting everything on autopilot and could do it by now blindfolded. Good for them, not so good for Mr.Affiliate.
Mr.Affiliate is even more lost right now.
Then he decides to split it into smallest pieces possible - Keep It Stupid Simple
He does not need flow graphs.
He need to understand everything, step by step.
Starting from the Affiliate Network -
He figured out that affiliate network is a place to look for offers to promote and each offer have their own URL - he slowly scribbles "Affiliate Network - Offer - OFFER URL" in his notebook.
When clicking through affiliate network links Mr.Affiliate notices something that Mr.SuperAffiliate and Ms.SuperAffiliate mentioned before - input for global postback.
He is still not quite sure what exactly it is but again, scribbles it in his notebook "Affiliate Network have input for S2S GLOBAL POSTBACK URL"
Then he goes to Traffic Source -
First thing that Mr.Affiliate sees is the New Campaign button.
He clicks it and he lands on a form that have some other URL - Mr.Affiliate opens his notebook and scribbles "Traffic Source - Campaign - CAMPAIGN URL".
Mr.Affiliate is not quite sure yet how to set up campaign so he decides to click around the platform and to his biggest surprise he yet again lands on a page with global postback, but something is different, there is no input there, only a link he can copy/paste.
Mr.Affiliate yet again opens his notebook and scribbles "Traffic Source have S2S GLOBAL POSTBACK URL link that I can copy"
Lastly, he goes to Tracker -
He look at his tracker as a middleman that collect every possible detail about traffic (traffic source) and conversions (affiliate network).
He can set up both there but Mr.Affiliate is still so much lost.
But then, he opens his notebook yet again and reads everything that he wrote there so far.
"Okay" - he thinks - "Let's see how I can connect everything I wrote so far with my tracker".
Mr.Affiliate clicks Affiliate Network tab on his tracker, he sees that he can add his network there.
Mr.Affiliate is using one of predefined networks so he select it from the list and a url appears - S2S Postback URL - something clicks for our Mr.Affiliate - "I already have that noted in my notebook!".
He double checks if his postback URL have 2 fields, one for clickid and other for payout and copies that url from his tracker and paste it directly in Affiliate Network, in the S2S Global Postback input that he found out before.
Next, he goes to traffic source tab in his tracker and add his traffic source.
And again, something clicks - there is input for S2S Postback on his tracker - "I can paste here the link that I saw before on my traffic source!" - Mr.Affiliate logs in to his traffic source, copy S2S Postback URL and paste it into his tracker, to the traffic source he just created.
"Did I just connect everything together? I finally start to understand what Mr.SuperAffiliate and Ms.SuperAffiliate told me." - Mr.Affiliate thought.
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Explanation
EVERY campaign can be split into two flows USER FLOW and DATA EXCHANGE FLOW (i made that flows up, it's just to give you better understanding).
Both flows must be executed to track everything correctly and USER FLOW must be completed (conversion) to start DATA EXCHANGE FLOW.
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USER FLOW - it is directly affecting the users that you point traffic to. This flow is represented by the blue arrows on the graph image linked above.
DATA EXCHANGE FLOW - it happens in the background, after conversion is made on the offer page. This flow is represented by the red arrows on the graph image linked in this post.
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USER FLOW: traffic source redirects user to CAMPAIGN URL -> tracker checks campaign settings and determine which lander should it point user at -> redirect user to LANDER URL -> user interacts with lander and clicks CTA -> redirect user to CLICK URL -> tracker checks which offer should it redirect user to -> redirect user to OFFER URL -> user makes action - submits email, address, CC numbers etc -> Conversion
If you want to get better general understanding of this flow and Campaigns, Offers and Landing Page URLs go HERE
If it comes to details and nuances of setting up campaigns it's best to follow Amy's 40 day guide as it's got everything covered.
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DATA EXCHANGE FLOW: Conversion -> Affiliate Network is noticed about conversion -> Affiliate Network executes Tracker S2S Postback URL -> clickid and payout is passed to Tracker -> Tracker executes Traffic Source S2S Postback URL -> clickid and payout is passed to Traffic Source
DATA EXCHANGE FLOW is happening in the background, AFTER CONVERSION IS MADE and like the name suggest it exists only to exchange conversion details (payout, clickid) between services.
S2S Postback = Service 2 Service Postback. Services in that case are: Affiliate Network, Tracker, Traffic Source.
In real-life both flows are connected together and one results from the other, so in order to exchange any data between services (DATA EXCHANGE FLOW) there must be data to exchange, so user needs to make conversion first (USER FLOW).
So, after concatenating both flows we end up with this super long flow that is happening each time someone converts:
traffic source redirects user to CAMPAIGN URL -> tracker checks campaign settings and determine which lander should it point user at -> redirect user to LANDER URL -> user interacts with lander and clicks CTA -> redirect user to CLICK URL -> tracker checks which offer should it redirect user to -> redirect user to OFFER URL -> user makes action - submits email, address, CC numbers etc -> Conversion -> Affiliate Network is noticed about conversion -> Affiliate Network executes Tracker S2S Postback URL -> clickid and payout is passed to Tracker -> Tracker executes Traffic Source S2S Postback URL -> clickid and payout is passed to Traffic Source
But how exactly we know which person converted when and what device, isp, browser etc he or she used? We only pass clickid and payout so what kind of mysterious magic is happening in the background?
This my dear reader, will be covered in the next post. Stay tuned.
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Part 1: Basic Campaign + Offers + Landing Pages Explained
Part 2: Newbie-Friendly Explanation Of S2S Postback URLs
Part 3: TBA
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Resources worth reading:
Day 14 of Amy's 40 Day Guide: Understanding Tracking
Quick disclaimer: I copied graph image from the recent zeropark post about postbacks -
https://stmforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49272
If you are newbie that are just getting started with AM - I hope that this post will help you to set everything up properly
Sent from my iPhone using STM Forums mobile app
Missed this! Nice one @plutus! Can't believe you're taking the time to create all these valuable posts! I wished I had your technical know-how - especially when it comes to coding. 
Amy
@vortex And it´s great to have it from a beginner for beginners.
You know, talking the same language so maybe easier to understand for some 
Originally Posted by vortex
Amy
. I see a lot of room for improvements to make beginner’s journey so much less complicated. I’ll try to post one big thing/month if time will let me. I hope it will. I won’t spoil details yet, stay tuned. New thing is coming tommorow Sent from my iPhone using STM Forums mobile app
Thanks for your valuable post plutus!
Making money as a new affiliate takes some trial and error, and while you may hit upon the winning formula early on and be banking significant sums of money within your first month, it is also a learning process, which may take some time to turn into profit. It`s so great to have a such STM guides like this to make beginner’s journey less complicated!
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