In the world of performance marketing, partners often want to track conversions in real-time on their end. To do so, partners provide you with their partner conversion link with which you can notify them of conversions. You can add and manage these partner conversion links in TUNE by going to Partners > Conversion Pixels / URLs.
If you’re looking for a full list of TUNE macros that can be used in partner conversion links, see our article on passing values to a partner conversion link.
This article is part of our Platform Basics series.
Concept
When the user clicks on a partner’s tracking system link, that link redirects to your network’s tracking link and independently starts a session in each system. From there, the user goes through the offer funnel, starting from the offer landing page.
If the user converts, the advertiser fires your conversion pixel/postback URL to notify you of the conversion. When this happens, the ad server checks to see if the partner attributed to that conversion has a partner conversion link saved in your platform for this offer. If so, then the ad server loads that conversion link as well, notifying the partner’s system of the conversion.
From start to finish, the entire process takes fractions of a second, in the 20-50 millisecond range.
Adding Conversion Pixels / URLs for Partners
To add a conversion pixel or URL for a partner, go to Partners > Conversion Pixels / URLs. From there, click Add Conversion Pixel/URL. Then select the Offer, Partner, and Goal (if any) that the partner pixel/URL is using.
Once you select the offer from the offers dropdown, the Type dropdown menu automatically presents you with the allowed conversion tracking types. Here’s a breakdown of what conversion tracking types are allowed based on the offer’s tracking protocol:
| Offer Tracking Protocol | Allowed Conversion Tracking Type |
|---|---|
| HTTP(S) iFrame Pixel | JavaScript/HTML code, iframe pixels, image pixels, postback URLs |
| HTTP(S) Image Pixel | Image pixels, postback URLs |
| Server Postback w/ Transaction ID | Postback URLs |
| Server Postback w/ Partner ID | Postback URLs (limited) |
For iframe and image pixel tracking offers that use secure (HTTPS) domains set in their tracking protocol, when a partner uses a pixel-based tracking protocol the partner’s domain must also be secure (use HTTPS). This is because with any pixel-based tracking, the pixel is loaded inside the offer pixel, so it too must be secure otherwise it will not track on the partner’s end.
Partners that use postback tracking must use the correct parameters to pass back any unique session values (like a “click_id”) from their end to track conversions. In most cases, session values are passed into the aff_click_id parameter of a tracking link, so the partner’s postback URL needs to include the {aff_click_id} TUNE macro:
http://track.theirnetwork.com/track?click_id={aff_click_id}
This varies by partner, so confirm that the value being passed to you matches the value being returned in the postback.
Note: Adding multiple pixels/postbacks for an offer can lead to duplicate conversions in the partner’s tracking system if pixels are identical and placed for the same partner and offer.
Adding Partner Conversion Links to Offer Goals
When an offer has multiple offer goals, you can also send partners data from their partner conversion link at these points. Partner conversion links must be added individually for each goal in an offer.
To add a partner conversion link for an offer goal, select a goal from the Goal dropdown menu when adding a partner conversion link.
Adding a Global Partner Conversion Link
To add a global partner conversion link for a partner, go to Partners > Conversion Pixels / URLs > Add Conversion Pixel / URL. Then in the dropdown menu for Offer, select “All Offers”.
Once you complete the form, any partner conversion link placed for “All Offers” will load for conversions of the specified partner.
Note: Only network employees can add global partner conversion links, so partners must have a network admin set up global partner conversion links for them.
Adding a JavaScript Pixel
If a JavaScript pixel is required and you have an iframe pixel, you can create a JavaScript pixel by placing it in JavaScript code. For example, you could use the following, replacing the bolded elements as needed:
<script type="text/javascript">//<![CDATA[
document.write('<iframe src="http://NETWORKID.go2cloud.org/aff_l?offer_id=OFFERID" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" width="1" height="1"></iframe>');
//]]></script>
Additional Considerations
When placing partner conversion links in your platform, keep these points in mind:
- Image pixels do not load dynamically (unlike iframe and JavaScript pixels), so only one image pixel can be connected to each conversion point.
- TUNE provides the default go2cloud.org tracking domain on a secure server, so you can use HTTPS pixel protocols to track offers on secure pages. To secure your custom tracking domain, reach out to your account manager. Because SSL certificates are required for secure conversion tracking, it is not sufficient to simply add the “S” to the “HTTP://”.
- Browsers can load secure content inside insecure iframe pixels, but not the other way around. Partner conversion links can be HTTPS if the tracking pixel is HTTP, but an HTTPS tracking pixel cannot use an HTTP partner conversion link.
Partners: Via the Publisher Interface
The publisher interface can also be used to add a partner conversion link. To do this, the partner can go to their Offers section and select the desired offer. In the offer, they scroll down to the section titled Your Pixels/Postbacks. When expanding the section, click Add New Pixel/Postback and a modal will appear:
In the modal, the partner can select the code type (the options in this list will depend on the tracking method set in the offer described above). Once the code type is selected, they can enter their partner conversion link and view a list of optional macros.
Networks: Approving Partner Pixels
Although publishers can add partner conversion links in the publisher interface, the links go through an approval process before becoming active.
To manually approve partner conversion links, first view pending partner conversion links by going to Partners > Conversion Pixels / URLs. Select “Show pending Conversion Pixels / URLs” in the top left, then approve or deny any pending partner conversion links.
To automatically approve pixels, first, go to Company > Customize Application > Settings > Partners. Then, set Third-Party Partner Pixels to “Auto-Approve”.
Testing Partner Pixels / URLs
Once a partner conversion link has been added to the offer, you can start testing to make sure it sends data correctly. To do so, you can refer to our documentation on testing partner pixel/postback testing.