Postbacks without losses: how to connect your tracker and the network

A postback is a server-to-server notification about a conversion. When a player registers or deposits, the affiliate network sends a request to your tracker's address saying: this action happened on this click. Without a postback your tracker sees clicks but not results, and you have to calculate campaign ROI by hand.

Setting it up does not take long, but mistakes are expensive: conversions get lost, campaigns are switched off on wrong data, and reconciliation turns into an argument. Here is how the connection works and what to check before sending traffic.

Two lanes of data#

A postback has two directions, and both must work.

• Out: your tracker passes a click ID into the offer link. This unique tag later points back to the source, campaign and creative.

• Back: having received a conversion, the network sends a request to your tracker's address with the same ID, a status and, if needed, the payout amount.

If the ID is lost at the first step, the second cannot fix it: the network does not know which click the conversion belongs to.

What to set up in the tracker#

In the offer link, the click ID is inserted with a tracker macro into a parameter the network accepts. In Keitaro, for example, the click tag is the {subid} macro, and in the offer link it goes into one of the network's sub parameters, say sub1.

Then you take the address for incoming postbacks from the tracker. In Keitaro it looks roughly like this: your tracker's address, a secret key, then postback and the subid, status and payout parameters. You will enter this address in the network's dashboard.

What to set up in the network's dashboard#

An affiliate dashboard usually has a postback section: you paste the tracker's address there and use dashboard macros instead of fixed values. They insert the click ID from that sub parameter, the conversion status and the payout. Check the exact macro names in the dashboard's postback section or ask your manager: they differ between platforms.

Agree separately on which events to send (deposits only, or registrations too) and whether repeat postbacks will be sent when a status changes, for example when an action is approved or rejected after review.

Statuses and payouts#

Your tracker needs to know not only that a conversion happened but also its status. In Keitaro, for example, the main statuses are lead, sale and rejected. Map them to the network's statuses: what counts as a lead, what as an approved action, what as a rejection.

Pass the payout amount if it is known: the tracker will then calculate ROI per campaign itself. If the payout changes after review, a repeat postback with the new status and amount keeps your reports in line.

How to check the connection before launch#

• Make a test click on your campaign and make sure the ID reached the network in the right sub parameter.

• Ask your manager to send a test conversion for that click.

• Check the incoming postback log in your tracker: the request arrived, the ID matched, the status and amount were recognised.

• Only then send traffic.

A test conversion is the cheapest way to find a mistake, and it does so before any budget goes through the connection.

Common mistakes#

• The ID is passed into the wrong parameter, or not passed at all.

• The postback URL contains spaces or unescaped characters.

• The network sends postbacks to an old or test tracker address.

• Statuses are not mapped, and rejected actions are counted as sales.

• One conversion arrives twice, and the tracker does not filter duplicates.

• Reports are compared in different time zones or currencies.

Reconciling the tracker and the dashboard#

Even with a correct setup, numbers in the tracker and the dashboard may differ: some actions are still under review, some are rejected later. Reconcile closed periods and by status, not raw events from today. If a difference cannot be explained by statuses, collect the click IDs and pass them to your manager.

At JUS, full statistics are available in the affiliate dashboard, and your manager helps set up the postback and run a test conversion. Write to the team if you want to check your setup before launch.