Laurent Malka
January 13, 2022
Frequently Asked Questions
Postback URL popular questions answered
A Postback URL is a kind of URL that points to a conversion tracking server or ad network conversion API endpoint.
The URL isa conversion tracking server will call when a conversion occurs in order to notify a partner or an other tracking server of the conversion event. The postback URL carries query strings and parameters which can be ingested by the receiving server to receive rich or micro data associated with the conversion.
In a scenario where an affiliate marketer sends traffic to an affiliate offer, the tracking flow will work according to the following process:
Prerequisites:
- An Affiliate Tracking Software: A software like Anytrack that the affiliate marketer uses.
- An affiliate management software: A software like Tune or Cake, that enables merchants to manage their affiliate program.
The Postback tracking flow:
1. The flows starts when a visitor clicks on the affiliate offer link.
2. Upon the click, the affiliate tracking software does a few things:
- Generate and record a unique
dynamic_valuesuch as1a2b3c4d - Append the
dynamic_valueto the offer linksubidparameter.
https://example.com?affId=xyz&subid=1a2b3c4d
3. The Affiliate Network server will capture and store the subid=dynamic_value parameter.
4. Upon conversion, the Affiliate network server will make a POST request to the affiliate tracking software’s postback url
https://anytrack.io/p?click_id=1a2b3c4d&sum=105. When the affiliate tracking software postback URL is called, it will record the event and attribute it to the initial click using the 1a2b3c4d value.
6. Finally, the affiliate tracking software adds the conversion data to its reports.
Note: The affiliate tracking software can also forward the conversion data to third party systems for further analysis or attribution.
A postback request occurs between two servers, and is meant to tie conversion events happening in the Sending Server, with web or mobile engagements events happening on the receiving server.
1. The Sending server: A server where the conversion event takes place. Usually an affiliate network’s server, ecommerce platform, or merchant.
2. The receiving server: A server that can ingest the conversion data.
Whenever an event such as a purchase happens on the Sending Server, the server will send a POST or GET request to the “postback URL” provided by the receiving server.
Upon receiving the purchase event data, the server will send a response to the sending server to inform it that the data was received with or without errors.
- Server to Server tracking (Cake)
- S2S pixel
- Server-side tracking
- Conversion URL
- Webhook URL (Zapier, Integromat)
- Event Notification URL (impact, Rakuten)
- Server side pixel tracking
- Callback URL (Maxbounty)
S2S tracking stands for Server to Server tracking and is an other name for Postback URL tracking.
How to get your postback url in Here are the steps to get a postback URL
1. Login to your AnyTrack account.
2. Select the integrations you would like to track conversions from.
3. Copy the predefined postback URL:
https://t1.anytrack.io/xxx/
collect/nordvpn?aff_click_id={aff_click_id}&offer_id={offer_id}&offer_name={offer_name}&offer_ref={offer_ref}&goal_id={goal_id}&affiliate_id={affiliate_id}&payout={payout}
4. Now paste the postback url in your affiliate account.
Note: These instructions are specific to AnyTrack.
A Postback URL is usually provided by your conversion tracking software.
Global PostbackURL are used to trigger conversions globally, as opposed to specific to a conversion goal, product or offer.
Typically, if you promote multiple offers from an affiliate network, you will want to use a global postback url to track conversions from all offers, instead of using a specific postback url for each offer.
Yes. However, it requires some understanding of how webhook providers work. You can check the post on how to track conversions with webhooks.
Postback URLs enable affiliate marketers to track, attribute, receive, and send conversion data from and to third party systems.
By leveraging the conversion data, affiliate marketers can optimize their campaigns, improve their content.
No, Google Ads doesn’t provide a postback URL. The only way to send conversions to Google Ads is through the Offline Conversion API, the GTag conversion tag, or Google Analytics.