Ask Me Anything Mastering Tokens with your Tracker

[LandingTrack]

As many affiliates ask and would like to know, we thought this guide can be useful


1- Postbacks Advertiser / Aff. Network
2- Postback Traffic Source.
3- Campaign URL Tokens
4- Campaign URL Parameters
5- Advertising URL Tokens
6- Advertising URL Parameters

LandingTrack would like to help you to make things easier for everyone.

Let's get started.

1- Postbacks for Your Advertiser/Aff. Network: (You are the affiliate/tracker)
This a common Postback: " http://yourdomainw.com/postback.php?sid={clickid}&payout={payout} "

Remember that it might be different depending on the Tracker you use but mainly get the following concept:
Parameters: every FIX value before the "="
For the Postback above: sid= & payout= . The Parameter belongs to you, to your tracker. This means that nobody should replace those values.

Token: every dynamic after the "=".
For the Postback above: {clickid} and {payout}. The TOKENS belongs to your Advertiser so only they will know which values should be replaced there.


2- Postback Traffic Source. (Traffic Source will be the affiliate)
It is exactly the same concept but now - You or your tracker is the Advertiser / Affiliate Network to your Traffic Source.

Example:
For the Postback above: sid= & payout= . The Parameter belongs to Traffic Source. This means that nobody should replace those values.
For the Postback above: {clickid} and {payout}. The TOKENS belongs to you NOW, so only you will know which values should be replaced there. (Documentation can be found at any tracker)

Simple Right?


3 & 4- Campaign URL Tokens & Campaign URL Parameters (You are the affiliate/tracker)

As we have mentioned before, we should apply the same logic for the -- Postback for Your Advertiser/Aff. Network: (You are the affiliate/tracker) --
In this case only you, Affiliate/tracker know the Parameters from your platform.

We should be able to append each TOKEN to your Parameters

Example:
Your Parameters from a Tracking Platform can be: You know them

&pid= - Used it to generate the ClickID provided by your Traffic Source Visit
&source= - SourceID provided by your Traffic Source Visit
&bid= - Used it to generate the ClickID provided by your Traffic Source Visit
&banner= - Used it to collect the BannerID provided by your Traffic Source Visit
&data1= - Used it to collect any information provided by your Traffic Source Visit - OS - BROWSER - etc..
&data2= - Used it to collect any information provided by your Traffic Source Visit - OS - BROWSER - etc..

And so on..
And the Tokens only the Traffic Source knows them.

Parameter Token
&pid= {clickid}
&source= {pubid}
&bid= {cost}
&banner= {banner_id}
&data1= {os}
&data2= {browser}


So your Tracking URL should look like (Remember Tokens belongs to Traffic source so it will be different) : &source={zoneid}&banner={bannerid}&bid={cost}&pid=${SUBID}&data1={osversion}&data2={browser}&data3={carrier}&data4={os}&data5={device}


And this will be placed on your Traffic Source once you are creating the campaign.

As soon as you receive a visit it will look like: &source=363940493&banner=849310&bid=0.0038&pid=7625844402908978&data1=Android+7.x+Mob&data2=Chrome+62&data3=djezzy&data4=Android&data5=Mobile

Not that hard isn't?



5 & 6 - Advertising URL Tokens & Advertising URL Parameters

Right the opposite as point the -- Campaign URL Tokens & Campaign URL Parameters --
Parameters - Only the Advertiser/Aff. Network knows the Parameters of the Offer URL
Tokens - Only you /tracker know the Tokens to be replaced or added.

What usually happens with Advertiser / Aff. Netwokr is that they share with you an Offer URL without any guide

Example: " http://imano.mobi/pt/lp?lpid=jIPxkbsdwOW3X "
Not really clear for anyone right? The only conclusion here so far is:
lpid= - is a Parameter
jIPxkbsdwOW3X - is TOKEN.

The first thing to do before the panic, ask your advertiser: "Hey, what parameter do you use for ClickID? ", "also do you need me to share with you the sourceID? so which parameter do you use?"

They will reply: "Hi there, mmmmmm 'cid' is our Parameter for clickid and 'affiliate_source' is the one for sourceID!" ( This is just an example)

Job done, get back to your Tracker and finish the job: http://imano.mobi/pt/lp?lpid=jIPxkbsdwOW3X&cid={ClickID}&affiliate_source={pubID} (This is just an example)



--What if we want to share some data from the Traffic Source Tokens to our Advertisers/ Aff. Networks?

Do you remember the URL we have used before for the Traffic Source? : &source={zoneid}&banner={bannerid}&bid={cost}&pid=${SUBID}&data1={osversion}&data2={browser}&data3={carrier}&data4={os}&data5={device}

So, if we want to share those Tokens (Information) we just need to add them to our Advertising Offer:


Offer URL: http://imano.mobi/pt/lp?lpid=jIPxkbsdwOW3X&cid={ClickID}&affiliate_source={pubID}

But we do not have the parameters - Ask the advertiser first and after getting the answer:

Offer URL:
http://imano.mobi/pt/lp?
lpid=jIPxkbsdwOW3X&cid={ClickID}&affiliate_source={pubID}&osversion={data1}&br={data2}&cr={data3}&os={data4} etc..

So each conversion on the Advertiser/Aff. Network Platform will be as follow: http://imano.mobi/pt/lp?lpid=jIPxkbsdwOW3X&cid={ClickID}&affiliate_source=363940493&osversion=Android+7.x+Mob&br=Chrome+62&cr=djezzy&os=Android


Now we have almost the full circle of Tracking a URL, if you have doubts, ask and post your thoughts

 

[Graybeard]

Query string - Wikipedia
Anyway, this is correct (in a convoluted way) but of course the mathematical definition of Convolution
is maybe more interesting

I guess;

1. No one has said a word here because they are doing Black Friday and saving oodles of money LOL
2. Everyone understands this 100%
3. The peeps are staring at this thread like a deer in the road at night staring at the oncoming truck traveling at highway speed

Thank you for taking the time and making the effort to explain as best you can ...

 

[T J Tutor]

This is great!

Newbies are always thinking this is convoluted and difficult science when in fact it is just another simple recipe that becomes second nature once one walks themselves through it with a guide like this. Once a Newbie follows instructions like this 3 or 4 times, they'll need little in the way of instructions after.

Earlier this year I made a bechamel with an onion clout for shrimp and crabmeat crepes, a gremolata topping, and salade de chou. We shared the meal with some close friends. One of them was learning to cook (a retired NYC lawyer that never cooked). I walked her through the recipe that day, she called me two weeks later asking me to walk her through it on Skype. That's all she needed, another walk through. She invited us to dinner this past week and served that same meal and declared she and her family has had this several times since learning the recipe. IT ONLY TOOK 2 WALKTHROUGHS! She nailed it!

It's the same with tracking, a recipe and a walkthrough. All Newbies need is a couple of hand holding walkthroughs to get it it embedded and retained. I wish more of the tracker reps here would take the time to do this, this is a valuable contribution. This is the kind of stuff that gets the attention of members and builds brand loyalty with the reps that take the time to do this.

Thanks!

 

[LandingTrack]

Completely agree with you @Graybeard and @tjtutor ; What we have observed is that there is a huge problem of understanding when it comes to Postbacks, Offer URL and Campaign URL. After all, it is quite important to at least understand what is a Parameter on any URL. And what is a TOKEN (Also known as MACRO) perhaps it might have more names but we think it is better to get stick to 1 or 2 names so there is no confusion. Affiliate Marketing is a small world so we somehow can narrow the terms it will be much easier for everyone to understand the concept and workflow.
Let's wait for the community to ask questions. Once the finish the Black Friday period

 

[Graybeard]

I am more familiar with the word 'token' being used in creating a fictional character-set that would match some attribute like a customer's credit card for a session.

The referred person's IP time URI(page/image) requests are always in your server's access log looking up hostnames is trivial for me based in a person's IP ...

Trackers are just elaborate counting programs and you need to assign {somehow} values as tokens.