You can migrate from another tracking system without interruption by adding TUNE to your current traffic funnel. Take the steps below to add TUNE tracking information to your existing system and to track stats in both systems during the transition.
Warning: Performing steps out of order can result in tracking discrepancies between the two systems.
This article is part of our Background & Setup series.
Step 1: Import Data Into TUNE
Start by importing data from your old system to TUNE. This must be done in the following order:
If you’re unfamiliar with the procedure for importing data, take the steps provided in the above articles.
You can add TUNE parameters and macros as needed for each offer URL when importing offers.
When importing partners, use “pending” to indicate the status of partner accounts. Partners won’t need to log in to their interface until you set up click and conversion tracking. To see your pending partners in TUNE, go to Partners > Pending Partners.
2. Set up a TUNE Postback URL
The next step is to set up a TUNE postback URL. We’ll do so by modifying your old system’s global postback URL.
In your old system, find the global postback URL, which should look something like this:
http://tracking.oldnetwork.com/track?click={SESSION_ID}&subid={SUB_ID}
Each tracking platform has its own fields in the global postback URL to uniquely identify sessions and accept additional parameters. Common names for those fields are click ID and sub ID, respectively. If the field that accepts additional parameters is missing, add it to the URL.
Copy your old system’s global postback URL to a text editor. Replace the session ID value with “{aff_click_id}“, and the additional parameter value with “{transaction_id}“. Later in the process, TUNE uses these macros to dynamically insert session ID values generated by your old system and TUNE-generated transaction ID values.
The modified version of your old system’s global postback should look something like this:
http://tracking.oldnetwork.com/track?click={aff_click_id}&subid={transaction_id}
Now in TUNE, go to Company > Customize Application > Settings > Tracking and set the Network Postback URL setting to “Enabled.” Type or paste your modified global postback URL in the box that appears. Once you’re finished, click Save. TUNE is now set up to pass each system’s session identifier to your old system on conversion.
3. Update Advertiser Conversion Pixels / URLs
Because we want to make stats visible in both systems during your transition, the next step is to update your conversion pixels/URLs on the advertiser side.
To find the TUNE conversion pixel/URL for an offer, first, go to Offers > Manage Offers and select the offer. Then, in the Details panel, click Tracking at the top. The conversion pixel/URL for the offer is on the following page.
If your offer has goals set up, find the Payout panel on the offer’s page instead. You can find the conversion pixel/URL for each goal by clicking on the name of the goal.
Once you have your offer's conversion pixel/URL, contact your advertiser directly and provide them with the information they need. For advertisers you run multiple offers from, consider setting up a global postback URL to reduce the number of conversion pixels/URLs that need to be changed.
Passing back values on conversion (like a sale amount or session IP) requires adding those parameters to the TUNE conversion pixels/URLs. If you’re unfamiliar with passing values between systems, read our article on Parameters & Macros in TUNE.
Before going forward, make sure all offers fire conversions properly. If they do, TUNE successfully tracks conversions and passes them to your old system.
4. Connect Offers and Partners
Now that both systems see conversions, let’s connect offers and partners between the two systems. For this process, we use your old system’s reference ID field for offers and partners. Start by getting the name and ID values for the offers and partners in your TUNE platform.
Go to Company > Customize Application, then download your offer and partner files from the Import Data panel. Find the name and ID values for both offers and partners from the downloaded CSV files.
Next, insert TUNE offer and partner IDs into your old system as reference ID values for each offer and partner. This step may take a while, as it is a manual process.
Example: In TUNE, the “Free Breadsticks for Life” offer has an offer ID of “1234”. In your old system, you enter “1234” as the reference ID for that offer.
5. Put TUNE Tracking Links in the Old System
Once all reference IDs are updated, you can use the same TUNE tracking link for every default offer URL in your old system. However, the tracking link must incorporate macros to dynamically insert the offer and partner ID.
First, follow the usual steps for generating a tracking link in TUNE and copy the tracking link into a text editor. Your tracking link will look something like this:
http://yournetwork.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=75&aff_id=1005&aff_click_id=AFF_CLICK_ID
Find the offer_id, aff_id, and aff_click_id parameters in your TUNE tracking link. If your tracking link doesn’t include the aff_click_id parameter, add it.
In your tracking link, the associated value for each parameter follows an equal sign. Replace those values with your old system’s macros. Each tracking platform calls macros differently, so find the macros relevant to your needs.
For the three parameters mentioned above, insert your old system’s macros for offer reference ID, partner reference ID, and session ID:
http://yournetwork.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id={OFFER_REF_ID}&aff_id={AFFILIATE_REF_ID}&aff_click_id={SESSION_ID}
Using these macros, each session in TUNE can be referenced to the corresponding session in your old system by offer ID, partner ID, and session ID.
Once you’re done creating your tracking link, use it as the default offer URL for all offers in your old system.
6. Transition Partners to TUNE
The final step is to move partners to TUNE tracking links. Active partners can access offers and get tracking links through their TUNE partner interface.
To set partners as active in TUNE, go to Partners > Pending Partners. Then, approve the partners that you want to set as active.
Once approved, partners can exclusively use their TUNE tracking links. Your migration to TUNE is complete when all partners use TUNE tracking links and the old system no longer needs to redirect traffic.
After the migration, you can still use the Network Postback URL feature in TUNE to track in both systems if necessary. Otherwise, you can disable it. To do so, go to Company > Customize Application > Settings > Tracking and set the Network Postback URL to “Disabled.”