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Network-Wide Tracking Settings

Updated

You can access your network-wide tracking settings by going to Company > Customize Application > Settings > Tracking. Below, we provide brief explanations of each setting on that page.

Proactive Click Fraud Prevention

When enabled, this setting rejects clicks marked as suspicious by the TUNE fraud database (powered by Fraudlogix). Rejected clicks redirect to a blank page and are not eligible for attribution. Clicks matching known sources of fraud are marked as suspicious even if they are not rejected. You can exclude individual offers from this setting from the Offer Tracking Settings page.

TUNE uses the same fraud reason codes as Fraudlogix:

  • Non-Human Scripts: Browser or server that made calls without declaring itself as a bot, instead declaring a valid user agent without a real human user.
  • Bot Generated: The device was modified to call HTML or make ad requests while not under the control of a user (typically without the device owner’s consent).
  • Basic Fraud: Bot or person that repeatedly visited a domain to count multiple impressions, typically under the same IP address.
  • Spoofed: Bot or person that forged their browser’s user agent string.
  • Bad IP Reputation: IP with a historical reputation of being associated with fake, non-human traffic and malicious or compromised devices.
  • Data Center IP: IP from a data center that doesn’t forward real traffic.

Note that we choose not to expose to partners why something gets flagged. This is to prevent potential bad actors from figuring out how to mask fraudulent behavior.

Non-Unique Click Attribution

When enabled, this setting forwards users from non-unique clicks directly to the Preview URL and attributes conversions only using unique clicks. TUNE determines click uniqueness using a session cookie in the user’s browser. You can opt individual offers into this behavior from the Offer Tracking Settings page.

Click Metrics

Set the default click statistic to either all clicks (every click on a partner tracking link) or unique clicks (by a visitor). The click column in reports will be determined by this setting. Partners only have access to clicks while employees have access to clicks, gross clicks, and unique clicks. Gross clicks are higher than unique clicks by a visitor clicking on the tracking link more than once. Setting click metrics to display unique clicks can cause CPC, RPC, CTR, etc. to be higher than if clicks were set to all clicks since they are generally fewer unique clicks than all clicks.

Click Display

Allow partners to access statistics for only gross (all) clicks, unique clicks, or both gross and unique clicks. If set to both gross and unique clicks, partners will have both gross clicks and unique clicks in their reports.

Conversion Approval

A feature that can be enabled by offers requires advertisers or employees to approve conversions before partners are credited. Pending conversions are displayed and can be approved in the Conversion Report.

Conversion Management

Feature to add and remove leads from statistics by the partner and offer. Empower selected employees to have permission to Adjust Conversions as well.

Encrypt Tracking Links

Force all partner tracking links to be generated encrypted using a hash – tiny / shortened URLs. Note that encrypted tracking links take about one minute to be loaded into the ad server after generating the link.

Encrypt Conversion URLs

A feature that can be enabled by an offer to force its conversion tracking URL to be encrypted. By using this setting the conversion URLs will include an encrypted hash rather than the offer ID. This helps prevent fraud as partners can’t easily know the URL to record false conversions.

Transaction ID Value

Options to change how your network generates transaction ID values. More information on this setting can be found in our About Transaction IDs article.

Alphanumeric Transaction IDs

Feature to make your transaction IDs alphanumeric. More information on this setting can be found in our About Transaction IDs article.

Default Redirect URL

Using this setting, you can specify another site to send traffic to if there are no valid offer URLs to use. To do so, set this to “Enabled” and enter the URL of that site in the new Default Redirect URL field that appears. Include any protocol identifiers at the beginning of the URL, like http:// or https://.

Traffic is directed to the Default Redirect URL in these cases:

  • Partner doesn’t have the approval to run an offer
  • The offer is paused and has no redirect offer
  • The offer is expired and has no redirect offer
  • Offer exceeds a cap and has no redirect offer

For more on when the Default Redirect URL is used, see the Redirect Flow section of our Conversion & Budget Caps article.

Global Click Macro

Track all clicks through a third-party system by enabling Click Macro. You can include either {redirect} or {eredirect} in the Click Macro URL to redirect clicks to another tracking system. The {redirect} macro is replaced by the non-encoded offer URL, and the {eredirect} macro includes the URL-encoded offer URL. If there is a query string in the click macro URL, we recommend using an encoded redirect. If you omit these redirect parameters, our ad server will do a Server Response to the provided Click Macro URL for each click.

Some macros can be included in the Global Click Macro URL and are replaced automatically by the ad servers. These macros are:

  • {redirect} – Offer URL for the click
  • {eredirect} – URL-encoded Offer URL for the click
  • {affiliate_id} – ID of the partner promoting the offer
  • {aff_sub} – Partner sub ID value passed in via partner tracking link
  • {source} – Partner source value passed in via partner tracking link
  • {offer_id} – ID of the offer
  • {offer_url_id} – ID of the offer URL used
  • {advertiser_id} – ID of the advertiser for the offer
  • {country_code} – User’s country code (ISO 2-letter code, i.e. US)
  • {params} – If the Custom Variables option above is enabled, {params} will be replaced by the extra variables passed by the partner into the partner tracking link
  • {transaction_id} – Transaction number used to verify individual leads, to enable cookieless client-based tracking, or when server response tracking is required
  • {offer_ref} – Reference ID of the offer
  • {affiliate_ref} – Reference ID of the partner promoting the offer
  • {advertiser_ref} – Reference ID of the advertiser of the offer

Example Click Macro URL that uses {eredirect}:

http://www.hasdemo.com/clickmacro.php?url={eredirect}

Network Postback URL

Option for networks to enable a network postback URL. This URL will always be called on conversion, and the URL supports dynamic variables. For shared offers, both the shared brand and parent brand URLs are called on conversion.

Macros can be included in the Network Postback URL and are replaced automatically by the ad servers. These macros are:

  • {aff_sub} – Partner sub ID
  • {aff_sub2} – Partner sub ID 2
  • {aff_sub3} – Partner sub ID 3
  • {aff_sub4} – Partner sub ID 4
  • {aff_sub5} – Partner sub ID 5
  • {adv_sub} – Advertiser sub ID
  • {source} – Partner source value
  • {payout} – Partner’s offer payout
  • {offer_id} – Offer ID of the offer
  • {transaction_id} – Transaction ID of the record
  • {ran} – A random number
  • {session_ip} – IP address on the click
  • {ip} – IP address on the conversion
  • {goal_id} – If the offer has a goal, the goal’s identifier number
  • {sale_amount} – Amount of the sale
  • {currency} – Offer’s currency, abbreviated
  • {offer_url_id} – ID value of the offer URL selected
  • {customer_id} – With customer lists, the value assigned to the customer for that conversion
  • {offer_ref} – Reference ID value set for the offer
  • {affiliate_ref} – Reference ID value set for the partner
  • {advertiser_ref} – Reference ID value set for the advertiser of the offer

Traffic Referrals

Tracks and reports the referral web addresses to offers from partner tracking links. Data is available in the Traffic Referrals Report.

Hide Referrals

You can block advertisers from receiving referral URLs from partners by enabling the Hide Referrals setting. Enabling the Hide Referrals feature removes the referral URL from partners’ traffic before sending it to the advertiser's offer.

This function uses a four-step approach to remove referral URLs from all partner traffic sources.

  • Step 1 – The first one does a meta refresh to itself.
  • Step 2 – If the referral is blank or set as a tracking domain, redirect to the offer URL. If there is still a referral set, it does a javascript redirect back to itself
  • Step 3 – If the referral is blank or set as a tracking domain, redirect to the offer URL. If there is still a referral set, it does an auto-form submission back to itself
  • Step 4 – If the referral is blank or set as a tracking domain, redirect to the offer URL. If there is still a referral set, it goes to a page that says “Click to Continue” which makes the redirect page the referral when the user clicks.

Less than 0.5% (1/2 of a percent or less) make it to the 4th refresh. Redirects are usually cleared with the first two, and the third JavaScript clears most remaining.

Redirect Proxy Traffic

When the ad server detects that a user clicking a tracking link is coming from a detected proxy IP address, you have an option to either redirect the user to either the offer preview URL or to a custom specified URL for all traffic in the network. By sending the proxy traffic to a different page, the click won’t be counted toward your total click allocation for the month.

Offer Whitelisting

Enforce conversion requests to be validated against a list of IP addresses or referrer domains. You can specify IP addresses to be whitelisted for offers that use postback URLs and domain names for offers that use iframe or image pixels. When an IP address is whitelisted, the ad servers check against a list of IPs to make sure the IP is authorized for the offer. If the IP address does not match the approved IPs, the conversion is deemed fraudulent and will be rejected.

When a referral domain is whitelisted, the ad servers check to make sure the referring URL to the conversion pixel matches a whitelisted URL. The conversion pixel’s referral domain should be the same URL that hosts the pixel. If the referring URL does not match a whitelisted domain, the conversion is deemed fraudulent and will be rejected.

Enforce Conversion Referrals

Requires a referral URL to be set when the conversion pixel is loaded for all offers with cookie-based tracking. Conversions with no referral URL will be set to reject. This feature helps prevent fraud as only conversions will be approved that have a referral URL to the conversion pixel. This feature only works with offers that use iframe or image pixels and does not work with offers that use Server Postback since there isn’t a referral URL usually on a server-side call.

If the feature is enabled then conversions that don’t have a referral URL to the conversion pixel will be recorded with the status of rejected and visible in the conversion report. Rejected conversions are only visible to employees in the admin interface. Rejected conversions can be approved if you want to credit a partner for a conversion.

If disabled, the ad server disregards whether there is a referral URL to the conversion pixel and all conversions will be recorded.

Specify Payout on Click

Allow the payout to be passed into a tracking link on click to offers with CPC (cost per click) cost models. This specified payout amount will override all other payout settings including the default offer payout, any tiered payout for the offer, and any specific partner payout for the offer. This should be used for internal tracking as enabling this feature can lead to abuse by partners. Append the payout parameter to the end of tracking links followed by the amount:

http://demo.go2jump.org/aff_c?offer_id=1&aff_id=1&payout=5.00

Specify Amounts on Conversion

Allow the payout and revenue to be passed in on the conversion request. Any specified amounts will override all other payout and revenue settings including the default offer payout, default offer revenue, tiered payout, tiered revenue, specific partner payout for the offer, and specific revenue for the offer. Append the payout or revenue parameter to the end of conversion URLs followed by the amount:

http://demo.go2jump.org/aff_lsr?offer_id=1&payout=5&revenue=10.00

Specify Status on Conversion

Allow the status of conversions to be set in conversion requests. The specified status of conversion will override the determined status including pending conversion settings or rejecting conversions based on fraud settings.

Append the status parameter to the end of conversion URLs and give it a value that reflects the status you want: “approved”, “pending”, or “rejected”. This feature is best used when the advertiser has their own fraud system and wants to report fraudulent conversions as rejected. Or to override the default pending conversion status if the offer has conversion approval enabled.

http://demo.go2jump.org/aff_l?offer_id=1&status=pending

Enforce Conversion Tracking Protocol

This setting enforces the selected tracking protocol set in the offer to ensure that conversions from other tracking protocols are not credited conversions. For example, if the offer is set to HTTP iframe pixel but conversions are requested from a server postback with transaction ID, the conversions will come in as rejected because the ad server will only accept conversions that come from an HTTP iframe pixel for this offer.

When implementing a global postback URL with your advertisers/sales pages, we recommend setting all offers using the global postback to “Server Postback with Transaction ID” in the offer. This prevents conversions from being rejected due to this setting.

Enforce Offer IDs on Conversion

Enable this setting to enforce an offer ID match between the click session and conversion. Conversion pixel and postback URLs including the offer_id parameter are rejected if the offer_id doesn’t match the click session with the same transaction ID.

Note: Conversion pixel and postback URLs that don’t include the offer_id parameter (like global postback URLs) will still be accepted.

Show Auto-Rejected Conversions in Admin Reports

Duplicate conversions are determined by the transaction ID. When this setting is enabled, duplicate conversions are recorded with the status of “rejected” and visible in the conversion report. Rejected conversions are only visible to employees in the admin interface. You can use this feature to see which partners are generating duplicate conversions. Afterward, you can then approve rejected conversions if you want to credit a partner for a conversion.

If this setting is disabled, duplicate conversions are not recorded and won’t be included in any reports. They are disregarded and not tracked.

Limit Conversion by Unique ID

Reject conversions with the same unique ID as duplicates. Unique IDs are passed through conversion requests, are global within your network, and do not expire. When enabled, this feature becomes the sole method of conversion de-duplication. Conversions with different unique IDs and the same transaction ID are not rejected as duplicates.

To pass a unique ID in a conversion request, append the conversion_unique_id parameter to the end of the conversion link using the unique ID as its value. For more information, read our article on the Limit Conversions by Unique ID setting.

Conversions from Proxy

If a conversion was created from a proxy, then in many cases it may be fraudulent. You can set the status of the conversion to pending or rejected for review when the conversion is detected to be created from a proxy. Proxy information is provided by Digital Envoy.

A status message will be associated with the conversion saying it was detected as a proxy. You can view the status message of a conversion associated with a proxy on the Conversion Report.

Track User-agent on Click

If enabled, the server will use the user-agent from click when loading conversion postback URLs.

Search Bots

You can enable search bots to access tracking links like a regular user by setting Search Bots to “Enabled”. This is disabled by default, so you must set this manually.

Maintain Custom Tracking Domains

Set all traffic to remain on the custom tracking domain and prevent redirects to the offer or global tracking domain. Enabling this feature will require conversion pixels to be placed on each offer for each domain. If the offer uses the conversion tracking protocol of Server Postback, then additional postback URLs do not need to be placed for the custom tracking domain.

With this option disabled, a custom tracking domain redirects back to the default tracking domain for the network since the advertiser has only placed the conversion tracking pixel for the default domain. For example:

  1. The user clicks on this link: http://custom.trackingdomain.com/aff_c?offer_id=1&aff_id=10
  2. The user is redirected to the default tracking domain: http://default.trackingdomain.com/aff_c?offer_id=1&aff_id=10
  3. The user is redirected to the specified offer URL: http://www.example.com
  4. On conversion, the advertiser loads the pixel/postback URL for the domain default.trackingdomain.com

With maintain custom tracking domains enabled, the user doesn’t get redirected to the default tracking domain. This requires the advertiser to have an offer pixel placed for the custom tracking domain as well. For example:

  1. The user clicks on this link: http://custom.trackingdomain.com/aff_c?offer_id=1&aff_id=10
  2. The user is redirected to the specified offer URL: http://www.example.com
  3. On conversion, the advertiser loads the pixel/postback URL for the domain custom.trackingdomain.com

Show Mobile Tracking Parameters

Enterprise accounts can choose to display the mobile tracking parameters in the Conversion Report.

Traffic Source Identifier Field

The selected value for this setting determines which parameter to use for “source”-level rules when using performance automation tools. Set this field to the parameter where your partners provide information on their traffic source.

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