Businesses place a high value on the contact information of potential customers based on the likelihood that the potential customer will turn into a sale. In order to obtain this information, advertisers host lead-capturing forms on their websites. Clients looking for services supply information in the online form in exchange for more information on the product or service.
Submission of this form is commonly known as “lead gen”.
What is Host & Post?
To increase the likelihood that a potential consumer fills out the lead gen form, some advertisers allow their partners to host the form. By doing this, a potential customer doesn’t get sent to a third-party page before submitting their information. Once the potential customer submits information on the partner’s site, the partner then sends, or “posts”, the lead to the advertiser.
This process is referred to as “host and post”.
Setup
In order to provide host and post lead generation forms, you must set up a database to store the lead information. This can be done using the “Customer List” feature in TUNE, or in a database outside of the platform. Next, create an offer in TUNE.
In the default offer URL, enter the URL of your database where you capture information from the form. In addition to the base URL, append any values you’re passing through on the form submit.
Here’s an example default offer URL:
http://www.hasoffers.info/hostnpostdemo/conversion/conversion.php?fname={firstname}&lname={lastname}&emailaddr={email}&zip={zipcode}&transaction_id={transaction_id}
Select “Server Postback w/ Transaction ID” or “Server Postback w/Partner ID” as your conversion tracking method and finish creating the offer. You may want to use the “Whitelist Postback IP” functionality to make sure that conversions only come from the IP address of the network or advertiser’s web server where the conversion will occur.
Adding an HTML Creative
After the offer is created, partners need the actual form to host their site. This form should be added as an “HTML Ad Creative” in TUNE in order for it to track properly. This can be done by going to Offers > Creative Files > Add Creatives.
You can choose to either upload this file directly or copy and paste the code into the text box for HTML. In the code, replace the URL for the form to be sent to with the {tracking_link} macro. By adding in this dynamic variable, the form embeds the correct offer and partner information (correct partner link) when taken by the partner from the TUNE interface.
This code needs to include at least two elements. These include the basic HTML form structure as well as specific coding language to make sure all form variables are passed into the tracking link on submit (click). To have this data automatically postback as a conversion on submit, there’s an additional element of coding needed.
Here’s an example of a basic form below using JavaScript, which passes all variables into the partner tracking link on submit:
<script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.2/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">// <![CDATA[
function submitted(){
alert( "{tracking_link}" );
}
// ]]></script>
<form>
<label>First Name:</label> <input type="text" id="firstname" /><br/>
<label>Last Name:</label> <input type="text" id="lastname" /><br/>
<label>Email:</label> <input type="text" id="email" /><br/>
<label>Zip Code:</label> <input type="text" id="zipcode" /><br/>
<input type="button" value="Submit" onclick="submitted()" />
</form>
A preview of the example creative:
Once the code is added and the offer is selected, add the creative file.
Registering Conversions
As previously indicated, the main value that will need to be posted back on conversion is the transaction ID. After a user submits the lead, this transaction ID should be created and passed to the web server, where it is captured and stored. Once conversion criteria are met, the transaction ID must be passed into the server postback URL so the partner can be credited for that specific lead.
Example postback URL:
http://hasoffersdemo.go2cloud.org/aff_lsr?offer_id=6&transaction_id={transaction_id}
Alternatively, the network can trigger the postback URL directly after the transaction ID is received, and have the conversion come through as “pending”. After the lead goes through the verification/distribution process, the TUNE API can be used to accept or reject these conversions and even dynamically pass back a specific payout amount.
Partner Process
When a partner logs in to their account, they can view the host and post-offer. Below the tracking link, they can select and preview the form you created as a creative. Once selected, creative code is automatically generated for them, which they can add to their site to start sending leads.