Creating an Offer in TUNE - Complete Guide
Table of Contents
Overview
Your platform is based on a core concept called "offers": promotions of products or services your company will provide for partners to drive traffic to. Before partners can run any traffic in your platform, they need offers to promote.
This article walks you through creating an offer in TUNE and links to articles that provide detailed information on related topics.
This article is part of our Platform Basics series.
Before You Begin
In TUNE, go to Offers > Create Offer. Once on the Create Offer page, you'll do three things:
- Enter details about the offer
- Place the offer conversion pixel
- Test your offer
Step 1: Know Your Offer
When creating an offer on your platform, you'll need to prepare some information about the offer from that offer's advertiser. If you're new to performance marketing, start with our "Intro to Performance Marketing" article for an overview of industry terminology and key concepts.
Essential Details
This tutorial walks through entering essential details important to every offer:
- Name of the product or service being offered
- A short description of that product or service
- URL from the advertiser to track impressions, clicks, and other actions you provide for that offer (known as the "offer URL")
- Available parameters for that offer URL
- URL that shows a preview of the offer without that tracking (known as the "preview URL")
- Revenue and payout actions and amounts
Other Details
Though you only need a few details to save your offer successfully, there are many details your partners would like to know about the offer. Here are just a handful of examples:
- Policy on the length of and required action for conversion
- When the offer expires
- Targeted countries
- Allowed and denied types of traffic
- Operating system or device type
- Demographic information (for social media-based offers)
- Creatives and allowed creative usage
- Goals
- Offer caps
- App file size (for mobile app offers)
Example Offer Details
As you walk through creating your offer, we'll use an example offer from a fictitious advertiser named Super Fantastic Games:
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Advertiser | Name of the Advertiser on the Offer |
| Name of Product | Most Awesome Game |
| Offer Type | Free mobile app |
| Country | Canada |
| Short Description | Most Awesome Game Offer is a brand new game from Super Fantastic Games. 50 levels of sci-fi action puzzles! |
| Device | iPhone, iOS 5+ |
| Conversion Policy | On installation and opening |
| Caps | 150 per day |
| Traffic Restrictions | No incentivized SMS, push notification, or ad icon traffic. No custom creatives. |
| Mobile App Size | 25 MB |
| Revenue from Advertiser | $3 per conversion |
| Payout to Publisher | $2 per conversion |
Step 2: Enter Offer Details
The first section of this form is Details, where you enter the offer's basic information. Fill in each field to the best of your ability; you can always change these values after creating the offer.
General Offer Information
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Advertiser | This is the advertiser for this offer from the list of advertisers defined in your platform. If you haven't set up any advertisers yet, leave this blank. You can edit the offer later to set the advertiser. |
| Name | This is the name of the product for this offer. Give your offer a straightforward name that your partners will understand. Some clients include other information, such as operating system or device type, target countries, regions, or file size. |
Other Offer Information
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Description | A summary of the offer. Partners viewing this offer will read the description to understand what is being promoted. You can use standard HTML formatting in this field. |
| Conversion Tracking | This setting tells the ad server how to track a user's click and conversion. The default is "HTTP iFrame Pixel". |
Conversion Tracking Options
The options for conversion tracking are complex and explained in basic terms in our Attribution Methods in TUNE article:
Client-Side Methods
| Method | Description |
|---|---|
| HTTP iFrame Pixel | The most common client-side method for tracking clicks and conversions |
| HTTPS iFrame Pixel | Same as "HTTP iFrame Pixel," except it uses a secure connection (HTTPS) |
| HTTP Image Pixel | The method to use if you run into problems using an iFrame Pixel |
| HTTPS Image Pixel | Same as "HTTP Image Pixel," except it uses a secure connection (HTTPS) |
Server-Side Methods
| Method | Description |
|---|---|
| Server Postback w/Transaction ID | The best method for tracking clicks and conversions |
| Server Postback w/Partner ID | The method to use if you run into problems with using the transaction ID |
Status & Expiration Settings
| Setting | Options | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Status |
|
By default, offers are set to "Pending" status |
| Expiration Date | Date selection | Date when this offer expires. Default is one year from today's date |
Links Configuration
| Field | Character Limit | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Preview URL | 500 characters | URL where partners can view the offer landing page. Must begin with "HTTP://" or "HTTPS://" |
| Default Offer URL | 2048 characters | Where traffic is redirected by your platform to track the user session. Must begin with "HTTP://" or "HTTPS://" |
Offer Classifications & Tags
Classifications and tags help organize offers in your platform, both for employees and partners with whom you work.
| Classification | Description | Example Value |
|---|---|---|
| Channel | Describes the advertising channel for this offer | Mobile devices |
| Operating System | Describes the operating system for this offer | iOS devices |
| Incentive | Describes the incentive status of the offer | No incentivized traffic |
| Vertical | Describes the market segment addressed by the offer | Mobile game |
| Conversion Type | Describes the conversion type for the offer | App installation and app open |
| Media Placements | Describes the ad locations for the offer | Blog, email, video placements |
| Tags | Customizable labels you can also apply to advertisers and partners | Custom tags as needed |
Step 3: Enter Revenue & Payout
The sections that follow provide details on Currency, Revenue, Payout, Goals, Settings, and Tracking. Now that you've entered information in the Details sections, we'll progress through two other crucial offer elements: Revenue and Payout.
Revenue Configuration
This section covers accounting for your revenue type, method, and the amount you earn from your advertisers. Revenue and payout are covered in detail in our Offer Payouts article.
For our example, we use the default "Revenue per Conversion" type and default method and enter "3" in Revenue per Conversion—meaning we will earn $3 per conversion, or $3 RPA.
Revenue Types
| Revenue Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Revenue per Conversion (RPA) | Flat amount you earn per successful conversion (or similar action) |
| Revenue per Sale (RPS) | Percentage amount you earn of total sales from conversions |
| Revenue per Conversion plus Revenue per Sale (RPA + RPS) | Both of the above combined |
| Revenue per Click (RPC) | Flat amount you earn per unique click |
| Revenue per Thousand Impressions (RPM) | Flat amount you earn for every 1,000 impressions |
Payout Configuration
This section covers accounting for the payout type, method, and amount that your publishers earn. This section is set up similarly to the Revenue section above.
For our example, we use the default "Cost per Conversion" type and default method and enter "2" in Cost per Conversion—meaning we will pay $2 per conversion, or $2 CPA. That results in a profit of $1 per conversion.
Payout Types
| Payout Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Cost per Conversion (CPA) | Flat amount the publisher earns per successful conversion (or similar action) |
| Cost per Sale (CPS) | Percentage amount publisher earns of total sales from conversions |
| Cost per Conversion plus Cost per Sale (CPA + CPS) | The above combined |
| Cost per Click (CPC) | Flat amount the publisher earns per unique click |
| Cost per Thousand Impressions (CPM) | Flat amount the partner earns for every 1,000 impressions |
Additional Sections (Goals, Settings & Tracking)
The last three sections on this page relate to offer options you can adjust later as you learn more about creating offers. Not all options in Settings and Tracking are immediately available on the Create Offer page.
For more information about these features, check out these support articles:
Once you're done, click Add Offer. The page that appears confirms that you've successfully created the offer and provides options that are available now that the offer has been made.
Step 4: Place Offer Conversion Pixel
After completing Step 3, you should see a confirmation page. If you successfully created the offer but see a different set of options, you may have selected a different option for Conversion Tracking in step 2.
Now that you've created the offer, let's hook your site up to register the conversion. To do that, first, you get the offer conversion pixel; then, you place it on one of your site's pages. That page will be your conversion page.
Conversion Pixel Code Example
Start by copying the conversion pixel code from the Pixel Code field. Your code will look something like this:
<!-- Offer Conversion: Most Awesome Game Offer (iPhone, Free, CA, 25MB) --> <iframe src="http://example.go2cloud.org/aff_l?offer_id=1" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" width="1" height="1"></iframe> <!-- // End Offer Conversion -->
Implementation Guidelines
| Consideration | Guidelines |
|---|---|
| What page to use for tracking conversions | The page where you place the conversion pixel code should be for whatever point or task indicates that a user has completed a conversion, such as completing a purchase or filling out a form. Many clients put this code on a "Thank You" or "Your Order is Complete" page. |
| Where on the page to place the code | The best place to place the conversion pixel code is right after the opening <body> tag |
Once you've placed the conversion pixel code on your conversion page, proceed to test the offer.
Step 5: Test Your Offer
With the conversion pixel placed on your conversion page, you can test the offer to ensure it's properly set up. On the conversion pixel page, locate the Test Link at the bottom. This test tracking link functions similarly to a normal tracking link, but flags the conversion as an "Employee Test" in your conversion report and assigns "testoffer" to the partner sub ID 1 and source parameters.
Testing Process
- Go through the offer as a normal user would
- Once you hit the conversion page, check your conversion report by going to Reports > Conversion Report
- Look for your conversion in the report
Troubleshooting Test Results
| Result | Action |
|---|---|
| You see a conversion | Congratulations! You successfully set up and tested your offer. |
| You don't see a conversion | Your search result may be cached. Change one of the parameters, such as by checking the Partner box in the Data section of Options (or unchecking if already checked). Then click the Run Report button. |
| Still can't see your conversion | Contact our support team at support@tune.com |
Additional Resources
Now that you've made an offer, you can learn more options for creating and managing offers in other articles on this topic.
Related Articles
- Intro to Performance Marketing
- Attribution Methods in TUNE
- Using the Stats Report
- Offer Categories
- Universal Links
- Passing Values to an Offer URL
- Offer Payouts
- Offer Goals
- Platform Offer Settings
- Platform Tracking Settings
- Postback Tracking
Support
For additional support, contact our team at support@tune.com