Skip to main content

Receiving Conversions via Postback URL

When a user completes a conversion on an advertiser’s site, the advertiser needs to tell TUNE about the conversion. We call this “firing a postback”. The advertiser’s site does this by sending a signal to our servers that use two elements:

  • The offer’s postback URL
  • The transaction ID for that session

The postback URL is found in the offer’s tracking settings and looks something like this:

http://examplenetwork.go2cloud.org/aff_lsr?offer_id=26&transaction_id=TRANSACTION_ID

In the above URL, the advertiser replaces TRANSACTION_ID with the transaction ID that they stored for that session. For example, if the advertiser had earlier received a transaction ID of “1027c887059b47bc69c699f45466b9” from TUNE, then the postback URL becomes:

http://examplenetwork.go2cloud.org/aff_lsr?offer_id=26&transaction_id=1027c887059b47bc69c699f45466b9

At the same time, the advertiser also fills in other parameters in the postback URL (like advertiser sub IDs and sale amounts). To learn more about postback URL parameters, read our article on customizing a conversion link.

Note: The advertiser should use an HTTP GET request to fire postbacks to TUNE.

Advertiser HTTP Request

Finally, the advertiser makes an HTTP request to the postback URL. For example, they can make the HTTP request via cURL on the server-side, or even just type the postback URL into a browser. In any case, TUNE validates the conversion based on the transaction ID.

If the conversion is valid, TUNE responds to the HTTP request with:

success=true;

If the conversion is invalid, TUNE responds instead with an error message. This can be seen when the advertiser’s system records an incomplete transaction ID and sends a conversion with that incomplete ID. The following message is returned:

success=false; err_msg=Invalid Trans. ID #1027c887059b47b.;

Error messages are intended for use by advertisers and networks as diagnostic tools. Other error messages reported in the server logs include:

  • Duplicate conversion
  • No referral URL
  • IP address not whitelisted
  • Wrong tracking protocol
  • Duplicate conversion by unique ID
  • Invalid advertiser security token

Important: You will receive a “200 OK” HTTP response code if we attempt to process the postback, even if unsuccessful. This lets you know TUNE received the request, and do not resubmit it as you might for a 4xx or 5xx response code.

Related articles