What is a Postback URL Tracking in Affiliate Marketing?

In affiliate marketing, The “Postback Tracking” Topic is always doubtful. Postback URL Tracking is a headache for marketers. Because postback comes with some challenges for advertisers.

Most affiliate marketers are familiar with their campaign URL and landing page. And have a blur knowledge of affiliate monitoring, primarily including statistics in their dashboard. 

But, in this monitoring, they don’t know – What is a postback and where postbacks URL tracking come into play?

This Article is guided you about Postback Tracking & How it is used in Affiliate Marketing Tracking?

What is a Postback URL Tracking?

A Postback URL is nothing. It is just a simple URL that contains parameters that track your conversation. These URLs include data parameters such as click ID, conversion value, and placement ID used to connect to an affiliate network server or tracking server and verify conversion validity. 

It is also known as callbacks, server-to-server (s2s), or cookie-less conversion tracking.

Postbacks allow servers to interact directly with each other. There is no client involved, and no cookies are placed on a visitor’s system. When triggered by a source platform (an affiliate network or tracker), these links instantly transfer data to the destination platform (a tracker or traffic source).

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Why Is Postback URL Tracking crucial in Affiliate Marketing Tracking Methods?

Why Postback Tracking is important: Because it sends a response and confirmation, and gets the solution from the server to the server-side.

The most significant feature is that affiliate marketers may measure and credit conversions to their affiliate marketing efforts. Another advantage to marketers is that they do not rely on cookies, which can be blocked by browsers such as Firefox or Safari. And as we move into a world without cookies, this will be more beneficial. 

Postback URLs help you generate more revenue, ROI, and Conversion rate. With it, marketers keep track of records for their URLs and check how many users are clicking on the URL and from where generate traffic…So basically, Postback URL Tracking is crucial for a successful campaign.

How Does Postback URL Tracking Work For Affiliate Marketing Tracking?

1) First, users visit any online platform and see specific ads/ Offers (that they like) and click on the ads.

2) In these few milliseconds, Users redirect to the website, and information is transmitted to an ad tracker.

3) This click is being recorded with the special ID, which is visible on the landing page URL.

4) The user purchases an offer from a landing page, and the conversion is properly credited to the relevant affiliate. With an initial user ID, the advertiser signals the tracker and Affiliate Network. Affiliate Network sends a postback, and the ad tracker validates the signal and records the change. After the initial click, it has already received information about the user session, as you would recollect.

Read Also: How to Start Affiliate Marketing With No Money in 5 Steps

Pixel Tracking Vs. Postback

Pixel monitoring is a straightforward and dependable method of tracking conversions. It’s simple to use; simply copy the tracking pixel code and paste it into the “Thank you” page, the offer’s page, or the affiliate network side.

But Pixel Tracking vs. Postback has some differences:

1. Most affiliate networks use postback tracking instead of pixels for Affiliate Conversation Tracking.

2. Most traffic providers accept conversions via postbacks. The major ones are Internet giants like Facebook and Google, which enable conversion reporting via their pixel.

3. Most trackers (a tracking server) allow you to accept and pass conversions using both ways; however, combining both techniques in a single campaign funnel (for example, pixel to a traffic source platform and postback from an affiliate network) may not work.

4. Pixels may not be 100% trustworthy since they can be blocked or eliminated by software or user action, leaving you with no assurance that you are the advertiser who should be paid by the advertising network or affiliate program.

How do you create a postback URL Tracking?

The most frequent and simple approach to establishing a Postback URL is to go to the website of an Affiliate Network Platform and follow the instructions to generate the Postback URL. Most Affiliate Network Platforms include simple-to-build tracking links such as the Postback URL.

After creating the Postback URL, the owner can change it. Its parameters to get information from it, which means they must provide the affiliate network ID, payment data, and the parameter that assigns a unique ID to each transaction.

Example of a postback URL:

https://domain.com/postback?CID={s2}&payout={payout}

What it suggests:

Domain.com – It is your tracking domain, either of your cloud-based or self-hosted tracker.

“?” – This character separates the main part of the link from the tracking parameters.

“&” – This character separates tracking parameters from each other.

CID and payout are value-passing tracking parameters. They are tailored to the intended platform (a tracker in this case).

{s2}, {payout} are tokens that will be replaced with values when the connection is enabled. They are unique to the source platform (affiliate network in this case).

An affiliate network platform activates this URL when a visitor converts, and tokens are replaced with concrete information, providing you the required confirmation. 

Here’s an example of an activated postback URL tracking:

https://domain.com/postback?cid=123456789&payout=1

Conclusion:

Don’t worry !!! It’s easy to understand. Many platforms are already integrated with Postback URL Tracking. 

If you can’t get this information, find platforms, and do it practically step by step. Stay tuned for more updates.