Cloaking streams: “white” and target

Cloaking needs two streams in a campaign: the target stream, with an offer for people from the GEO you need, and “white”, the stream for filtered traffic. Both are created on the campaign page, on the Streams («Потоки») tab, with the + Black («+ Чёрная») and + White («+ Белая») buttons; anyone who can edit the campaign sees these buttons. The checks themselves are turned on on the Cloaking («Клоака») tab — see Cloaking setup.

How the pair works

A stream has one of three types: Intercepting («Перехватывающий»), Regular («Обычный») or Final («Замыкающий»). The target stream is regular; “white” is final.

• The visitor passed the cloaking checks — the stream is chosen by the regular rules. They get the target stream if they pass its filters.
• The visitor didn't pass the checks — the choice is made only among final streams. Intercepting and regular streams are never given to them.
• There is no separate “white” selection on the Cloaking tab: the final stream serves as “white”.

Countries aren't set on the Cloaking tab either: cloaking takes them from the GEO («Гео») conditions of the target streams — see Where cloaking gets the countries.

Target stream: the “+ Black” button

The button opens the Stream settings («Настройки потока») window with the name “Money (black)” («Money (чёрная)»), the Regular type, the Offer («Оффер») action, weight 100 and two conditions: Bot («Бот») = false and GEO in list («в списке») with no countries.

1. Click + Black.
2. Open the Filters («Фильтры») tab.
3. In the GEO condition, enter country codes separated by commas, for example US, CA, or select a set in the Geo profile… («Гео-профиль…») list — see Geo profiles.
4. Open the Rotation («Ротация») tab.
5. Click + Item («+ Элемент»).
6. Select an offer in the “— select —” («— выбрать —») list. For shares, see Rotation and split tests.
7. Click Save stream («Сохранить поток»).

You can change the action to Landing page («Лендинг») or Landing → offer funnel («Воронка ленд→оффер») — see Stream actions and redirect methods.

“White”: the “+ White” button

The button opens the Stream settings window with the name “Whitepage (white)” («Whitepage (белая)»), the Final type, the Direct URL («Прямой URL») action and no filters.

1. Click + White.
2. On the General («Основное») tab, choose the Action («Действие») — the options are in the table below.
3. Fill in the fields of the selected action.
4. Click Save stream.

The click of a visitor filtered out by the cloaking server checks is recorded in the “white” stream's statistics, whatever the action.

A visitor who passed the checks but didn't match any intercepting or regular stream also gets the final stream.

Which final stream a filtered visitor gets

A campaign can have several final streams. A filtered visitor gets the topmost one in the list that at the same time:

• is enabled;
• is running on schedule;
• accepts the click by its filters;
• hasn't reached its click cap.

A final stream with a GEO condition gets only visitors from the specified countries; the others move on to the next final stream. Drag the cards to change the order.

Visitor binding doesn't apply to filtered visitors: the checks run on every visit.

A visitor who didn't pass the JS challenge also gets the final stream. The click of such a visitor is recorded before the check — in the stream selected by the regular rules.

If there is no final stream

A filtered visitor gets a 404 response. The target stream isn't shown to them.

When streams have filters and there is no final stream, a warning is shown above the list: “There are streams with filters but no final one — traffic that matches no filter will go to 404. Add a final stream.” («Есть потоки с фильтрами, но нет замыкающего — трафик, не подошедший ни под один фильтр, уйдёт в 404. Добавьте замыкающий поток.») The + Final («+ Замыкающий») button next to it opens the same window as + White.

The warning is shown only when streams have filters. With cloaking turned on, every campaign needs a final stream.

Hide the click counter for “white”

A stream card shows today's clicks and uniques. You can remove them for “white”:

1. Click the gear button on the “white” card.
2. On the Schedule («Расписание») tab, select the Hide click counter («Скрывать счётчик кликов») checkbox.
3. Click Save stream.

The card shows “—” instead of the numbers. Clicks are still recorded — see Hiding the counter for “white”.

Checking the result

1. On the Streams tab, click Check stream («Проверить поток»).
2. In the Country (ISO) («Страна (ISO)») field, enter a country code from the GEO condition of the target stream.
3. Click Check («Проверить»). The name of the target stream in the table should be highlighted in green, and the Result («Результат») column should say “Selected by the engine in this run” («Выбран движком в этом запуске»).
4. Select the Check “white” selection («Проверить выбор whitepage») checkbox.
5. Click Check again. Now “white” should be selected.

If a different stream is selected at step 3, compare the other fields of the window with the filters of the target stream — see Stream selection check. If no stream is selected at step 5, a filtered visitor with these parameters will get a 404.

The window doesn't run the cloaking checks: the checkbox decides whether the visitor counts as filtered out. How to check with a real visit through the campaign link is covered in the Saving and checking the result section.

Frequently asked questions

The target stream doesn't get clicks

Check that:

• the GEO condition has countries;
• the stream is enabled, running on schedule and hasn't reached its click cap;
• the visitor passes the checks turned on on the Cloaking tab.

A filtered visitor gets 404 instead of “white”

Possible causes:

• there is no final stream, or it is turned off;
• the stream is currently outside its schedule or has reached its click cap;
• “white” has filters, and the visitor doesn't pass them;
• the Direct URL action has an empty Destination URL field, or the Landing page action has no landing page on the Rotation tab.

Do I need the pair of streams without cloaking?

The pair also works with cloaking turned off. Then the traffic is split only by filters: a click that doesn't pass the Bot and GEO conditions of the target stream gets the final stream — see Protecting a stream without cloaking.