Your first campaign

This page takes you from an empty panel to a campaign that accepts clicks and conversions. You need an installed tracker and access to the panel, see First-run wizard. The owner and the admin create sources and networks; offers and landing pages can also be created by the team lead and the designer; campaigns by every role except the financier.

Step 1: traffic source

The source defines the parameters that the ad platform passes in the link.

1. Open Sources («Источники») and click + Add («+ Добавить»).
2. In the Source template («Шаблон источника») field, choose your platform. “Facebook Ads” is selected by default. If your platform is not in the list, choose Custom template («Свой шаблон»).
3. Check the Name («Название») field. When you choose a template, it fills in on its own if it was empty. Without a name, the Create source («Создать источник») button is inactive.
4. Click Create source.

You can change the source tokens later in its card, see Traffic sources.

Step 2: affiliate network and offer

A network from the catalog provides the parameter for the offer link and the postback URL. You can also create an offer without a network — then skip the first list.

Add a network:

1. Open Networks («Сети») and click + Network («+ Сеть»).
2. Choose the network in the Affiliate network template («Шаблон партнёрской сети») field — the Name fills in on its own. If the network is not in the list, leave Custom template and enter the Name.
3. Click Create («Создать»).

Create an offer:

1. Open Offers («Офферы») and click + Offer («+ Оффер»).
2. Enter the Name.
3. Choose the network in the Affiliate network («Партнёрская сеть») list.
4. In the Hosting («Хостинг») block, leave External («Внешний») and paste the offer link from the affiliate network into the field under the switch.
5. Click Add the selected network's parameters («Добавить параметры выбранной сети») — the network parameter with the click ID is appended to the link. The button appears for networks created from the catalog. In other cases, append the parameter manually, for example https://offer.example.com/lp?cid={click_id}. The affiliate network sets the parameter name.
6. Click Create offer («Создать оффер»).

The Payout from postback parameter («Выплата из параметра постбэка») checkbox is on by default: the tracker takes the conversion amount from the postback payout parameter. Other fields are on the Offers page, and working with networks is on the Affiliate networks page.

Step 3: landing page

If traffic goes straight to the offer, skip this step.

1. Open Landing pages («Лендинги») and click + Landing page («+ Лендинг»).
2. Enter the Name.
3. Choose the Type («Тип»): External or Hosted («Локальный»). For an external one, paste the address of the page on your own server into the URL field.
4. Click Create landing page («Создать лендинг»).
5. For a hosted landing page, the editor opens. Click Upload .zip («Загрузить .zip») in it and choose the archive.

An external landing page gets the offer link in the to parameter, and a hosted one through the {offer} macro, see From landing page to offer and multi-offer. Archive requirements are on the Hosted pages page.

Step 4: campaign

1. Open Campaigns («Кампании») and click + Campaign («+ Кампания»).
2. Enter the Name. The URL alias («Alias в URL») is already filled in — it is part of the traffic link.
3. Leave the Cost model («Модель стоимости») at “CPC — per click” («CPC — за клик») and Click price, $ («Цена клика, $») at 0, or set your own values.
4. Click Create campaign («Создать кампанию»). The panel opens the new campaign page, and the status is “active” («активна»).
5. Go to the Source and parameters («Источник и параметры») tab.
6. In the list with the value “— no source —” («— без источника —»), choose the source from step 1. The link parameters are filled in from its tokens.
7. Click Save parameters («Сохранить параметры»).

The Domain («Домен») list has “— main traffic domain —” («— основной домен трафика —») selected: the link is built on the tracking domain set during installation. All window fields are on the Creating and configuring a campaign page, and the link parameters on the Campaign link, domain and parameters page.

Step 5: stream

While a campaign has no streams, its link responds with a 404 error.

1. On the Streams («Потоки») tab, click + Stream («+ Поток»).
2. Enter the Stream name («Название потока»). Leave the Stream type («Тип потока») as “Regular” («Обычный»).
3. Choose the Action («Действие»):
   • “Landing → offer funnel” («Воронка ленд→оффер») — the visitor sees the landing page, then goes to the offer. Selected by default;
   • “Offer” («Оффер») — the visitor goes straight to the offer.
4. Go to the Rotation («Ротация») tab.
5. Click + Item («+ Элемент») and choose the target in the “— select —” («— выбрать —») list: for the “Offer” action, the offer from step 2; for the funnel, the landing page from step 3.
6. For the funnel, add a second row, switch its first list to “Offer” and choose the offer.
7. Click Save stream («Сохранить поток»).

A stream without conditions on the Filters («Фильтры») tab accepts all traffic. Stream types and the order in which they are chosen are on the Streams: types and processing order page.

Step 6: test visit

1. On the campaign page, in the Traffic link («Ссылка для трафика») block, click Copy («Копировать»).
2. Open the link in a browser. It looks like https://track.example.com/abc1234?….
3. Make sure the landing page opened, or, with the “Offer” action, the offer right away.
4. Go back to the campaign and click Statistics («Статистика») — the campaign statistics open.
5. Open the Click log («Лог кликов») tab. New clicks are at the top of the table. A click appears in the log with a short delay: if it is not there yet, click Refresh («Обновить»).
6. Copy the value from the Subid column for your click — you need it for the next step.

Step 7: test conversion

The affiliate network reports a conversion to the tracker with an incoming postback. To test, send it manually to this address:

https://track.example.com/api/v1/postback?subid=SUBID&status=lead&payout=1&txid=test-1

1. Replace SUBID with the value from the click log and open the address in a browser.
2. Make sure the tracker responded ok.
3. In the campaign, click Statistics and open the Conversion log («Лог конверсий») tab.
4. Find the row with your subid: the Status («Статус») column shows lead, and the Txid column shows test-1.

The postback URL for the affiliate network account is in the Networks section: the Postback URL («URL постбэка») column in the network row. Parameters and responses are on the Incoming postback page.

Troubleshooting

The campaign link responds with 404

• The campaign is not “active”. Click Start («Запустить») on the campaign page.
• The campaign has no stream, or the stream is turned off.
• No offer is selected on the Rotation tab of the stream. A funnel needs both a landing page and an offer.
• The offer status is “paused” («пауза») or “archived” («архив»).

Stream selection check shows which stream a visitor will get.

click not found

The tracker did not find a click with this subid. Copy the full value from the Subid column and repeat the request.

invalid postback secret

The Postback/lead secret («Секрет постбэка/лида») field is filled in in the card of the campaign's source. Add &secret=value to the postback URL.

The conversion is not in the log

Click Refresh on the Conversion log tab. Other causes are on the Postback not arriving: what to check page.

What's next

• Sending conversions to the ad network — S2S postback to the source.
• Filtering out bots and ad moderation — Cloaking setup.
• Separate domains for links — Domains.
• Cost and profit in reports — Campaign cost models.