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Direct Tracking (Server-to-Server/Postback)

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Direct tracking is a method used in affiliate marketing to track sales generated by a specific publisher. Unlike normal tracking where the affiliate network determines whether a transaction is generated via one of its publishers, with direct tracking, the advertiser informs the network that a Daisycon publisher has generated a transaction and which publisher it was. Direct tracking is only used in certain cases, such as when the actual transaction does not happen immediately, and in revenue share arrangements where the ad revenue is shared with the publisher who referred the visitor. This article discusses when to use direct tracking, the implementation process, and the parameters required in the link for the tracking to work.

In addition to pixel based tracking solutions, Daisycon also offers server side options. The most commonly used one is a so called postback, webhook or server-to-server call. At Daisycon, we call this technology Direct Tracking.

Instead of having a tracking pixel on the thank you page after the conversion funnel, your systems will have to identify conversions from Daisycon and post them back to us. This way, we can track conversions even when there is no clear thank you page (e.g. event based). Added benefit is that this solution does not use Daisycon cookies.

Attention: This article requires a higher level of technical expertise than pixel tracking. For pixel based solutions, please read Implementing the conversion pixel.

How does server-to-server tracking (Direct Tracking) work

The basic process for server-to-server tracking is as follows:

  1. Instead of placing a cookie with click information, Daisycon generates a click ID
  2. The click ID is added to a URL/query string parameter of your choice
  3. Once the visitor lands, this ID needs to be captured and saved (cookie/localstorage/database)
  4. After the conversion or payable event, a call will need to be made to the Daisycon postback URL
  5. The stored click ID has to be added to the postback URL, so it is posted back to Daisycon

This process can be done completely custom, with setcookie() and a PHP cURL postback for example. Much more commonly, a third party system is used to handle the click ID and postback though. We'll cover examples of some of the most common systems below.

Please be aware that with server side tracking solutions, the advertiser is responsible for the matching process between clicks and transactions. If the attribution model differs from our standard model with maximum attribution window (last-click/100 days), this should be clearly disclosed in the description of your campaign.

Implementation in a third party platform

Are you using a third party platform that is suitable for tracking affiliate transactions (e.g. HasOffers/Tune, Cake or Post Affiliate Pro)? Then you usually have a much easier solution at your disposal.
In most of these systems, our click ID can be stored in a sub ID or dedicated click ID parameter provided by the platform (aff_click_id/aff_sub in Tune, s2-s5 in Cake, data1/2 in Post Affiliate Pro).

Custom implementation

In some cases, it is necessary to switch to a server postback solution while there is no system available to set this up easily. A custom implementation largely depends on the technology behind your website, so the specification below will have to be tailored to your needs.

Please refer to the documentation from your third party platform for exact instructions on how to set this up. These values are stored in the platform and can easily be posted back to us with a system variable/mac

Link structure

The link structure for server-to-server tracking is almost the same as for any other affiliate marketing campaign. You can add any URL-parameters you prefer (such as UTM-tags) as usual, but you will need an extra parameter of your choice that we populate with the aforementioned Click ID.

https://advertiser.com/?utm_source=daisycon&utm_medium=affiliate&clickid=%DCI%

The Daisycon system will automatically replace %DCI% with the required click ID. Please make sure that this parameter is added to all link material available in the campaign (including data feeds and deeplinks). Please contact Daisycon to verify that this has been set up correctly.

You will need to save this value in a (first party) cookie and/or localstorage (or in your database) and return it to us with the postback. This is how we will make the match between the transaction and the click data from the affiliate publisher.

Postback structure

We try to keep our technology as universal as possible, so the postback also looks similar to the regular image pixel.

The structure of the Daisycon postback URL is as follows:

https://[matching_domain]/d/?ci=[campaign_id]&dci=[click_id]&a=[amount]&ti=[transaction_id]&r=[revenue]&pn=[description]&iv=[description_internal]&c=[country_code]

The easiest way to build your own postback is to follow the pixel integration guide at Implementing the conversion pixel.
Once you have your pixel code with desired/required parameters (to be replaced by actual values from your system), copy the URL from the image source (<img src="URL" />). After that a few changes will have to me made:

  1. Change /t/ in the URL to /d/ to switch the tracking mode to Direct. This will disable the cookie check that we use as one of the ways to make a click match with an image pixel. In this case, we're working with a dedicated click ID, not browser data or cookie with click information. 
  2. Add the click ID value from above (%DCI% value from the link structure above) to the &dci= parameter so we can make the click match on our end.

Once you have the postback URL configured, you can make calls to it from the backend of your website. How you do this, is up to you or your developer(s). A common solution is using cURL calls and logging the response codes for troubleshooting.

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