Setting up conversion tracking
What is an event?
By Event in RedTrack is meant any conversion type (desired action) with any name you need to track (besides a standard conversion or transaction) – view content, add to cart, initiate checkout, initial checkout, purchase, upsell etc. There can be various events in your funnels depending on your needs and you can track all of them with RedTrack.
In RedTrack all your additional events can be tracked with the help of 2 ways:
- Conversion types (most commonly used)
- Conversion statuses
Proceed further with this guide to check out the difference between the two event tracking modes and see which one fits you best.
Conversion types
Conversion types are applied for the cases where you need to track even more conversion events. In RedTrack we have 20 customizable types.
To apply Conversion types act as follows:
1. On the main RedTrack menu navigate to Tools->Conversion tracking->Conversion type and add the needed events in the free fields under already prefilled ones. Remember to press Save, once you’ve added the events:
You can find your event in any name you want, but make sure to insert to RedTrack the events with the exact same names chosen in the settings of your Network. For example, af_complete_registration can not be typed in just as registration, otherwise, your conversion may not be tracked correctly in RedTrack.
Pay attention to the way you type in the names in Conversion types to avoid misleading info in the RedTrack Reports / Logs by Conversions. RedTrack gets conversions from the Offer source and reports them (writes them down) in accordance with the names typed in the Conversion types. For example, if your website gets a Lead and you marked the event as Lead in Conversion types, then consequently the Lead event will be depicted with the name Lead in the Logs. But in case we get a Lead and the event in the Conversion types was marked as lead (with a small letter), then in the Logs you’ll see your event marked as lead (with a small letter), just the way you typed it in. Traffic channel gets the events the way you type (mark) them in the Conversion type fields. This is important because even though the majority of sources take the names of the events sent from RedTrack and attribute them appropriately, still there are some sources that accept, track, and attribute the events only in a certain format (small/big letters, spaces, dashes etc.).
2. In case several conversions were created by the same click id, RedTrack suggests using a separate duplicate postback mode for each event so that it would be possible to decide what action will be performed to that duplicated conversion. RedTrack offers the following options:
- Create new conversion: duplicate postback data will be added as a separate conversion.
- Create new conversion: new or repeated: means duplicated postback data will be added as a separate conversion with different statuses: “New” for the first conversion; “Repeated” for the repeated (duplicated) conversions; “Unknown” for conversions in which this postback mode is not configured.
- Ignore duplicate postbacks: no data will be added to the tracking report.
- Edit conversion with new data: the original conversion will be edited with new data.
- Keep original data, Increment payout: only conversion payout will be edited (for example, tracking subsequent sales for the same conversion).
- Ignore duplicate Postbacks by event id: to make this mode work first you need to add rdtk_event_id={replace} to the Postback URL. It can be order id/transaction id or something of this matter by which RedTrack will implement the deduplication. Once this mode is applied, no data by the mentioned event id will be added to the tracking report.
To apply a certain duplicate mode choose it from the dropdown menu (on the right) next to the needed event type (on the left) and press Save:
Duplicate postback mode set in Conversion types prevails over the one set in your Offer source. For example, if you set the mode Ignore duplicate postbacks next to your conversion type, but your Offer source has the duplicate mode Create new conversion, no data will be added to the RedTrack tracking report in case several conversions were created by the same click id, as the system will choose to disregard the Offer source duplicate mode and go by the one set in your Conversion type.
3. The way to track the added events may differ depending on your Affiliate Network:
- if your network supports adding several postbacks on its side, add &type=Conversion_Type to your main postback URL.
https://my.postback.com/postback?clickid={aff_sub}&type=Upsell
It’s important to use exactly the same word you have set in your conversion type settings. So if it is “Upsell”, “upsell” will not work, use exactly “Upsell” with the capital letter.
- for ClickBank, AppsFlyer or any other Affiliate Networks use these guides for a reference or contact your Account Manager for advice on the correct postback usage.
4. If you want the assigned events to be counted and shown in the Customer Journey report, remember to enable the corresponding Customer Journey field next to the needed event:
To choose more than 2 conversion types to be depicted in the Customer Journey report you need to upgrade your subscription plan.
5. You can check the data on the added conversion events as follows:
- In RT Reports once you’ve added the columns with the names of your conversion events:
- In Logs by Conversions you can check out the data on the Duplicate status of the conversion event with the assigned duplicate postback mode Create new conversion: new or repeated:
▸New for the first conversion;
▸Repeated for the repeated (duplicated) conversions;
▸Unknown for conversions in which this postback mode is not configured.
Conversion statuses
Conversion statuses are used in cases where your Offer source/Brand (affiliate network, advertiser) supports several postback options and 4 is enough for you. In RedTrack we have 4 types of Statuses:
- Other
- Approved
- Pending
- Declined
All of them are available as separate columns with separate statistics.
We recommend using the Approved status as the default one to avoid editing the Postback URL and simplifying the process.
To apply conversion status act as follows:
1. When adding an Offer source/Brand choose the Approved status under the section Conversion status -> press Save:
2. Once you’ve saved the Offer source/Brand, copy the created Postback URL and paste it to your Offer source/Brand (affiliate network, advertiser) account under the target postback field:
3. If we do not receive any status data in a postback, by default, we record all conversions with the status Other, which can easily be changed in the settings of your Offer source.
Conversion statuses do not work for the Traffic channels with the API integrations (Facebook, Google, Bing). For such cases use Conversion types event tracking method instead
