An example of macros for postbacks

All of the different Opticks integrations make it possible to send Opticks all the URL parameters you need in order to report the conversions back to your Traffic Source (also called "Publisher").

The Traffic Source/Publisher will need its own unique ID to recognize the original click in their system (probably other IDs too) when you want to report a conversion back to them. That ID was originally in the URL that lead the end-user to the destination page (what Opticks calls "the offer", i.e. you, "the advertiser").

Opticks will only need its own unique identifier ("click_id") in step 3 (from offer page to Opticks). With that identifier Opticks can retrieve all the information and parameters that you initially reported from that click from its own systems.

Then Opticks will proceed to step 4 (from Opticks to publisher) to report the postback with the necessary ID from the publisher that was stored in Opticks.

NOTE: For the following example

This is a hint of a parameter name content: id_name

This is a parameter name itself: click_id

Step 1

Base URL for setup in Opticks:

https://protectlanding.com/g/4015509a0509e17807?external_id={external_id}&subpublisher_id={your_subpublisher_id_here}

Your traffic source would need to send traffic to Opticks the following way:

https://protectlanding.com/g/4015509a0509e17807?external_id={unique_id_traffic_source}&

subpublisher_id={source_identifier}

Each individual click would really have a look like this in step 1:

https://protectlanding.com/g/4015509a0509e17807?external_id=672104&subpublisher_id=74

Opticks would save "672104" as "external_id" and "74" as"subpublisher_id". These values will be used later to report the Postback to the Traffic Source / Publisher.

Step 2

The URL for the offer, the resource we are protecting from fraud:

https://domain_of_the_offer.com/something_else?opticks_id={click_id}&sub_id={subpublisher_id}&trafficsource_unique_id={external_id}

In this step sending Opticks click_id is mandatory (although the parameter name where it is stored is up to you, in this example is "opticks_id").

Opticks click_id has a format like this: track_20210308074821_0a1642eb9_5083_4dac_9e57_dfe214gab1a9

In this case:

https://domain_of_the_offer.com/something_else?opticks_id=track_20210308074821_0a1642eb9_5083_4dac_9e57_dfe214gab1a9&sub_id=74&trafficsource_unique_id=672104

Step 3

Postback from the Offer to Opticks

This postback is sent to https://custom_domain/conversion?id={opticks_id}

"Custom_domain" is usually track.opticks.io although sometimes can be a domain that Opticks has set up specifically for one of its customers.

In this step, sending Opticks click_id is mandatory. In the example, it is stored in the parameter "opticks_id" in the advertiser's side. Otherwise Opticks won't be able to identify to which visit the conversion postback belongs to and no postback will be sent to the traffic source.

Also, in this step you can send other parameters in the URL. 

Following the example:

https://track.opticks.io/conversion?id=track_20210308074821_0a1642eb9_5083_4dac_9e57_dfe214gab1a9

Step 4

Postback from the Opticks to the source of traffic.

Thanks to the click_id informed in step 3, Opticks can recover all the data from the hit that generated the conversion. Opticks stored in that hit all the information required to send a postback to your traffic source, including the macros sent with the corresponding visit such as the traffic source's own unique identifier. In the current example, it was stored on external_id macro, so if your traffic source expects the following postback format:

http://source_of_the_traffic_domain.com/callback?customer_id={trafficsource_customer_id}&channel={subpublisher_identifier}

Then we would need to configure the traffic source postback as follows in the Opticks dashboard:

http://source_of_the_traffic_domain.com/callback?customer_id={external_id}&channel={subpublisher_id}

Because when the traffic source is sending the traffic, we are storing the traffic source unique visitor id value in the external_id macro, and the subpublisher identifier value in the subpublisher_id.

Then, finally, Opticks would send the postback with all the corresponding parameters replaced:

http://source_of_the_traffic_domain.com/callback?customer_id=672104&channel=74

IMPORTANT:

There are some macro names that you cannot use in the traffic source postback step (4), because they are reserved for Opticks.
Specifically {click_id} should not be used.

You can find extra references to this process in this article. It is a highly recommended read.

FINAL RECAP:

For the setup we used in this example the configuration of the Campaign, Traffic Source and Offer in Opticks' Dashboard would look like this:

Campaign Tracking link: 

https://protectlanding.com/g/4015509a0509e17807?external_id={external_id}&subpublisher_id={your_subpublisher_id_here}

Offer URL:

https://domain_of_the_offer.com/something_else?opticks_id={click_id}&sub_id={subpublisher_id}&trafficsource_unique_id={external_id}

Traffic source Postback:

http://source_of_the_traffic_domain.com/callback?customer_id={external_id}&channel={subpublisher_id}

The flow of the hit and conversions would look like this:

Step1: https://protectlanding.com/g/4015509a0509e17807?external_id=672104&subpublisher_id=74

Step2: https://domain_of_the_offer.com/something_else?opticks_id=track_20210308074821_0a1642eb9_5083_4dac_9e57_dfe214gab1a9&sub_id=74&trafficsource_unique_id=672104

Step3: https://track.opticks.io/conversion?id=track_20210308074821_0a1642eb9_5083_4dac_9e57_dfe214gab1a9

Step4: http://source_of_the_traffic_domain.com/callback?customer_id=672104&channel=74