How to track conversions with Voluum

This guide is for Voluum only. If you want to know the generic steps for S2S tracking, please check the Advertisers section.

This guide consists of two sections:

a) How to set up conversion tracking in Voluum. This section will focus on knowing how to set up the Postback URL in Voluum, how to notify conversions to Voluum and how to display these conversions in both Voluum and ExoClick.

b) How to integrate Exoclick in Voluum via API. This section will show how to edit ExoClick's campaigns from Voluum and how to match your campaign costs in both platforms.

Exoclick users get a discount when signing up on Voluum.

If you want to receive additional information, please check Voluum's integration guide.

How to set up conversion tracking in Voluum.

ExoClick gives you access to global traffic sources, targeting features, big data and statistical analytical tools to filter results and optimise your campaigns. This manual explains how to track conversions on the ExoClick network when you are using tracking software Voluum.

Step 1: Create the Goal ID for your Postback URL.

Log into your ExoClick Admin Panel and go to Campaigns > Conversions tracking. This allows you to create the Goal ID and get the structure to be used in your postback URL:

Click "New Conversion Goal". There are three fields you must complete: Name, Conversion Value and Order. In Name, simply add a name for the goal, for example: "Postback".

The available Conversion Values are:

• No Value: value is 0
• Fixed: you determine the payout of the conversion manually when setting up the Goal.
• Dynamic: the value of the payout will be passed through the Postback URL. Dynamic value passing will be explained in detail later during the guide.

Order is used to organize the different goals you have created in your account. If you have created multiple Conversion Goals, the Order will help you organize how these goals are displayed in your Statistics and in the Campaigns List.

Once you have added all these fields, click on the "Create" button. The Admin Panel will display the structure of the Postback URL as well as the Goal ID corresponding to the Goal you just created. It should look something similar to this:

http://syndication.exoclick.com/tag.php?goal=66a8605e6cce49fbb8056f273f8e1a2e&tag=

You can also check our Conversions Tracking page to find out more details about our Goal creation process.

Step 2: Add ExoClick as traffic source in Voluum and configure the Postback

To track conversions on ExoClick you will need to add a dynamic tracker to your campaign URL {conversions_tracking} which identifies each click uniquely.

You must store this tracker on Voluum and get it to notify ExoClick’s server each time a user generates a conversion. This is achieved in Voluum by configuring ExoClick as the traffic source, using the pre-defined template.

Click the “Traffic sources” tab, then click on "Create" > "Traffic Source"

Select "ExoClick". Voluum will pre-populate the traffic source settings from the template.

In the Postback URL field replace the word “REPLACE”, with the goal ID value you generated in STEP 1.

Your postback URL should now look like the following:

http://syndication.exoclick.com/tag.php?goal=66a8605e6cce49fbb8056f273f8e1a2e&tag={externalid}

Note: If you selected Dynamic value when setting up your Goal in ExoClick, then you will also have to add &value={payout} at the end of the Postback URL so as to pass the value of the conversion. In this case, your postback URL will look like the following:

http://syndication.exoclick.com/tag.php?goal=66a8605e6cce49fbb8056f273f8e1a2e&tag={externalid}&value={payout}

Once you have made these edits, you can go ahead and save the Postback.

Step 3 (optional): Set up an Affiliate Network on Voluum

If you are not using an Offer from an Affiliate platform, please Skip to Step 4

Click the "Affiliate Networks Templates", then click on "Create" > "Affiliate Network":

You can select from a list of curated Affiliate networks. If your Affiliate network is not on the list, you can manually set up the Affiliate parameters. From this page, the most important parameter for ExoClick is the Payout token.

If you want to use Dynamic conversion value from your goals, you need to make sure that the {payout} token from the affiliate platform reaches the postback URL from Exoclick.

Voluum offers several Methods for sending conversions to the affiliate platform, so please make sure that you choose the correct option to notify both the affiliate network and Exoclick.

For more information on how to set up the Affiliate network in Voluum, please check their manual.

Step 4: Create an Offer in Voluum.

Click the ”Offers” tab, then click on "Create" > "Offer" .

Select the Affiliate network (if any), the Country label and put a Name to the Offer.

Then, add the URL of your product to the Offer URL. For instance:

http://mypage.com/?a=14030&c=64375&aff_id=2422&s1=

In the Conversion tracking section from the offer, under "Payout", you can select "Auto" or "Manual". If you added an affiliate network in the previous step, then you can select "Auto" so that the value is read from your affiliate network payout token. Make sure that your affiliate network is connected to your Voluum account correctly

If you did not add an Affiliate network to your Voluum account or the network does not pass any payouts dynamically, then select "Manual" and add the value of the payout.

Note: Remember that the Postback URL you see here corresponds to the Affiliate Platform. This is not the same Postback URL as the one you used in Traffic Source settings.

Click "Save" to Save the offer.

Step 5: Create a campaign in Voluum.

Click the "Campaigns" tab. When you click on "Create", you will have two options "Campaign Simple" and "Campaign Advanced". In this guide, we will use "Campaign Simple"

In the "General" settings, select ExoClick as your Traffic Source and add a "Name" to your campaign.

Select the "Cost Model" from your campaign and the "Cost Value" (note that these parameters will be overwritten if you enable API ).

Complete the other fields until you reach "Campaign Destination". In "Campaign Destination", select the offer you want to promote and determine whether you will use any landing pages for this offer.

Click "Save". Voluum will show your Campaign URL. You will need this URL to set up your campaign in Exoclick.

Example campaign URL:

https://voluum-domain.com/bc286faf-3176-4e88-a398-428a824c051c?campid={campaign_id}&varid={variation_id}&source={src_hostname}&keyword={keyword}&tags={tags}&siteid={site_id}&zoneid={zone_id}&catid={category_id}&country={country}&format={format}&cost={actual_cost}&tag={conversions_tracking}

Step 6: Create the campaign in Exoclick

Paste the campaign URL created in the previous step as your "Variation" for your ExoClick campaign. Make sure it contains the {conversions_tracking} tag to send the conversion details to Voluum.

Finish the campaign set up. You can find a detailed guide on how to create a campaign in Exoclick here.

If the set up has been done correctly, you will start seeing conversions both in Voluum and ExoClick. Do not forget to enable the corresponding Goal column in your Campaigns List and your Statistics

ExoClick API Voluum integration

By integrating Voluum with ExoClick via API, you will be able to manage certain aspects of your ExoClick campaigns while at the same time make use of Voluum's reporting tools.

Each change you make in Voluum will have an instantaneous effect in ExoClick. Here are some of the actions you can make through API Voluum integration

• Check the status of integrated campaigns: You can observe the status of your integrated campaign in the Status column.
• Pause or resume an integrated campaign: You can pause or restore an entire integrated campaign in the Campaigns view, in the Actions column.
• Change bids for an integrated campaign: You can change bids for the whole campaign or for specific zones within the campaign.
• Synchronize costs: With API integration, costs will be extracted from ExoClick's statistics, making cost tracking much easier.

Requirements

Before you can integrate with Voluum, you need to generate an API Token in ExoClick.

Login to your Exoclick account, then click on your username to access your Profile. Click on New API Token, give a name to that token, then hit Save. You will see the API token under the "Token" column:

Instructions

To initiate the integration, here are the simple steps:

1. Sign in to your Voluum account and select the ‘Integrations’ tab

1. In the "Traffic Source Integrations" section, click the ‘Add integration’ button, then select ExoClick.

1. Introduce your ExoClick API token value, then click Next.

If the integration was made successfully, then Voluum will show a confirmation message and you will be redirected back to Voluum’s Integration tab.

If your ExoClick campaigns point to Voluum Campaign URL, they will be automatically matched within 2 hours. Alternatively, you can also use the icon to manually match campaigns:

Integrated campaigns will be marked. To make use of the integration, make sure that you have the following columns visible by clicking the button and ticking the appropriate boxes:

• Status • Actions • Bids

The full details of the actions you can make in Voluum through API integration are explained here.

Additional comments when comparing Voluum with ExoClick

Leaving aside conversions tracking and API integration, there are a few settings in Voluum you should bear in mind to make sure you see the same results in both platforms:

• TimeZone: There is an option in Voluum to choose a time zone for reports.

We suggest you to use EST(United States - New York) time zone to match ExoClick’s server time zone

• Currency: Please select either USD or Euro so as to match the currency in your ExoClick account.

If you need further guidance on how to set up Conversion tracking or API Integration in Voluum, don't hesitate to contact Voluum support. You can also contact ExoClick's Customer Success to review these steps.