S2S Tracking

What is S2S Tracking?

Server-to-Server (S2S) tracking is reliable and secure method of tracking user actions.
It enables you measure the effectiveness of a traffic source and/or marketing campaign by tracking a user’s actions and recording when a given event occurs e.g., a click upon on an ad on the ad results page (2nd click).

How Does S2S Tracking Work?

1. Your domain URL passes the cid, provided by the ad network, into the domain name, such as: domain.com/?cid=123. The parameter “cid” will change depending on the traffic source or 3rd party trackers.

   1. Some of the common values used are:

      1. Facebook: fbclid

      2. TikTok: ttclid

      3. Taboola: click-id

      4. Outbrain: ob_click_id

      5. Revcontent: rc_uuid
         

2. A visitor clicks an ad displayed by ad network on its sites, and visitor lands on the parked domain with the cid attached just like in example above.

   1. Example: domain.com/fbclid=123456

3. Once on parked domain, visitors who click upon the ‘related terms’ and then subsequently an ad, on the proceeding ad results page, will trigger a ‘postback’.

4. A ‘postback’ URL informs the tracking software and/or Ad network that a conversion has occurred.

5. A unique ID e.g. cid parameter that you set, provided by your tracking software enables you track from what campaign, creative, device etc. that conversion can be attributed to.

The postback url will echo back all the parameters present in the domain url (except for the reserved terms, listed below), for example:

1. The users are sent to domain.com/fbclid=123456

2. The following postback code will return the click id: tracking.com/click-id={fbclid}

1. The users are sent to domain.com/ob_click_id=773245

2. The following postback code will return the click id: tracking.com/click-id={ob_click_id}

1. The users are sent to domain.com/ttclid=773245

2. The following postback code will return the click id: tracking.com/click-id={ttclid}
   

In addition to the ‘postback’ parameters you define, we provide the following parameters:

1. {click_id} which you can use to reference the visit click event through the API.

2. {click_term} provides the term the user clicked on.

3. {revenue_estimated} provides an estimated revenue generated by the click.

   1. Only available for Revenue Estimated event type.

4. {revenue_finalized} provides an estimated revenue generated by the click.

   1. Only available for Revenue Finalized event type.

5. {timestamp} provides the timestamp of the click event in the format yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss

6. {domain} provides the domain name.

7. {event_type} provides the event type.

Please note that the above parameters are reserved and will overwrite any parameters you set with the same name. Example:

1. If you send users to domain.com/click_id=12345

2. This postback will NOT work tracking.com/click-id={click_id}, this is because “click_id” will have our click id and not the traffic sources click id.

Setting S2S Values in Ads.com UI

Typically, either the Ad network or the tracking software will provide you with a custom URL to assist you in tracking a user’s actions.

Keep in mind when in this documentation the cid parameter is just used as a place holder, the ad network may use id, click_id, or any other nomenclature.

When setting up the tracking URL be sure to set any parameters that were provided to you by said tracking software, also ensure you are including the same cid name that is being passed with the domain.

While dynamic, Ads.com highly recommends using the same cid parameter name when referencing your id provided to you to avoid any confusion.

URL

The link which our server should connect to

Event ID
When using multiple Ad networks and/or Tracking software you may be required to use more than one tracking url. This enables us to better verify and validate the postbacks.

Event Type

The Event Type will determine when your postback fires to the provided url passing available data.

• Term View fires when a visitor views the parked domain.

• Term Click fires when a visitor clicks on a term displayed on your parked domain.

  • {click_term} tag is available to track clicked term.

• Ad View fires when a visitor views the ads the related ads on results page.

• Ad Click fires when a visitor clicks an ad on the ads results page.

• Revenue Estimated fires when revenue for a click event is estimated, 15 minutes after Ad Click

  • {revenue_estimated} tag is available to track revenue

• Revenue Finalized fires when revenue for a click event is finalized, 3 days after Ad Click

  • {revenue_finalized} tag is available to track revenue

Finishing Up

Once the S2S has been successfully created you will see the postback url, event Id, and event type added to the S2S list.