PalDock gives every step of the journey its own ID. Sending the right one is what decides whether a tracking request creates a new record, updates the right one, or fails to match anything.
The objects
- Origins are clicks and leads. Every journey starts with one.
- Sends are the individual deliveries of a lead to a channel in a Pingtree. One lead can have many sends.
- Conversions are sales and prospects, whether they arrived through tracking or were created by a commission.
- Transactions are conversions that a commission applied to, so they carry a payout amount and a result.
The IDs
- Origin ID: the click or the lead. Created by PalDock at the very start and passed to the advertiser. This is the ID you use to attribute anything back to the affiliate.
- Send ID: one delivery of a lead to one channel. Use it when you need to talk about a specific channel in a Pingtree, not about the lead as a whole.
- Conversion ID: one sale or prospect. Created when the conversion is recorded.
- Transaction ID: one transaction. A conversion can have several if several commissions apply.
- External ID: the advertiser’s own ID for the order. You do not create it, the advertiser sends it. See Deduplication based on advertiser’s ID.
- Affiliate CID: the affiliate’s own ID for the conversion, sent as
affcid. PalDock stores it and sends it back so the affiliate can match records on their side. - Process ID: not an object ID. It identifies one asynchronous API call while it is being processed.
Which one to send
Creating a conversion, by pixel, postback, or Tracking API:
- Send the Origin ID, or the Advertiser ID together with the External ID. Either pair is enough to attribute the conversion.
- Sending both is the safest option and we recommend it.
Updating a conversion:
- Send the External ID with the Advertiser ID.
- Or send the Conversion ID when you have it. It is unambiguous.
- The Origin ID alone is not enough once more than one conversion exists under the same origin, because PalDock cannot tell which of them you mean.
Pingtree: why the Origin ID is not enough
In a Pingtree, one lead is sent to several channels. Every one of those sends carries the same Origin ID, because they all come from the same lead.
That has a direct consequence for tracking:
- The advertiser receives the Origin ID and sends it back with the conversion.
- PalDock cannot tell which send that conversion belongs to, because several sends share that ID.
- Two advertisers in the same Pingtree can therefore report against the same Origin ID.
What to use instead:
- Advertiser ID together with External ID is the reliable pairing in a Pingtree. The advertiser is unique, their own order ID is unique on their side, and the combination points at exactly one conversion.
- Send ID identifies one delivery to one channel. Pass it to the advertiser in the integration and ask for it back if you want the conversion tied to that exact send.
- Origin ID on its own is fine for a single-channel offer, and unreliable as soon as a Pingtree is involved.
If you run Pingtrees, agree with every advertiser that they always return their External ID. Without it you cannot separate their conversions from another channel’s.
Where you find them
- Click and lead log: Origin ID
- Integration log: Origin ID, Send ID
- Conversion log: Origin ID, Send ID, Conversion ID, Transaction ID
- Transaction report: Origin ID, Send ID, Conversion ID, Transaction ID
In API responses:
- A completed call returns the Origin ID and, for a Pingtree, the Send ID.
- A call that is still running returns the Process ID, and the object IDs once it finishes.
- Pixel and postback responses return the Conversion ID and the Origin ID.
Store what you get. The Origin ID is the one you will need most often later.
