The Tracking API is a server-to-server connection that PalDock initiates. It calls the advertiser’s system to ask about a conversion, or sends conversion data out to an affiliate’s system. No browser, no cookies.
It is built on the Connection Creator, so it has all the same features, tuned for tracking. See Connection Creator in Tracking.
Two audiences use it:
- Admins, to call the advertiser and retrieve the status of a conversion.
- Affiliate partners, to forward conversion data into their own systems.
Conditions
Conditions decide whether a Tracking API runs for a given conversion. Each is All by default.
- Source: All, Link, iFrame, API
- Conversion type: All, Lead, Send, Prospect, Sale, or a custom type
- Affiliate: All or specific
- Advertiser: All or specific
- Integration: All or specific
- Channel: All or specific
- Included offers and Excluded offers: All or specific
- Result: Not chosen, All, or specific
The result condition is the one that changes the most. Set it, and only conversions that produced a transaction are sent. Leave it unset, and every conversion is sent, including those with no payout.
Tracking APIs appear in the Tracking API table with the country inherited from the offer. When no offer or several offers are selected, the global country applies and the category stays blank.
Triggers
The trigger decides when it fires, the conditions decide whether.
- All: any change to a transaction, created or updated. This is the default.
- Created: only when a transaction is created.
- Updated: only when an existing transaction is updated.
Which one to pick:
- Calls to advertisers: usually Created. With All, the call runs on creation, receives a status, updates the transaction, and that update triggers it again.
- Postbacks to affiliates: usually All, narrowed with conditions.
What fires when
- A click is created: All, Created
- A sale is created with no commission applied: All, Created
- A sale is created and a transaction with it: All, Created
- A lead is created through an iFrame and immediately updated with cookie data by a pixel: All, Created, and then All, Updated for the update. The update is a separate event with its own trigger.
- A sale is updated with a new value: All, Updated
- The same sale is updated again with a new result: All, Updated
⚡ If you are not sure, use the All trigger and narrow it with conditions.
- Only approved transactions: trigger All, condition result is Approved.
- Only approved transactions that already carry cookie data: trigger Updated, condition result is Approved. The cookie data arrives with the update, so the creation event is too early.
Affiliate postbacks
A Tracking API created by an affiliate appears in their Affiliate Postback section. One created by an admin does not, even when it is limited to a single affiliate with a condition. Those stay visible to admins only.
See Affiliate postback.
How many requests an affiliate receives
PalDock forwards changes as they happen, so an affiliate normally receives two requests per conversion: one when it is created, one when the result arrives.
- On creation, the affiliate is notified immediately. The result is usually pending.
- With auto-approve, the result is Approved right away and the affiliate receives that immediately as well.
- On updates from the advertiser, such as an approval, a rejection, or a change of amount, PalDock forwards each one.
- With several commissions, each transaction is sent separately. The affiliate has to aggregate them.
Two ways to cut the volume:
- Filter on result, so pending transactions are not sent at all.
- Delay the postback, so the affiliate gets one final update once the conversion is settled. Fewer requests, later reporting.
Timeouts and retries
Each request has a timeout, and you can set how many times it may be retried. Retries are what make it possible to keep asking an advertiser until a pending conversion is decided.
Current values are on Limits and timeouts.
One advertiser, several tokens
When a Pingtree has several channels from the same advertiser and each needs its own authorization token, one Tracking API cannot cover them all. Duplicate it per channel and give each copy the right token.
When it does not work
Every call is recorded in the tracking log with its response. See Tracking and Conversion Logs and Tracking errors and reasons.
