Scale up Guide Step 3: Focus on Customer Lifetime Value

When you scale up, you might come to the conclusion that remarketing to customers that already have converted might be more beneficial to you than new visitors who haven't converted yet. Many offers have a value that extends beyond one single conversion action. The offer can be taken repeatedly or there may be more than one conversion action related to this offer with different payout values.

A subsequent conversion is a conversion made by the same visitor. Each conversion is verified in Voluum by the click ID value passed back in a postback URL. By default, Voluum will REJECT any conversion with the same click ID value to protect the integrity of your data. But if your goal is to track subsequent conversions, you can make each conversion unique by adding an additional transaction ID value. The transaction ID value has only to be unique within the scope of a given click ID.

Take a look at the following example:

You track product purchases. Every time a visitor clicks a click URL on a landing page (or when a visitor clicks your ad if no landing pages are used), Voluum assigns this visitor a unique click ID value. In our example, this click ID value is w2NL3V3S27I4FV9MHIQSQTD5.

This value is sent to an affiliate network platform in an offer URL. When this visitor makes the purchase, the click ID value is sent back to Voluum in a postback URL. The activated postback URL will look like this:

https://voluum_dedicated_domain.com/postback?cid=wUHBTLI5MVGHQU9M170TMJ8U%payout=1

Voluum checks if the click ID value it received matches the original click ID value. If it does, the conversion count in Voluum increases by 1.

But if the same visitor purchases this product again, the affiliate network platform will send the same click ID value back to Voluum. Voluum will reject this conversion as a duplicate. To avoid this, you can include an additional transaction ID parameter in the postback URL. This parameter identifies every individual transaction, not a visitor. In order for this to work, your affiliate network platform has to support such a parameter. They can be called different names, such as:

• Transaction ID
• Order ID
• Purchase ID

The transaction ID may be any value that will make the postback unique, so Voluum will not see it as a duplicate. Once you include the transaction ID parameter in the postback URL, you can track subsequent product purchases.

The first activated postback URL related to the first purchase will look like this:

https://voluum_dedicated_domain.com/postback?cid=w2NL3V3S27I4FV9MHIQSQTD5%payout=1&txid=1

The second activated postback URL related to the second purchase made by the same visitor will look like this:

https://voluum_dedicated_domain.com/postback?cid=w2NL3V3S27I4FV9MHIQSQTD5%payout=1&txid=2

You will be able to see the transaction ID info in the Transaction ID column when viewing the Conversions reports.

The setup

In order to track subsequent conversions, you need to add the Transaction ID parameter to the postback URL. Depending on your affiliate network platform, the setup process might differ, but generally, perform the following steps:

1. Copy the postback URL from Voluum.
2. Go to your affiliate network platform and navigate to the postback settings page.
3. Make sure that this platform supports sending a transaction ID info in a token.
4. Add the affiliate network's transaction ID token (#tid# in this example) to the txid parameter name in the postback URL.

5. Save changes.

   

The custom conversions feature follows a similar logic to tracking subsequent conversions. It also ads an additional tracking parameter, called et, to the postback URL. This parameter is used to pass information about different types of conversions made by the same user. But unlike subsequent conversions, custom conversions may refer to different actions (such as app install and in-app purchase) related to the same offer. These custom conversions may have different payout values and can be viewed in separate columns.

Take a look at the following example:

You track app installs and purchases made within that app. The app install action has 1$ payout. The in-app purchase has 2$ payout. Again, multiple postbacks with the same click ID (which is tied to a visitor) will be rejected by Voluum. But adding the et parameter will make the postback unique. In order for this to work, your affiliate network platform has to support such a parameter

To correctly display custom conversions, you need to define them in Voluum's settings page. Defining custom conversions means providing the name of a custom conversion and the value passed in the et parameter (may be more than one).

Once you do so, Voluum will divide the incoming conversions and display them in separate columns.

This is an activated postback URL that sends information about app install in the et parameter:

https://voluum_dedicated_domain.com/postback?cid=wUHBTLI5MVGHQU9M170TMJ8U%payout=1&et=install

This is an activated postback URL that sends information about in-app purchase in the et parameter:

https://voluum_dedicated_domain.com/postback?cid=wUHBTLI5MVGHQU9M170TMJ8U%payout=1&et=purchase

Once a visitor performs these two conversion actions (installs an app and makes a purchase inside this app), Voluum will count these two actions as two conversion types and will display them in reports.

The setup:

There are two steps needed to set up custom conversions: defining them in Voluum and configuring the postback URL by adding the et parameter. In order to do so, perform the following steps:

1. Define custom conversions in Voluum.

   1. In Voluum, click the button. The Settings view will appear.
   2. Go to the Custom conversions tab.

   3. Click the Add button to add the first (app install) custom conversion.

      

   4. Provide a name for the custom conversion in the Custom conversion event name text field.
   5. Provide a value or values of the et parameter in the Values of the et parameter text field.

   6. Click the Save button.

      

   7. Click the Add button again to add the second (in-app purchase) custom conversion.
   8. Provide a name of the custom conversion in the Custom conversion event name text field.
   9. Provide a value or values of the et parameter in the Values of the et parameter text field.

   10. Click the Save button.

       

2. Configure the postback URL.

   1. Copy the postback URL from the Custom conversions tab in Voluum.
   2. Go to your affiliate network platform and navigate to the postback settings page.

   3. https://voluum_dedicated_domain.com/postback?cid=wUHBTLI5MVGHQU9M170TMJ8U%payout=1&et=#TYPE#

      Match the conversion type token (provided by your affiliate network) with the et parameter name. In our example, the conversion type token is #TYPE#. Your final postback URL should look like this: