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Outbrain as a Traffic Source

Outbrain is one of the biggest native ad networks in the industry. They work with one of the most recognizable brands in the industry. The following guide describes how to set up tracking of their traffic with Voluum.

Danger

Integration available

The following document describes the setup for the basic template integration. However, this traffic source can be integrated via a reliable API connection thanks to the Automizer feature. This enables accurate cost tracking, campaign management from the Voluum dashboard and rule creation.

If you want to fully integrate this traffic source with Voluum, read the Outbrain Full Integration article first.

Table of Contents
Before You Start

The following things are required before setting up tracking:

  • An active Outbrain account.

  • An active Voluum account.

  • An offer and optionally, a lander.

  • A creative.

Once you have everything, proceed with the guide.

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I. Create a Campaign in Voluum

The first thing you need to do is to create a campaign in Voluum. This will provide you with a direct tracking URL that you will submit to Outbrain as a destination URL. Because Outbrain scans links that you submit, you cannot use a redirect method of tracking, as that redirect URL would not be correctly scanned. With the direct method of tracking, which is turned on by default for Outbrain, you will submit a direct tracking URL to Outbrain. This will allow Outbrain to scan this link without a problem. In order to do so, perform the following steps:

  1. Create an offer element. Read the Add an Offer to Voluum article to learn how to do that.

  2. (Optionally) Create a lander element. Read the Add a Lander Element article to learn more.

  3. Create a traffic source element. Voluum provides you with the Outbrain traffic source template, so you can use it and skip most of the manual setup. In order to use this template, perform the following steps:

    1. In Voluum, go to Traffic sources.

    2. Click the Create button and select the Traffic source option from the drop-down menu.

      new_TS.png

    3. Select the Outbrain template.

    4. Click the Next button.

      outrain1.png

    5. You can change or adjust any option in the New traffic source form. Once you have done so, click the Save button.

      outrain2.png

  4. Create a campaign. 

    1. Select the Private Workspace that you want this campaign to be assigned to from the Workspace drop-down menu.

    2. In the New campaign form, select the Outbrain traffic source that you have just created from the Traffic source drop-down menu.

    3. Provide a name for the campaign in the Campaign name text field.

    4. (Optionally) Select a lander you have previously created from the Landers drop-down menu.

    5. Select the offer that you have just created from the Offers drop-down menu.

    6. Click the Save button.

      outrain3.png

    7. Click the Copy buttons next to the direct tracking URL and a direct tracking script to copy them to the clipboard.

      outrain10.png

    8. Click the Done button.

  5. Implement a direct tracking script into the landing page URL. Read the Track with a Direct Method article to learn how to do that.

II. Create a Campaign in Outbrain

The second thing you need to do is to create a campaign in Outbrain. You will set all traffic targeting options there and submit a campaign URL. But before you create a campaign, you should create a conversion event, if you would like to pass conversions from Voluum to Outbrain later. In order to do so, perform the following steps:

  1. Create a conversion event.

    1. In Outbrain, go to the Conversions tab.

    2. Click the Add conversions button.

      outrain6.png

    3. Select the Event-Based Conversion radio button.

    4. Prove a name for the conversion in the Name text field.

    5. Select the conversion category from the drop-down menu.

    6. Define a conversion time window.

    7. Provide a value of your conversion and select the conversion category.

    8. Click the Save button.

      outrain7.png

  2. Create a campaign.

    1. In Outbrain, click the Add campaign button.

      outrain5.png

    2. Provide a name for the campaign.

    3. Select the goal for your campaign.

      outrain8.png

    4. Select the bid strategy.

    5. Select the conversion event that you have just created from the drop-down menu,

    6. Provide a bid value in the CPC text field.

      outrain9.png

    7. Set up other campaign options, such as Targeting, Schedule and Placement.

    8. Scroll down to the Track / Suffix tab. You need to paste only the suffix part of your direct tracking URL in the Suffix text field.

      Your direct tracking URL that you have copied from Voluum looks like this:

      https://lander_testing.com/?cpid=ea47ae45-86e8-4a2f-8b4a-c78c417e4303&ob_click_id={{ob_click_id}}&campaign_id={{campaign_id}}&publisher_id={{publisher_id}}&publisher_name={{publisher_name}}&ad_id={{ad_id}}&ad_title={{ad_title}}&section_id={{section_id}}&section_name={{section_name}}&req_id={{req_id}}&promoted_link_id={{promoted_link_id}}&time_stamp={{time_stamp}}

      The suffix part is everything after the ? character. So, in our example, paste the following part of the direct tracking URL to Outbrain:

      cpid=ea47ae45-86e8-4a2f-8b4a-c78c417e4303&ob_click_id={{ob_click_id}}&campaign_id={{campaign_id}}&publisher_id={{publisher_id}}&publisher_name={{publisher_name}}&ad_id={{ad_id}}&ad_title={{ad_title}}&section_id={{section_id}}&section_name={{section_name}}&req_id={{req_id}}&promoted_link_id={{promoted_link_id}}&time_stamp={{time_stamp}}

    9. Click the Next: Content button.

      outrain14.png

    10. Paste the remaining part of the direct tracking URL that you have copied from Voluum in the URL text field, which is your landing page domain.

      https://lander_testing.com

    11. Provide the name of your website.

    12. Provide a headline for your ad.

    13. Upload a creative.

    14. Click the Launch campaign button.

      outrain12.png

Your campaign is saved and is pending review.

III. Submit a Traffic Source Postback URL to Voluum

This step is optional and should be performed only if you want to pass conversions from Voluum to Outbrain. In order to do so, perform the following steps:

  1. In Voluum, edit the Outbrain traffic source that you have created.

  2. Enable the Traffic source postback URL toggle.

  3. Paste the following URL template in the Traffic source postback URL text field:

    https://tr.outbrain.com/unifiedPixel?ob_click_id=UNIQUE_CLICK_ID_VALUE&name=EVENT_BASED_CONVERSION_NAME

    To make passing conversions work, you need to modify this URL template in the following way:

    • Replace the phrase UNIQUE_CLICK_ID_VALUE with the {externalid} Voluum token.

    • Replace the phrase EVENT_BASED_CONVERSION_-NAME with the name of your conversion. In our conversion, it would be conversion.

    Your modified URL should look like this:

    https://tr.outbrain.com/unifiedPixel?ob_click_id={externalid}&name=conversion

  4. Click the Save button.

    outrain13.png

Congratulations, you have now successfully configured passing conversions to Outbrain.

Outbrain Tracking Tokens

Token

Description

{{ob_click_id}}

Click ID

{{campaign_id}}

Campaign ID

{{publisher_id}}

Publisher ID

{{publisher_name}}

Publisher name

{{ad_id}}

Ad ID

{{ad_title}}

Ad title

{{section_id}}

Referrer section

{{section_name}}

Referrer section name

{{req_id}}

Request ID

{{promoted_link_id}}

External promoted link ID

{{time_stamp}}

Timestamp

In this section: