Registering Conversions Without Click IDs

The iOS 14.5 update has introduced a major change to mobile tracking on Apple devices. While Voluum tracking hasn't been affected by this directly, the update had changed a lot for ad networks and mobile attribution tools that work with Voluum.

From now on, Apple itself handles conversions and only passes limited information (for users that have opted out from tracking) to mobile attribution tools. These tools, such as AppsFlyer, that used to track app installs and in-app activities, are now left off without the crucial information - who generated a conversion.

This caused problems for users that use Voluum and AppsFlyer to track their iOS apps, as Voluum didn't accept postback without the user identifying data - click ID. This problem has been addressed and from now on Voluum can accept such postbacks.

The Conversion tracking pixel reads the click ID value from a cookie. If this cookie is blocked or lost, no conversion can be recorded. Unless the conversion tracking pixel is set with the campaign ID as the fallback mechanism.

This allows to record a conversion even without a cookie. However, the downside is that if a visitor refreshes the "Thank you" page where the pixel is located, the conversion will be counted twice.

Similarly to the first use case, Google Ads on iOS 14.5 and up devices may not be able to pass its usual click identifying value - GCLID, but will pass WBRAID or GBRAID values instead. You can use 'external ID' ( exid token) and 'external ID type' (exidt token) parameters to either upload or pass back in a postback these two values to register a conversion even when GCLID is not available.

Voluum introduced a fallback mechanism that is used in the absence of the click ID. This fallback mechanism is based on the attribution=cid-caid parameter that is passing a Campaign ID. Thanks to that, a conversion can be attributed to a concrete campaign, even if there is no click ID. This setup works for all conversion tracking methods:

• Postback
• Conversion tracking pixel
• Manual conversion upload

The important thing to know is priority: standard conversion attribution based on a click ID has priority over the fallback mechanism. This means that you can safely add the fallback parameter and the campaign ID to your postbacks or conversion pixels and conversions will only be registered once. The difference is that conversions registered with the use of the fallback mechanism will be attributed to the campaign, not the visit. This comes with several limitations.

There will be the following limitations in Voluum reports when conversion is not attributed to a visit:

• Visit timestamp will be the same as postback timestamp
• The conversion is not connected to the rest of the campaign funnel, so there will be no way of connecting a conversion with an offer, lander, affiliate network. You can address it by sending offer, lander, path, or flow ID (more on that in the next section) to attribute this conversion to a specific element.
• You will lose traffic source URL variables (cost, externalId), user agent, visit/click timestamp time to install, referrer/referrer domain, ISP, country, region, city, language, mobile carrier, connection type, proxy, device, brand, model, browser, OS. Custom variables will only be included if you append them to a postback or conversion tracking pixel (more on that in the next section).
• Each postback is unique, there is no option to filter out duplicates
• IP of the conversion will be the IP of an affiliate network's conversion reporting system or, in case of a client-side conversion (conversion tracking pixel), visitor’s IP

The currency of the conversion is USD by default, unless currency information is passed using the currency parameter

Apart from the fallback parameter and the usual payout and transaction Id information, you can also append the following information:

• Elements that a given conversion can be attributed to: Campaign ID (caid), Lander ID (lpid), Offer ID (oid), Flow ID (flid), Path ID (ptid)

• Custom variables: cv1 - cv10

  If you provide those parameters, conversion will be attributed to the value in the custom conversion report for the campaign.

• Additional parameters: param1 - param5

  These are only values, therefore you cannot use them as a grouping option.

An example postback with these information included would look like this:

The following example uses AppsFlyer but setting your postback with a fallback parameter can work in other scenarios.

1. Setting up AppsFlyer

In AppsFlyer, you have to turn off the 'Advanced privacy' mode for your Apple mobile apps. Go to the Integrated partners view in your iOS app's settings, search for Voluum and disable this in the 'Integrations' tab.

One you have enabled it, you have to modify your postback that you submit to AppsFlyer.

2. Setting up postback

Your regular postback URL usually looks something like this: https://voluum_dedicated_domain.com/postback?cid={clickid}&caid=23b050ac-fea3-4eda-b6c8-99b72810aef7&attribution=cid-caid

To enable receiving conversions, you have to add the following parameters:

• attribution - a parameter name that passes the 'fallback to campaign ID' which is cid-caid
• caid - a parameter name that passes Campaign ID
• (optionally): offer (oid), lander (lpid), path (ptid), and flow (flid) IDs
• (optionally): custom variables (cv1 - cv10)
• (optionally): additional parameters (param1 - param5)

So your modified postback URL should look like this:

If a click ID value is present in the postback URL, it will be used to report conversions as normal. The mechanism of accepting postbacks without click ID is a fallback, meaning that it will activate only when a click ID value is not present.

Yes, you can use a fallback mechanism that assigns conversions to a campaign based on Campaign ID.