II. Inside Voluum

The second step takes place in Voluum, where we configure all the tracking magic that will allow you to reach affiliate marketing heights.

→ Voluum Workflow
→ A. Add Clickdealer to Voluum
→ B. Add a Clickdealer Offer
→ C. Add a Traffic Source
→ E. A Quick Note About a Lander
→ F. Define a traffic flow in a Campaign

Voluum Workflow

In Voluum you create elements that represent different parts of a campaign funnel and configure those elements in a way that define the flow of traffic.

You create an affiliate network element, which is what we are going to do in a moment, to firstly, organize your offers under one category, and secondly, to easily add tracking parameters to your offer link.
You also create an offer element to configure traffic redirection to an offer page.
You create a traffic source element to configure how Voluum should read data sent by a traffic source platform.
You can optionally create a lander element that corresponds with your landing page (not in this scenario though).
The last element in our sequence is a campaign that binds everything together. Creating a campaign in Voluum generates another tracking link, called a campaign URL. This URL is submitted to your traffic source platform as a destination URL, what is described in the third step of this guide.

A. Add Clickdealer to Voluum

In this paragraph, you will add a Clickdealer affiliate network template to Voluum. Using templates will make the tracking setup as easy as it gets. In order to do so, perform the following steps:

In Voluum, go to the Affiliate networks tab.
Click the Create button and select the Affiliate network option from the drop-down menu.
Select Clickdealer from the list of available templates.
Click the Next button.
Click the Save button.

An affiliate network element has been added. Now it's time to integrate it with Voluum.

B. Add a Clickdealer Offer

Do you still have the offer link from Clickdealer? Then let's proceed.

In Voluum, go to Offers.
Click the Create button and select the Offer option from a drop-down menu.
Affiliate network: Select the Clickdealer affiliate network element that you have just created from the drop-down menu. Notice that the affiliate network name will be included in the offer's name.
Offer name: Provide a name for your offer. It is a good practice to name your offers in a meaningful way, so instead of "My offer" try naming it the type of offer you selected. For example, "Software Download".
Offer URL: Paste the offer link that you have copied from Clickdealer in the Offer URL text field.
Tracking parameters: Below the affiliate network selection drop-down menu, there is small info about the tracking parameter that needs to be added. Copy the marked parameter and add it at the end of the offer URL, after the ? character.
Click here if you want to read more about tracking parameters
In most cases when you browse the web, you pay attention only to domain addresses in your browser's address bar. A link is sometimes much longer, but many web browser's hide this from view with default settings or grey it out. Go to any regular web page. The link looks quite nice.
But once you click any ad, you will a lot of information attached to it after the ? character. This is because your visit to an ad generates a lot of information that is valuable to someone.
This information is passed between servers in tracking parameters. They consist of the parameter_name={token} pairs, separated by the & character and added to a request URL after the ? character, where:
parameter_name describes a value that is being passed. The name is specific to a target platform (Clickdealer in this case).
{token} is a dynamically replaceable placeholder for a concrete value. The token is specific to a source platform (Voluum in this case).
In case of conversion tracking, there is one special piece of information that you need to pass. This information is a click ID value. Click IDs uniquely identify visits in Voluum. If you want to track conversions, you need to pass a click ID value in an offer URL to Clickdealer. The appropriate tracking parameter that will allow you to do that is displayed after selecting the Clickdealer affiliate network that you have just created.
Below in the offer form, there is another link, called a postback URL. It is usually used to pass back information about conversions from an affiliate network to Voluum. But thanks to integration you don't have to configure it at all. Conversions will be reported automatically.
Scroll down and click the Copy button next to the postback URL and paste this URL to any text editing tool for later use.
Click the Save button.

You have created an offer element in Voluum. You can see it listed in the table. When traffic starts coming, you will see appropriate stats next to this offer.

C. Add a Traffic Source

You have now defined where you want your visitors to go. The next logical step is to define where they should come from. This is done by addic a traffic source in Voluum.

There are a lot of traffic sources out there. For the purpose of this guide, we have selected one traffic source for our guide: PropellerAds. Again, there are two reasons for that:

It is very inclusive and allows almost everyone
It is fully integrated with Voluum, what allows for some magic

To fully benefit from the integration, you have to add an integrated traffic source to Voluum first (PropellerAds in our case), and then perform the integration. We will do the latter in the step 3 of this guide. To add PropellerAds as traffic source to Voluum, follow the steps below:

In Voluum, go to Traffic sources.
Click the Create button and select the Traffic source option from the drop-down menu.
Select PropelerAds from the list of templates.
Click the Next button.
Thanks to the template, all tracking parameters are already set. Click the Save button.

D. Integrate PropellerAds

To finish the integration with PropellerAds, you need to submit the API key to Voluum.

In Voluum, go to the AUTOMIZER module.
Go to the Traffic sources tab.
Click the Add traffic source button.
Click the Add integrations button next to the PropellerAds traffic source.
Provide the API token that you have obtained from PropellerAds.
(Optional) Decide if you want to see cost estimations for periods between data synchronization. The estimations are based on the last 24 hours data set. When cost will be synchronized, estimated costs will be replaced with actual ones.
Click the Next button.
Your accounts have been integrated.

E. A Quick Note About a Lander

At this point, many affiliates also add a lander to Voluum to define a landing page. A landing page is a web page that is displayed to a visitor prior reaching the main offer page. It shows additional information and creatives and its goal is to boost conversion rate.

Having a landing page is optional. If you want to use them, you have to design them and host them.

For the sake of simplicity, we have decided to present the simplest setup that doesn't include having a landing page. If you want to learn how to add a lander, read the Add a Lander Element article.

If you want to set your campaign for first party cookies, you need to use a lander with the same domain that you use for tracking. You cannot change the domain for the offer page, so linking directly to an offer may cause that cookies set by Voluum may be treated as third-party ones.

F. Define a traffic flow in a Campaign

With the offer element added, there is only one thing to do in Voluum, and that is to create a campaign element.

In order to create a campaign in Voluum, perform the following steps:

In Voluum, go to Campaigns, click the Create button and select the Campaign Simple or Campaign Advanced option from the drop-down menu.
Campaign form type: When creating a campaign for the first time, you will see a campaign form selection windows. Voluum allows you to tailor its experience according to your needs: if you only need to create a simple campaign, it provides you with a simple form and hides advanced options. And that's what we are aiming for: creating a simple, yet fully functional campaign. Select the simple form by clicking the Simple campaign option.
Don't worry, every time you will create a campaign you will have an option to select the type of a campaign form from a small drop-down menu.
Workspace: Select the Private Workspace that this campaign will be assigned to. Workspaces allow you to separate your elements and segregate them by verticals, offer types or by other criteria. By default, you have only one Private Workspace, called Initial.
Traffic source: Select PropellerAds as your traffic source from the Traffic sources drop-down menu.
Campaign name: In the New campaign form provide a meaningful name of your campaign. Voluum will add some additional information to the name you provide,
Path destination: Check the Offers only option as you are not using any external landing pages, and therefore, you do not need a lander element in your campaign funnel.
Offer: Select the offer that you have just created.
Click the Save button.

The next screen provides you with a campaign URL. It is a Voluum generated link that directs visitors from the pop-up window, through the Voluum domain, to the offer. For a visitor, a redirect through Voluum will be barely noticeable, but it will allow you to capture all visit characteristics, that are essential for the whole learning process.

Copy this campaign URL to the clipboard by clicking the Copy button to finish the tracking setup in Voluum. Remember that the campaign URL is always available for you in a campaign's edit mode.

That's it, the tracking setup is now complete. The remaining step takes place in the traffic source platform.

Click the image on the right to go to the third step of this guide.

In this section: