Tracking

• An Impression is when a visitor sees your ad. Tracking impressions is free in Voluum.
• A Visit is when a visitor clicks the campaign URL under an advertisement. The visit is recorded when the campaign URL successfully passes correct information on the visit to Voluum.
• A Click is when a visitor clicks on a Call-to-Action (CTA) link / button placed on a landing page
• A Conversion is a successful action that is relayed from an offer. The conversion is recorded when a postback URL or a tracking pixel successfully passes correct information about a conversion from an affiliate network back to Voluum.

Paid events

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Voluum's pricing plans include various numbers of paid events. The paid events are: visits, clicks and conversions. Each event is equal, meaning that they use your pricing plan's quota in the same way.

Free Events

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Free events can be available for the following group of users:

• For users with Zeropark campaigns: Zeropark event does not deplete your pricing plan's event quota. However, after a monthly free trial of Voluum for Zeropark users charges for a plan still apply.

Overage Events 

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In case the number of recorded events in Voluum exceeds your plan's event quota, you will be billed for overage events according to your plan's charges. The overage charges are applied to your invoice at the end of a billing cycle.

• Discover pricing plan: Events exceeding 1,000,000 are charged at a rate of $0.07 per 1,000 events
• Profit plan: Events exceeding 3,000,000 are charged at a rate of $0.06 per 1,000 events
• Scale plan: Events exceeding 10,000,000 are charged at a rate of $0.05 per 1,000 events
• Custom pricing plan: Individually priced

Pros:

• Use path altering options, such as rule-based paths, weights, AI or A/B testing
• Use redirect modes to hide referrer data.
• Easy to implement - for many cases, it doesn't require adding any scripts to a landing page. However, to cover all cases, we recommend adding a lander tracking script even for a redirect method.
• Can grab visit information (CEP parameter) from either a click URL, cookie, or HTTP referrer data

Cons:

• Not complainant with some traffic sources (such as Facebook Ads (now Meta Ads))
• Tiny bit slower
• A redirect visible in a browser's address bar may discourage visitors from continuing to your page.

Lander Tracking Script

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We recommend that you implement a lander tracking script to your landing page even if you use a redirect method of tracking. This script will act as a fail-safe mechanism that will allow Voluum to record a visit with all possible device and browser configurations. Note that Voluum has a mechanism that prevents it from recording the same visit twice (from a redirect and a script).

First transition with a redirect method

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When a visitor clicks an ad and activates a campaign URL, they will be directed to Voluum servers. Voluum will then do four things:

• Records a visit
• Record values from tokens passed in a campaign URL
• Derive additional visit info from visitor's user agent (such as device type or country)
• Place a cookie on a visitor's browser that contains visit information (CEP parameter)

After that, Voluum will direct a visitor to a destination set in a campaign setup: an offer or lander. Path alteration features, such as rule-based paths, weights, A/B testing or AI can be used.

With a lander tracking script present on a landing page, this script also makes a request to Voluum in case a cookie wasn't saved due to a browser’s settings. If this visit was already recorded, Voluum will not record it for the second time. If it wasn't, Voluum will record this visit even without this cookie.

Second transition with a redirect method

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Second transition is optional. When a visitor clicks a CTA button and activates click URL on a landing page, they are redirected through Voluum servers again. Voluum does three things on that occasion:

• Records a click
• Reads any additional data passed in tokens
• Reads a click ID value from a token

After that, Voluum will direct a visitor to an offer set in a campaign setup. Path alteration features, such as rule-based paths, weights or AI can be used.

Pros:

• Faster, because there is no redirect through Voluum servers
• Compliant with all traffic sources, including those that don't allow rotating destinations (such as Facebook Ads (now Meta Ads)).
• Can track organic traffic

Cons:

• Doesn't allow for landing page rotations, such as rule-based paths, weights, A/B testing or AI. Offer rotations are still possible (if landers are used).
• Doesn't support using various redirect modes to hide referrer data.
• Requires access to a promoted page's code (applicable mostly for offer-only campaigns)

First transition from an ad to a landing page or offer

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When a visitor clicks an ad and activates a destination URL, they are directed straight to the destination set in a campaign setup: an offer or lander. When the destination page loads, a tracking script will be launched, and two things happen:

• Script makes a request to Voluum to record a visit
• Voluum assigns a click ID value to this visit

The visitor is already on a destination page, so no path alteration features, such as rule-based paths, weights, AI, or A/B tests are possible.

(Optional) Second transition from a landing page to an offer

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When a lander loads and a visitor activates a click URL, two things will happen:

• A lander tracking script replaces a click URL with a destination URL (so with the Offer URL) on page load
• A script makes a request to Voluum to record a click

Usually, there are two transitions:

• First transition: From an ad to a landing page or offer
• (Optional) Second transition: From a landing page to an offer.

There also can be funnels that only use one transition that directs a visitor straight to an offer.

The section below describes various scenarios of using different tracking methods throughout the campaign funnel.

1. First transition from Ad → Offer with a direct method

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This simple campaign funnel requires you to put an offer tracking script on an offer page. Then you have to submit an offer tracking URL to your traffic source and users will be taken from an ad directly to an offer without the initial redirect.

This of course means that you have to be able to edit the offer page. If you cannot edit this page (as it often is with offers from affiliate networks), go with scenario 2 and use the standard redirect method. But if you still want the first transition to be direct, please go to the scenario 3 or 6.

2. First transition from Ad → Offer with a redirect method

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This basic campaign funnel will work just fine without the 3rd party cookies support. After activating a Voluum campaign URL that is hidden behind an ad, Voluum will count a visit and redirect to the offer page.

Because there is no landing page in the middle, no 3rd party cookies are required for this method to work.

3. First transition from Ad → Landing page with a direct method and second transition from Landing page→ Offer also with a direct method

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This scenario requires:

• Submitting a lander tracking script to your traffic source platform
• Putting a lander tracking script on a lander.
• Implementing a click URL on a landing page.

The tracking script will count both a visit (arrival to a landing page) and a click (leaving a landing page after clicking a click URL). This setup works with a single click URL or with multi-offer click URLs.

When a lander loads, the script will replace a click URL with a direct offer URL. This enables you to use paths and weights for offers even with the direct method of tracking.

You don’t need to put any script on an offer page in this scenario, unless you want to track conversions with a conversion pixel, with conversions occurring on an offer page load. Read the Set up conversion tracking section.

4. Ad → Landing page with a redirect method and Landing page → Offer also with a redirect method

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Without the support of 3rd party cookies and no further adjustments, this funnel may encounter problems in certain scenarios. The lack of cookie with a click ID value will cause the aforementioned disconnection between a visit and a click.

That is why from 11-24-2020 we have made adding a lander tracking script to a landing page obligatory even for a redirect method of tracking.

This will keep your data reliable and consistent, while at the same time it will allow you to benefit from the advantages of a redirect method of tracking: rotations, paths and AI.

Don’t worry, your visits won’t be counted twice, by activating a campaign URL and by a direct script for landers - we have a fail-safe mechanism for that.

5. First transition from Ad → Landing page with a redirect method and a second transition from a Landing page → Offer with a direct method

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You can use different tracking methods on various steps of the campaign funnel. With this scenario you still benefit from various forms of altering paths to landers (by rules, weights, AI or A/B testing), while reducing the time needed to go from on a lander to an offer.

You are still required to put a lander script on a lander (this is obligatory for both methods of tracking from 11-24-2020).

6. Ad → First transition from Ad → Landing page with a direct method and second transition from Landing page → Offer with a redirect method

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This type of a campaign funnel allows you to be compliant with the requirements of many traffic sources, as well as use various techniques of hiding referrer data, such as meta-refresh and double meta refresh. Read the Expand article.

But you can go with a simple redirect for the second step of your campaign funnel. The direct script for landers is still required though.

7. Organic traffic

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With a lander tracking script present on your landing page, you can track organic traffic with ease. Read the Track Organic Traffic article to learn more.

Redirect modes govern how the traffic is handled during the second transition (from a landing page to an offer). The Meta refresh and Double meta refresh modes offered by Voluum are useful ways of protecting the intellectual property an affiliate marketer may have built up by running successful offers. They allow you to prevent the traffic source (referrer data) being sent through to the offer or the landing page.

There are four redirect types:

• 302: This is a default option. This is a standard temporary HTTP redirect that sends a visitor directly to the desired location – your promoted offer. The referrer data is passed to the campaign endpoint.

• Meta refresh: When set, the browser starts loading the page - but only the head, not the body of the page - before going to the new destination. In the <head> tag of the HTML page, triggering the browser to refresh and load a new URL. The referrer data is hidden with this mode selected.

  Pricing plan availability: The following feature is available on Profit pricing plan and above.

• Double meta refresh (DMR): Double meta refresh is just meta refresh, but performed twice consecutively. This way, the first meta refresh page contains the referrer you want to hide. It goes to the second page, and the first meta refresh page become then the referrer. This goes to your affiliate link with the referrer from the second refresh of the page. Due to this extra redirect, DMR is the most reliable redirect mode to ensure that the referrer data is not leaked to the owner of the offer, usually an affiliate network. It might be also the slowest one because of this double redirect. 

  Pricing plan availability: The following feature is available on Profit pricing plan and above.

  If you redirect visitors using the Double meta refresh mode, the redirect domain name will show up in their browser’s address bar. We highly recommend adding a custom redirect domain and set it up the same way as a custom domain. If you do not set up the custom domain, then a Dedicated Domain will be used. For more information, go to the Domains article.

  Campaign funnel with an offer: 

  < http(s)://campaign.url > ⟶ < visit > ⟶ < http(s)://redirect_domain.url ⟶ < http(s)://offer.url >

  Campaign funnel with a landing page and an offer:

  < http(s)://campaign.url > ⟶ < visit > ⟶ < http(s)://lander.url > ⟶ <click>  ⟶ < http(s)://redirect_domain.url ⟶ < http(s)://offer.url >

• Direct: This selects the direct method of tracking for the second transition, from a landing page to an offer. Using this method for the second transition may be beneficial, as some traffic sources may check links on landers for redirects (which may not be allowed). Also, from a visitor's perspective, a direct link looks like it is more trustworthy, as there is no visible tracking. Lastly, direct tracking is a little bit faster, and in case of using a redirect method for a second transition - if a tracking domain is flagged, such a redirect may be blocked. If you select this method, you will have to implement the Lander Tracking script into the Lander’s code so the Click URL could be replaced with Offer URL during redirection.

You need to select one of the redirect modes while configuring a flow or a campaign in the Voluum platform:

Moreover, the redirect mode can be applied either globally, Default redirect mode, or individually per path, Redirect mode.

Example:

If you have a campaign funnel with a landing page then, when visitors click a call-to-action (CTA) link on the landing page, they are redirected to a promoted offer. While having set one of the redirect modes, Meta refresh and Double meta refresh, the offer's owner (affiliate network) will not see the referrer data to identify your landing page, but will see the domain's referred data passed instead.

An affiliate network is an optional campaign element that helps you to organize promoted offers by their source, apply additional tracking-related options and add tracking parameters to an offer URL and postback URL.

Templates

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Voluum offers a selection of affiliate network templates that define the element's settings. You can select an appropriate template or create a custom affiliate network element.

• Add an Affiliate Network to Voluum

An offer is where you want your visitors to land. You can get offers either from affiliate networks or use proprietary offers.

• Add an Offer to Voluum

A traffic source is any platform that generates visitor traffic you can use in your campaign funnel. This includes publishers, ad networks, ad exchanges, Facebook or Google and Demand-Side Platforms. To properly read that send from a traffic source platform, you need to add a traffic source element in Voluum. You have two options available:

• Add a Traffic Source to Voluum from a Template: Read this article to learn how to add a traffic source element based on a Voluum template.
• Add a Custom Traffic Source to Voluum: Read this article to learn how to add a custom traffic source element.

A lander is an optional web page that you put between an ad and an offer. This web page has to be hosted externally. Using landers is a common practice. To correctly set a campaign funnel, you should implement a click URL on this page and additionally, as a recommended step, a lander tracking script.

• Add a Lander Element
• Adding Click URLs to a Lander

Benefits of using a lander

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Extending visitors journey with an additional step might seem counterproductive, but it is considered beneficial in the long run. Some of the benefits include:

• Displaying several offers to a user. Other offers might be more attractive to the user than the one that originally interested the user.
• Testing different offers. Using several offers on a landing page allows you to find out which offer is most attractive to your users.
• Including additional information. You can include some additional text or creatives to make your offer more appealing.
• Personalizing your advertisement. With Voluum, you can display a personalized message based on users' characteristics, like a phone model or an OS version. Messages such as "Hello, iPhone user" might be more relevant to a visitor.

A campaign binds all elements in Voluum together, so it should be added at the end of the process of preparing a funnel.

Simple and Standard Campaign Forms

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Voluum offers two distinct views of the campaign creation form.

• Simple

  This one is aimed at users that do not need advanced campaign setup options and only want to create quickly a simple campaign without being distracted. The simple campaign form allows you to create a basic campaign with several landers and offers, with one path only, with both direct and redirect method of tracking. All in one simple tab.

• Advanced

  This one allows you to benefit from the full range of options and settings that Voluum has to offer. On the top of the functionalities offered by the simple campaign form, you can also use:

  • Rule-based paths
  • Traffic Distribution AI
  • Conversion reporting to a traffic source specific for event type

Selecting a Campaign Form Type

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1. At first, upon clicking the New campaign button, you will be prompted to select the campaign form type. Click the Try simple form or Use advanced form button to select the desired campaign form type:

   

2. After your initial selection, you have an option to select the campaign form type from the drop-down menu each type you click the New campaign button.

   

3. Campaigns created with the simple campaign form will be opened in this form, and analogically, campaigns created with the standard campaign form will be opened with this campaign form.
4. You can always turn off the simple campaign form option in Settings / General settings.
5. Note that campaigns saved or edited in the standard campaign form type will always be opened with this campaign form, so there will never be a case where your settings will be hidden from view.

Converting Campaign Type

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You can convert a simple campaign to an advanced one with just one click. To do so, perform the following steps:

1. Edit a campaign created with a simple form.

2. In the campaign edit form, click the Convert to advanced campaign button.

   

3. Confirm your decision by clicking the Convert button. Note that only saved changes will be converted. If you have updated any settings (for example, changed a campaign's name) without clicking the Save button, these changes will be discarded.

   

4. Your campaign will be opened with the advanced campaign form.

Before You Start

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These are elements that you should have already created before.

1. Traffic source: You have decided where you want to advertise your offer and you have set up at least one traffic source element in Voluum. You will also have the option to add a new traffic source while creating a campaign. If not, read the Add a Traffic Source to Voluum from a Template article to learn more.
2. Offer: (Optional) You have added an offer to Voluum or decided to use the Destination URL option instead. In the latter case, you do not have to add an offer element. You will also have the option to add an offer while creating a campaign. Read the Add an Offer to Voluum article to learn more.
3. Lander: (Optional) You have decided if you want to use landing pages in your campaign setup or use the Direct linking option instead. In the latter case, you do not have to add a lander element. To use landing pages you need to add a lander element in Voluum. If you have not done so yet, you will also have the option to add a lander while creating a campaign. Read the Add a Lander Element article to learn more.
4. Flow: (Optional) You have decided if you want to use a flow, set up a path or provide the Destination URL. Read the Set Flows and Paths article to learn more.

Creating a Campaign Element:

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The following 3-step guide will instruct you how to add a campaign element in Voluum:

• Simple campaign form

  1. Create a Simple Campaign with a Redirect Method

• Standard campaign form

  1. Creating a Campaign with a Redirect Method - Part 1: General
  2. Creating a Campaign with a Redirect Method - Part 2: Destination
  3. Creating a Campaign with a Redirect Method - Part 3: Best Practices

The following articles describe different ways of managing traffic inside Voluum.

• Creating a Flow
• Adding a Default Path
• Adding a Rule-Based Path
• Adding a Rule-Based Path for IP Rules
• Adding a Rule-Based Path for Unique Visits
• Adding a Rule-Based Paths for Custom Variables

You have two ways to track conversions. Choosing one over another will most likely be dictated by your affiliate network platform. If they only support it, use a server-to-server postback URL method. It is the most reliable and safe. If you cannot use it, you have a conversion tracking pixel at your disposal.

• Read the Track Conversions Using S2S Postback URL article to learn how to track conversions with this method.
• Read the Track Conversions Using a Conversion Tracking Pixel

Steps of passing information:

1. Step 1: Pass Information from a Traffic Source to Voluum
2. Step 2: Pass Information to an Affiliate Network
3. Step 3: Pass information back to a Traffic Source

Additional options for passing Information:

1. Pass Information to a Landing Page
2. Pass Static Information from a Landing Page to an Affiliate Network

Recording costs and payouts is an integral part of tracking. It is a complex topic, involving different cost models and support for cost and payout tokens by traffic source or affiliate network platforms. But the aim of this set of articles is to make it easier.

What is Cost and What Are Cost Models?

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Cost is an amount of money that you have to pay for a single event. To paraphrase a saying, "there is no free traffic". This expense is your investment that you have to make in order to get money as a result. The payment is made in your traffic source platform. Typically, you have to top-up your account in the traffic source platform with some amount of money and then the money will be drawn from your account when an event occurs.

Tracking Costs

Remember, you want to pay as little as possible for the most converting traffic. Once you set tracking costs correctly, you will be able to see how much you pay in the Cost column in Voluum.

What is Payout?

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A payout is an amount of money you get from offer owners after a successful conversion occurs. Your summed payouts make your revenue. Each payout is given out by your affiliate network platform. Typically, payouts are paid in batches per every predefined period of time (for example: bi-weekly, monthly). Some affiliate networks support instantaneous payments for bigger clients. 

Every successful conversion recorded by an affiliate network platform generates a payout. Typically a single visitor generates one conversion, but sometimes this person can generate subsequent conversions. Read the Upselling: Tracking Subsequent Conversions article to learn more.

Tracking Payouts

As you want to get as much money as possible for the biggest number of conversions. Once you set tracking payout correctly, you will be able to see how much you get in the Revenue column in Voluum.

What are Profit and ROI?

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Profit is the money you have earned minus the money you have spent. In Voluum, you can see what is your profit in the Profit column. 

Return on investment (ROI) is the main indicator of the profitability of your campaign. It shows the percentage of the money you earned as a fraction of the money you have invested. You can find this indicator in the ROI column in Voluum.

Example:

If your total cost is 9,510.28$ and your revenue (all payouts summed) is 45,583$, then your profit will be revenue - cost, which is 36,072.72$. Your ROI is 379.3%. It tells you that roughly you have made almost four times more money than you have spent.

Automatic Cost and Payout Tracking

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Cost and payout are information like any other and they can be sent to Voluum from a traffic source platform or an affiliate network platform in a token. Not all platforms support passing cost and payout information in tokens, but if there is an option to do so, we recommend doing it.

Cost Tracking for Fully Integrated Traffic Sources

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If you use the Automizer feature, cost information for integrated traffic sources will be fetched using a reliable API connection. Read the article about Automizer to learn more.

Using Different Currencies

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By default, Voluum shows all financial information in USD. However, you can change the currency of cost and payout. Voluum will record this information in the selected currency. You can also select the default display currency and recalculate all cost and payout values to this currency using live exchange rates.

To learn more about using different currencies in Voluum, read the Multicurrency in Voluum article.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Have more questions? You might find answers below:

No, you should replace the existing {campaign.cpa} token by the extended {conversion.cost} version. The {campaign.cpa} token is deprecated and you should not use it.

• Read the Custom Conversions article to learn how to distinguish between different conversion types.
• Read the Custom Traffic Source Postback URLs article to learn how to pass information about different conversion types back to your traffic source.
• Read the Dynamic Click URLs with a Domain Name article to dynamically build click URLs with different domain names.
• Read the Registering Conversions Without Click IDs article to learn how to track conversions from apps that cannot pass click ID value due to various uses cases or privacy settings (for example, from AppsFlyer tracking iOS 14.5 and above devices).
• Read the Setting up Voluum with Your Own Offer (Not from an Affiliate Network) article to learn how to track offers that you own.
• Read the Track Organic Traffic to learn how to track visitors that have reached your page from search results.
• Read the Tracking Impressions in Voluum to learn how to track impressions (page views) with compatible traffic sources.
• Read the Multi-Step Landers article to learn how to display two or more landing pages during a visitor's journey.
• Read the Upselling: Tracking Subsequent Conversions article to learn how to track subsequent conversions, called "upsells".

• Navigating Voluum Interface
• Archiving / Restoring Entities in Voluum
• Error Log
• Limits in Voluum
• Voluum Tips & Tricks

• Lander Guide
• Optimization Guide
• Scale up Guide
• Testing Guide

Voluum's default Click ID cookie lifetime is 180 days. During this time, the conversion can be attributed to the last Click ID stored in the visitor's browser.

No, you upload creatives or ads in your traffic source platform (ad network, social network such as Facebook, search engine like Google, etc.).

Voluum is a performance ad tracker that can record clicks on ads, clicks on CTA button on a landing page, and conversions. It can also record time it took to install the app. It cannot, however, record time spent on site.

Cloaking is considered to be a blackhat technique and it is not allowed in Voluum.

According to our Terms and Conditions, which are accepted when setting up Voluum account, we do not perform refunds.

No, Voluum does not have a compliance team nor it does not approve campaigns.

Voluum is a performance ad tracker, while Zeropark is an ad network. You can use Voluum to track Zeropark traffic.

We recommend not using any link shortening services for paid advertising because traffic source won't be able to append any data to our tracking URL. In case of organic traffic it makes more sense if you are sharing the link in social media but generally, we do not recommend it.

You cannot delete a recorded event in Voluum.

A lander, or landing page, is an optional web page that you set up and host on your own and it is used to provide more information on your offer. The lander goes between an ad and an offer page, and it contains a click URL link hidden under CTA button that directs a visitor to the offer page.

You can find click ID in Voluum panel by going to the 'Live events' section or to 'Conversions'.

Voluum click IDs start with either 'w' ('Offer only' scenario) or with 'd' and 'w' ('lander & offer' scenario).

Conversion discrepancies can occur due to several reasons, such as the data being delayed in the tracking system or data not been properly configured to flow through the tracking system. Here are a few steps you can take to troubleshoot this issue:

1. Verify that Voluum and the traffic source time zones and time ranges for the reports are the same. A discrepancy could occur if there is a difference in time zone settings.
2. Check if the postback URL to the traffic source is configured properly.
3. Check if there are any filters or rules applied at the traffic source level, which might be affecting the traffic coming to Voluum.
4. If you’re using Automizer and Google Ads, and you generated the postback URL, check if the event name is the same in the postback as in the traffic source.

If none of the above steps help, please provide us with your campaign details so we can investigate the issue further.

If you want to show the error page for your current campaigns, but still be able to create and track new ones, the best idea will be to ask us to ban all your current campaigns. All the traffic sent to banned campaigns will not be handled and will be resolved with a response 403, and information that the campaign has been banned. You still will be able to track visits, clicks and conversions for your active campaigns, however.

If you want to show the error page for your current campaigns, and you are not going to use your Voluum account anymore, we can remove your tracking domains from Voluum so all the redirections will result in the 404 error - not found. Events won't be reported to Voluum anymore and it won't be possible to create any new campaign for tracking purposes. Please note that once your dedicated domain is removed, it's not possible to reverse that action.

You may get the Click ID:

• from cookies via JS script - use the script which would fetch the Click ID from cookies.
• pass it in the Click ID token {clickid} appended to the Offer URL
• from DTP response. For example, in the Direct tracking campaign where you use Direct linking to the Offer, the Click ID will be assigned after loading the page (will be visible in response to the DTP .js code)

You cannot upload visits in Voluum. If you want to correct cost, use the Manual Cost Upload feature.

Unfortunately, onboarding sessions are available for existing Voluum users only.

No, Voluum cannot be used for remarketing. This is something that has to be served by a traffic source.

To track conversions using 1st party cookies, you need to track your visitors using the direct method of tracking. Implement a lander tracking script on your lander (if you use one), an offer tracking script on an offer page and a conversion tracking pixel on a 'Thank you' page. The cookies set by Voluum will be treated as first party and a conversion tracking script will be able to pull click ID data from the first party cookie and report conversions correctly when 'Thank You' page loads.

Voluum doesn't track visitors' gender on its own. If such an information is registered by a traffic source, it can be passed to Voluum as a custom variable. Then it can be used in rule-based paths as a basis for a redirect.

Voluum panel can only be displayed in English.