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ActiveRevenue traffic source template ActiveRevenue is a self-serve advertising platform (DSP) selling popunder, zero-click, push, in-page push, native, video and Telegram traffic. This guide sets up ActiveRevenue as a traffic source in ClickFlare. It covers passing ActiveRevenue’s click data into your reports and sending conversions, with their value, back to ActiveRevenue so its bidding and your stats agree. You do everything from the campaign editor. The ActiveRevenue traffic source is created inline, without leaving the campaign.

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At a glance

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How it works

1

ActiveRevenue sends the click

A visitor clicks your ad. ActiveRevenue opens your ClickFlare campaign URL and fills in its macros: the click ID in conversion, plus the publisher feed, banner, sub-source, keyword, carrier, campaign, state and IP.
2

ClickFlare stores the ActiveRevenue click ID

ClickFlare saves the value of conversion as the visit’s External ID and redirects the visitor to your lander or offer.
3

The conversion reaches ClickFlare

Your affiliate network or store posts the conversion back to ClickFlare, matched on the ClickFlare click ID.
4

ClickFlare posts it back to ActiveRevenue

ClickFlare fires the ActiveRevenue postback, replacing {external_id} with the stored ActiveRevenue click ID and {payout} with the revenue. ActiveRevenue matches it to the original click through c.
The mirror to keep straight: in the campaign URL you write ClickFlare’s parameter (conversion) and ActiveRevenue’s macro ({conversion}). The template does this for you. In the postback URL you write ActiveRevenue’s parameter (c) and ClickFlare’s token ({external_id}).

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Before you start

  • Set up your own tracking domain. Run the campaign and the postback on your own custom domain. Shared domains get flagged by networks and blocked by browsers. See Custom Domains.
  • Have an offer ready in ClickFlare, and its affiliate network set up to post conversions back to ClickFlare. See Creating an Offer and Adding an Affiliate Network.
  • Know how you will buy. ActiveRevenue sells on CPC, CPM and CPA. The template passes no cost, so the buying model decides your ClickFlare cost model. See Cost.
  • Decide which conversions ActiveRevenue should receive. Its Target CPA bidding optimizes on what you send it. If your funnel has several steps (lead, then sale), decide now whether to send one event or several. See Tracking several events.

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Step 1 – Create the campaign and the ActiveRevenue traffic source

  1. Go to Campaigns and click New.
  2. In Traffic Source, open the dropdown and click + New Traffic Source.
  3. Type activerevenue in the search box and select the ActiveRevenue template.
  4. Enter a Name, for example ActiveRevenue.
  5. Leave Cost currency on USD unless your ActiveRevenue account is billed in another currency.
The template fills in the Parameters table for you: The ActiveRevenue template's Parameters table in ClickFlare, with ActiveRevenue's macros pre-filled Each tracking field becomes a column you can group reports by. pubfeed and source_subid are the ones you will use most: together they tell you which publishers and sub-sources convert, so you can exclude or bid up sources in ActiveRevenue. The campaign ID row is not a typo you need to fix. The parameter in the URL is campaign_id, while ActiveRevenue’s macro is {campaign}. The ip row stores the IP in a tracking field. ClickFlare records the visitor’s IP on every visit anyway, so you can use this field for something else if you need one more.
Don’t change or remove the externalId row. Without conversion={conversion} in the campaign URL, ClickFlare has no ActiveRevenue click ID to send back, and ActiveRevenue cannot match any conversion.
To pass more ActiveRevenue data, click Add Parameter, give it a name and parameter, and enter the ActiveRevenue macro as the TS Token. ClickFlare assigns the next free tracking field. Ask your ActiveRevenue account manager which macros your account supports before adding them.

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Step 2 – Set up the postback

The postback is what sends conversions to ActiveRevenue. It lives on the traffic source, so every campaign that uses this ActiveRevenue traffic source sends conversions the same way.

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What the ActiveRevenue postback contains

ActiveRevenue’s conversion endpoint is xml.activerevenue.com/conversion. It reads these parameters: At least one goal must exist on the ActiveRevenue campaign for a postback without id to be counted.

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Add it to the traffic source in ClickFlare

  1. Back in the New Traffic Source form, scroll to Passing conversion info to traffic source.
  2. Turn on Traffic source postback URL. The template’s postback appears:
The Traffic source postback URL switched on, showing the ActiveRevenue template's postback It already sends the click ID ({external_id}) and the payout as the conversion value ({payout}), both as ClickFlare tokens. count=1 records one conversion per postback. There is nothing to replace.
  1. Change http:// to https:// at the start of the URL, so the postback travels encrypted. The ActiveRevenue host answers on both. The result:
  1. In the dropdown on the left, choose the ClickFlare event that should fire the postback. Keep Conversions to send every conversion. If your final action is a custom conversion (for example purchase), choose that instead.
  2. Click Save. You are back in the campaign editor with the ActiveRevenue traffic source selected.
Keep c={external_id} exactly as it is. ActiveRevenue’s help center describes a generic postback with a clickid parameter. The xml.activerevenue.com/conversion endpoint reads the click ID from c. If you rename it, the conversion arrives without a click ID and is not counted.
ActiveRevenue reads value in your account currency. If your offers pay in another currency, ClickFlare’s {payout} follows your ClickFlare account currency. See Multicurrency in ClickFlare. To learn what each postback token does, see How to Configure a Traffic Source S2S Postback URL.

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Step 3 – Finish the campaign and copy its URL

  1. Name the campaign.
  2. Set the Cost Model to CPC, CPA, or Not Tracked, depending on how you buy. See Cost.
  3. Choose Redirect or Direct tracking. Redirect is the usual choice for ActiveRevenue’s popunder, push and native traffic.
  4. Click Next and, on Destination, add your lander (optional) and your offer.
  5. Save, open Tracking, select your own tracking domain and copy the campaign URL.
The campaign URL already contains every ActiveRevenue macro from the template, for example conversion={conversion} and pubfeed={pubfeed}. If you use a lander, its call-to-action must link to the ClickFlare click URL, not to the offer directly. Otherwise the visit reaches the offer without a ClickFlare click ID, and the conversion cannot be traced back to ActiveRevenue. See Creating a Campaign in ClickFlare.

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Step 4 – Create the campaign in ActiveRevenue

  1. In ActiveRevenue, go to Campaigns and create a campaign.
  2. Choose the campaign type (CPC, CPM or CPA), the ad format, targeting, budget and bid as usual.
  3. Create the ad and paste the ClickFlare campaign URL into the Destination URL field.
  4. Click Submit, then Finish.
  5. Make sure the campaign has at least one conversion goal. Without a goal, ActiveRevenue has nowhere to record the postback.
Paste the URL exactly as ClickFlare gives it. ActiveRevenue replaces each {...} macro when the ad is clicked. ActiveRevenue reviews new campaigns before they serve. Approval usually takes 2–4 hours, and you get an email when the campaign is approved.

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Step 5 – Test the integration

  1. Once the campaign is approved and running, click one of your own ads, or open the campaign URL with test values filled in by hand, for example conversion=test123.
  2. In ClickFlare, check that the visit appears in the campaign with an External ID and a pubfeed value.
  3. Complete the offer, or fire a test conversion from your affiliate network to ClickFlare.
  4. In ClickFlare, go to Logs → Postback Status and filter by the campaign. A successful request to xml.activerevenue.com confirms ClickFlare sent the postback.
  5. In ActiveRevenue’s reporting, check that the conversion appears on the campaign. ActiveRevenue can take up to an hour to show conversions.
A test with a made-up click ID will reach ActiveRevenue but will not match a real click. Use a click ActiveRevenue generated if you want to see the conversion in its reporting.

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Tracking several events

ActiveRevenue supports several goals in one campaign, for example a registration and a purchase. Each goal has its own ID. To send each event to its own goal, add &id= with the goal ID to each postback:
  1. In ActiveRevenue, create a goal for each step and note each goal’s ID. Ask your account manager if you can’t find the goal IDs.
  2. In ClickFlare, create a custom conversion for each step, for example lead and purchase.
  3. On the ActiveRevenue traffic source, click + Another postback URL once per extra event.
  4. Map each postback to its ClickFlare event: the lead custom conversion to the URL with the registration goal ID, purchase to the URL with the purchase goal ID.
  5. Replace GOAL_ID_1 and GOAL_ID_2 with the real goal IDs.
  • One postback per goal. Don’t combine goals in one URL.
  • A postback without id counts toward the campaign’s first goal.
  • Keep c={external_id} in every postback. The goal ID tells ActiveRevenue which goal, the click ID tells it which click.
If ActiveRevenue should only learn from your final sale, keep a single postback and map it to that event. Earlier steps (leads, registrations) still show in ClickFlare. They just don’t reach ActiveRevenue.To send a postback only for some conversions, for example only those above a certain payout, use Event filter under the postback to add conditions.

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Cost

The template does not pass cost. It has no Cost row, so ClickFlare cannot read the price of each click from the URL. Set the cost model on the campaign to match how you buy:
With auto-bidding or Target CPA, your real price per click changes all the time, so a fixed CPC value is only an estimate. Compare the Cost column with your ActiveRevenue spend after launch, and correct the difference with a manual cost upload.
If ActiveRevenue gives you a cost macro for your account, add it with Add Parameter and select {cost} as the ClickFlare token. Then set the Cost Model to Not Tracked, so ClickFlare uses the cost passed in the URL. ClickFlare has no cost-tracking API integration for ActiveRevenue. See Cost Models.

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Delayed revenue

If you run search arbitrage (RSOC or AFD) behind ActiveRevenue, the feed reports revenue hours or days after the click. To pass that revenue to ActiveRevenue once it arrives, see Sending Delayed Revenue to Traffic Sources.

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Troubleshooting

  • Traffic source postback URL is off on the ActiveRevenue traffic source.
  • Disable sending postbacks to traffic source is on in the campaign.
  • The postback is mapped to a different event than the one the conversion logged. Check Logs → Event Logs to see which event was recorded.
  • The ActiveRevenue campaign has no goal, or the id in the postback doesn’t match a goal on that campaign.
  • ActiveRevenue’s reporting can lag by up to an hour. Wait, then check again.
  • Check Logs → Postback Status: a failed request shows the status code ActiveRevenue returned.
  • The campaign URL in ActiveRevenue is missing conversion={conversion}, or the macro was edited. Copy the URL from ClickFlare again.
  • The postback sends the click ID in a parameter other than c.
  • The externalId row was removed from the traffic source.
The template sends value={payout}, so it was removed or edited. Without it, ActiveRevenue records a value of 0. Restore &value={payout} at the end of the postback.
The template passes no cost, so ClickFlare uses the value you set in the cost model. Update the value when you change your bid, or correct past days with a manual cost upload.
The macros were not replaced, usually because the URL was edited. Paste the campaign URL from ClickFlare unchanged. query and keyword only fill on search and keyword traffic. See Traffic Source Tokens Arriving Empty.
For the general checklist, see Conversions not showing.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q1: Can I use the same ActiveRevenue traffic source for all my ActiveRevenue campaigns?
A1: Yes. The postback has no account key or campaign ID in it, so it works for every campaign. Create a second ActiveRevenue traffic source only if a campaign needs a different postback, for example postbacks with goal IDs.
Q2: Why is it called conversion in the campaign URL and c in the postback?
A2: They are two halves of the same value. ActiveRevenue’s click ID macro is named {conversion}, and ClickFlare reads it from the conversion parameter. ActiveRevenue expects it back in its own c parameter. Both names are fixed. Change neither.
Q3: ActiveRevenue’s help center lists clickid, conversion_value and status as postback parameters. Which is right?
A3: Use the template’s xml.activerevenue.com/conversion postback, which reads c, value, count and id. If your ActiveRevenue account manager gives you a different postback URL, use theirs and put {external_id} where the click ID goes and {payout} where the value goes.
Q4: Should I use Redirect or Direct tracking with ActiveRevenue?
A4: Redirect is the usual choice and works with every ActiveRevenue format. Use Direct only if ActiveRevenue must see your lander’s domain as the destination. See Direct Campaign Tracking.
Q5: Does the template work for ActiveRevenue’s CPA campaigns?
A5: Yes. CPA campaigns need the postback, because ActiveRevenue charges and optimizes on the conversions it receives. Set the campaign’s cost model to CPA in ClickFlare.

Traffic source postbacks

Every token you can use in a postback.

Custom conversions

Split leads and sales into separate events.

Cost models

How CPC, CPA and RevShare costs are calculated.

Conversions not showing

The general checklist when postbacks don’t arrive.