Admixer as a Traffic Source

Admixer is an ad tech company with a full stack for advertisers and publishers. Advertisers buy through the Admixer DSP (its self-serve buying interface is known as Admixer.TradeDesk): display, video, native, audio and mobile inventory from ad exchanges, SSPs and direct publishers, bought on CPM through open auctions, private marketplaces and direct deals. This guide sets up Admixer as a traffic source in ClickFlare. It covers passing Admixer’s impression and placement data into your reports, and the options for getting conversions back to Admixer. You do everything from the campaign editor. The Admixer traffic source is created inline, without leaving the campaign. The Admixer template needs work before launch. Its click ID row has its two fields swapped, all its tracking rows are switched off, and it has no postback. This guide goes through each fix.

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At a glance

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How it works

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Before you start

• Set up your own tracking domain. Run the campaign 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.
• Have an Admixer advertiser account with an advertiser created under Advertisers. Admixer links every creative and campaign to an advertiser.
• Decide how Admixer will learn about conversions. Admixer doesn’t publish an S2S postback URL. Ask your Admixer account manager or support whether your account has one before launch. See Step 2.

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Step 1 – Create the campaign and the Admixer traffic source

1. Go to Campaigns and click New.
2. In Traffic Source, open the dropdown and click + New Traffic Source.
3. Type admixer in the search box and select the Admixer template.
4. Enter a Name, for example Admixer.
5. Leave Cost currency on USD unless your Admixer account is billed in another currency.

The template fills in the Parameters table. This is what it contains today:

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Fix the External ID row

The externalId row has its two fields the wrong way round. As shipped, it adds ${AUCTION_ID}=auction_id to the campaign URL: a parameter named after the macro, carrying the fixed text auction_id. Admixer never fills it in, and every visit gets the same External ID.

1. In the externalId row, set TS Parameter to auction_id.
2. Set TS Token to ${AUCTION_ID}.

The row now adds auction_id=${AUCTION_ID} to the campaign URL, and Admixer replaces the macro with the real auction ID.

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Switch on the tracking rows

All eight tracking rows, from Campaign ID to Timestamp, are switched off. A row that is off is not added to the campaign URL, so its column stays empty. Switch on the toggle of each row you want in your reports. Switch on at least Publisher ID, Website ID and Referrer domain. They tell you which publishers and sites convert, so you can exclude the rest from your Admixer profile’s inventory. Timestamp and Page URL are optional. Page URL can be long, and timestamp is rarely useful for grouping. To pass more Admixer data, click Add Parameter, give it a name and parameter, and enter the Admixer macro as the TS Token. ClickFlare assigns the next free tracking field. Check with Admixer which macros your account supports before adding them.

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Step 2 – Set up conversion tracking

The template has no postback. Leave Traffic source postback URL off until you have a URL from Admixer. Your conversions are still tracked in ClickFlare. Admixer just doesn’t receive them. You have two ways to get conversions to Admixer.

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Option A – An S2S postback from Admixer

Admixer’s help center, which needs an account login, describes server-to-server conversion tracking through third-party trackers, with a conversion type parameter in the postback. Admixer doesn’t publish the postback URL itself.

1. Ask your Admixer account manager or support for the S2S postback URL for your advertiser, and for the name of the parameter that carries the click ID.
2. Back in the New Traffic Source form, scroll to Passing conversion info to traffic source and turn on Traffic source postback URL.
3. Paste Admixer’s URL. Put {external_id} where Admixer expects the auction ID. If Admixer accepts a revenue parameter, put {payout} in it.
4. If the URL has other placeholders, such as a conversion type, fill them in with the values Admixer gives you.
5. In the dropdown on the left, choose the ClickFlare event that should fire the postback. Keep Conversions to send every conversion.
6. Click Save.

To learn what each postback token does, see How to Configure a Traffic Source S2S Postback URL.

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Option B – Admixer’s post-click code

Admixer can track what visitors do after they click with its own snippet. Admixer’s documentation describes it like this:

1. In Admixer, after you create the campaign and its profiles, select Campaigns – Generate a post-click code.
2. Copy the snippet and paste it on the page you control where the conversion happens: your lander, or your own thank-you page.
3. Post-click data shows in Admixer’s campaign reports.

This doesn’t involve ClickFlare. It only works on pages where you can add code, so it can’t see conversions on an affiliate offer’s own pages.

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Step 3 – Finish the campaign and copy its URL

1. Name the campaign.
2. Set the Cost Model to CPC and enter your effective cost per click. See Cost.
3. Choose Redirect or Direct tracking. Redirect is the usual choice for Admixer.
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.

Check the campaign URL before you leave. It should contain auction_id=${AUCTION_ID} and one parameter for each row you switched on, for example publisher_id=${PUBLISHER_ID}. If you see ${AUCTION_ID}=auction_id, the External ID row is still swapped. 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 Admixer. See Creating a Campaign in ClickFlare.

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Step 4 – Create the campaign in Admixer

1. In Admixer, go to Creatives, select Creative library and click Add a creative.
2. Choose the creative type, enter a name and select your advertiser.
3. Paste the ClickFlare campaign URL into the Main landing page URL field.
4. Enter the advertiser’s domain, upload the creative and click SAVE.
5. Go to Campaigns, select Campaigns and click Add a campaign. Enter a name, select the advertiser, set the daily and campaign budgets and click SAVE.
6. Click Add a profile. Name it, set a budget limit, pick inventory with Inventory selector, set targeting and enter the maximal profile CPM. Click SAVE.
7. In the creative library, select your creative, click Link profile, choose the profile and save.
8. In the profile, open Linked creatives and click ACTIVATE on the creative.

Paste the URL exactly as ClickFlare gives it. Admixer replaces each ${...} macro when the ad is clicked.

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Step 5 – Test the integration

1. Launch the profile with a small budget.
2. In ClickFlare, open the campaign’s report and check External ID. It should show a different auction ID on each visit. The text auction_id on every visit means the External ID row is still swapped. A raw ${AUCTION_ID} means Admixer didn’t replace the macro.
3. Check the publisher, website and referrer domain columns. Empty columns mean the rows are still switched off. See Traffic Source Tokens Arriving Empty.
4. If you added a postback, complete the offer yourself through the campaign URL, then go to Logs → Postback Status and filter by the campaign. Check that the request carries a real auction ID.
5. If you added the post-click code, check Admixer’s campaign report for post-click data.

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Tracking several events

ClickFlare tracks every step of your funnel regardless of Admixer. Create a custom conversion for each step, for example lead and purchase, and report on each one per publisher and website. If Admixer gives you a postback with a conversion type parameter, you can send each step separately:

1. Click + Another postback URL once per extra event.
2. Use the same Admixer URL, with the conversion type value Admixer gives you for that step.
3. Map each postback to its ClickFlare event in the dropdown on the left.

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 passes no cost. It has no Cost row, and Admixer’s documented macros don’t include the price of the impression. Admixer buys on CPM: you set the maximal CPM on each profile. Clicks on display, video and native ads are a small share of impressions, so the CPM divided by 1,000 would understate your cost per visit. On the campaign:

1. Set the Cost Model to CPC.
2. Enter your effective cost per click: spend divided by clicks, from a test run or from similar campaigns.
3. After launch, compare ClickFlare’s Cost column with your Admixer spend and correct it with a manual cost upload.

ClickFlare has no cost integration for Admixer. See Cost Models.

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Delayed revenue

If you run search arbitrage (RSOC or AFD) behind Admixer, the feed reports revenue hours or days after the click. ClickFlare records it when it arrives. If Admixer gives you a postback, see Sending Delayed Revenue to Traffic Sources to pass that revenue on.

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Troubleshooting

For the general checklist, see Conversions not showing.

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q1: Why does the template have no postback?

A1: Admixer doesn’t publish an S2S postback URL. Its conversion setups are described in its login-only help center or provided by its team. Ask your Admixer account manager for the URL, then add it as in Step 2.

Q2: Is ${AUCTION_ID} really a click ID?

A2: It is the ID of the auction that served the ad, unique to that impression. Admixer integrations use it as the click ID, since each click comes from one served impression.

Q3: Why is the Placement ID row filled with ${INSERTION_ORDER_ID}?

A3: That is how Admixer’s tracker integrations map it. The macro carries the insertion order ID. Use the Website ID and Referrer domain rows to see where your ads actually ran.

Q4: Can I use the same Admixer traffic source for all my Admixer campaigns?

A4: Yes. Fix the External ID row and switch on the rows once, and every campaign using the traffic source gets the same parameters.

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