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Clickadu traffic source template Clickadu is a self-serve ad network selling popunder, banner, in-page push, instant text message, video pre-roll and Skim traffic, bought on CPM and other models. This guide sets up Clickadu as a traffic source in ClickFlare. It covers passing Clickadu’s click, cost and zone data into your reports and sending conversions back to Clickadu, so its Smart eCPA optimization and your stats agree. You do everything from the campaign editor. The Clickadu traffic source is created inline, without leaving the campaign.

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At a glance

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How it works

1

Clickadu sends the click

A visitor clicks your ad. Clickadu opens your ClickFlare campaign URL and fills in its macros: the click ID in visitor_id, the cost in cost and the zone in zoneid.
2

ClickFlare stores the Clickadu click ID and cost

ClickFlare saves the value of visitor_id as the visit’s External ID, records the cost for the visit, 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 Clickadu

ClickFlare fires the Clickadu postback, replacing {external_id} with the stored Clickadu click ID, {payout} with the conversion’s payout and {trackingField1} with the zone ID. Clickadu matches it to the original click and counts the conversion.
The mirror to keep straight: in the campaign URL you write ClickFlare’s parameter (visitor_id) and Clickadu’s macro (${SUBID}). The template does this for you. In the postback URL you keep Clickadu’s parameter (also visitor_id) and put in ClickFlare’s token ({external_id}). The parameter name is the same on both sides. Only the value changes.

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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.
  • Have access to Tracking in your Clickadu account. Clickadu generates your own postback URL there. You need two values from it: the unique identifier in its path and its aid.
  • Decide which conversion Clickadu should receive. Clickadu optimizes on what you send it. If your funnel has several steps (lead, then sale), choose the one that best predicts profit. See Sending only the right event.

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Step 1 – Create the campaign and the Clickadu traffic source

  1. Go to Campaigns and click New.
  2. In Traffic Source, open the dropdown and click + New Traffic Source.
  3. Type clickadu in the search box and select the Clickadu template.
  4. Enter a Name, for example Clickadu.
  5. Leave Cost currency on USD unless your Clickadu account is billed in another currency.
The template fills in the Parameters table for you: The Clickadu template's Parameters table in ClickFlare, with Clickadu's macros pre-filled The template is short: one tracking field. zoneid is the one that matters most. It tells you which publisher zones convert, so you can blacklist or bid up zones in Clickadu. The template’s postback also sends the zone back to Clickadu, so keep this row in tracking field 1.
Don’t change or remove the external_id row or the Cost row. Without ${SUBID} in the campaign URL, Clickadu cannot match conversions to clicks. Without {cost}, ClickFlare has no cost for your Clickadu visits. Note that ${SUBID} starts with a dollar sign. Keep it exactly as the template writes it.

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Add more Clickadu data

Nine tracking fields are free. To pass more Clickadu data, click Add Parameter, give it a name and parameter, and enter the Clickadu macro as the TS Token. ClickFlare assigns the next free tracking field. Other trackers’ Clickadu templates also pass these macros. Confirm each one against the macro list in your Clickadu account before you add it: Campaign ID and OS are the most useful additions. They let you split one ClickFlare campaign’s stats by Clickadu campaign and by operating system.

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Step 2 – Set up the postback

The postback is what sends conversions to Clickadu. It lives on the traffic source, so every campaign that uses this Clickadu traffic source sends conversions the same way. Clickadu needs it for its Smart eCPA bidding, which optimizes your bids on the conversions it receives. The Clickadu template includes the postback URL. When you turn on Traffic source postback URL, the field is already filled in:
The Traffic source postback URL switched on, showing the Clickadu template's postback It sends four things to Clickadu:
  • visitor_id={external_id}: Clickadu’s click ID, stored from ${SUBID} when the visit arrived.
  • aid=REPLACE_AID: your Clickadu account value. You replace it.
  • payout={payout}: the conversion’s payout.
  • zone_id={trackingField1}: the zone ID, stored from {zoneid} in tracking field 1.
Two parts are placeholders: REPLACE_HASH in the path and REPLACE_AID. Both are specific to your Clickadu account, so you take them from the postback URL Clickadu generates for you.

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Find your values in Clickadu

  1. In Clickadu, open Tracking. Clickadu generates your postback URL automatically.
  2. If Clickadu asks for a tracker, choose a generic or custom option. Clickadu may not list ClickFlare.
  3. Look at the generated postback URL. It looks like this:
  • The unique identifier is the part of the path between /conversion/ and /?. It replaces REPLACE_HASH.
  • The aid is the value after aid=. It replaces REPLACE_AID.

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Fill them in on 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 URL appears in the field.
  3. Replace REPLACE_HASH with your unique identifier and REPLACE_AID with your aid. Leave everything else as it is. The result looks like this:
  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 Clickadu traffic source selected.
If REPLACE_HASH or REPLACE_AID is left in the URL, or either value is wrong, Clickadu receives the request but cannot assign the conversion to your account. Copy both values exactly as Clickadu generated them.
Don’t paste Clickadu’s generated URL over the template’s. Clickadu’s version has ${SUBID} as the click ID, which ClickFlare doesn’t recognize and would send as literal text, and it has no payout or zone. In the postback, the click ID must always be {external_id}. 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 Not Tracked. The template passes cost per visit. See Cost.
  3. Choose Redirect or Direct tracking. Redirect is the usual choice for Clickadu’s popunder and banner 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 Clickadu macro from the template: cost={cost}, visitor_id=${SUBID} and zoneid={zoneid}. 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 Clickadu. See Creating a Campaign in ClickFlare.

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Step 4 – Create the campaign in Clickadu

  1. In Clickadu, go to Campaigns and start a new campaign.
  2. Fill in the required details: ad format, targeting and bid.
  3. Paste the ClickFlare campaign URL into the Target URL field of your creative.
  4. Set any other options and save. The campaign runs once your account has funds and the campaign passes approval.
Paste the URL exactly as ClickFlare gives it. Clickadu replaces ${SUBID}, {cost} and {zoneid} when the ad is clicked.

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Step 5 – Test the integration

Run a test before you scale the campaign.
  1. Open your ClickFlare campaign URL in a browser, with a test value in place of the macros, for example visitor_id=test123 and cost=0.001.
  2. Complete the offer the way a real visitor would, or fire a test conversion from your affiliate network.
  3. In ClickFlare, check that the conversion appears on the campaign with test123 as its External ID.
  4. Go to Logs → Postback Status and filter by the campaign. You should see a request to sconvtrk.com with visitor_id=test123, your payout in payout, and no REPLACE_HASH or REPLACE_AID left in the URL.
A test click ID is not a real Clickadu click, so Clickadu won’t count this conversion. The test proves that ClickFlare fires the postback with the right value. Once real traffic converts, conversions appear in your Clickadu statistics.

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Sending only the right event

Clickadu’s postback carries no event name, so each conversion it receives counts the same. Send the event you want Clickadu to optimize on.
If Clickadu should only learn from your final sale, keep a single postback and map it to that event. Earlier steps (leads, add to carts) still show in ClickFlare. They just don’t reach Clickadu.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.
If you add a postback per event with + Another postback URL, all of them go to the same Clickadu URL. Clickadu cannot tell a lead from a sale and counts each one as a conversion. Your Clickadu conversion count and eCPA then stop matching your real results.

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Cost

The template’s Cost row maps Clickadu’s {cost} macro to ClickFlare’s {cost} token. Clickadu fills in the cost of each visit when the ad is clicked, and ClickFlare records it against that visit. The macro and the token have the same name. In the campaign URL, {cost} is Clickadu’s macro, and Clickadu replaces it before the visit reaches ClickFlare. To use it, set the campaign’s Cost Model to Not Tracked. ClickFlare then reads the cost from the campaign URL instead of a fixed value, so your Cost, Profit and ROI follow what Clickadu actually charged. Check the cost in ClickFlare against Clickadu’s own statistics for the first days. If they drift, correct the totals with a manual cost upload. ClickFlare has no Clickadu cost API integration. See Cost Models and Traffic Source Cost Tracking.

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Delayed revenue

If you run search arbitrage (RSOC or AFD) behind Clickadu, the feed reports revenue hours or days after the click. The template’s postback sends {payout}, so a delayed postback carries the revenue known when it fires. See Sending Delayed Revenue to Traffic Sources.

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Troubleshooting

  • The campaign URL in Clickadu is missing visitor_id=${SUBID}, or the macro was edited. Copy the URL from ClickFlare again.
  • The postback contains ${SUBID} instead of {external_id}, usually because Clickadu’s generated URL was pasted over the template’s.
  • REPLACE_HASH or REPLACE_AID is still in the postback, or the value is wrong. Copy both from Clickadu’s Tracking page again.
  • The external_id row was removed from the traffic source.
  • Traffic source postback URL is off on the Clickadu traffic source, or the field was left empty.
  • 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.
  • Check Logs → Postback Status: a failed request shows the status code Clickadu returned.
  • The campaign’s Cost Model is not Not Tracked, or a fixed value overrides it.
  • The Cost row was removed or edited, so cost={cost} is missing from the campaign URL.
  • The URL was pasted somewhere Clickadu doesn’t replace macros.
The macro was not replaced, usually because the URL was edited or pasted somewhere Clickadu doesn’t process macros. Paste the campaign URL from ClickFlare unchanged. See Traffic Source Tokens Arriving Empty.
For the general checklist, see Conversions not showing.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q1: Can I use the same Clickadu traffic source for all my Clickadu campaigns?
A1: Yes. The postback is set once on the traffic source and every campaign using it sends conversions the same way. Create a second Clickadu traffic source only if a campaign needs a different postback or event.
Q2: What are REPLACE_HASH and REPLACE_AID in the postback?
A2: Placeholders for your own account’s unique identifier and aid. Every Clickadu postback contains them, so the template can’t fill them in. Copy both from the postback URL on Clickadu’s Tracking page.
Q3: Why is visitor_id in both the campaign URL and the postback?
A3: Both sides happen to use the same name. In the campaign URL, visitor_id is the ClickFlare parameter that receives Clickadu’s ${SUBID}. In the postback, visitor_id is Clickadu’s parameter that receives ClickFlare’s {external_id}. Change neither name.
Q4: Should I use Redirect or Direct tracking with Clickadu?
A4: Redirect is the usual choice and works with every Clickadu format. Use Direct only if Clickadu must see your lander’s domain as the destination. See Direct Campaign Tracking.
Q5: Do I need the postback if I buy on CPM?
A5: It is optional, but recommended. Without conversions, Clickadu’s Smart eCPA cannot optimize your bids, and Clickadu’s stats show no conversion data next to your spend.

Traffic source postbacks

Every token you can use in a postback.

Custom conversions

Choose which event Clickadu receives.

Cost models

How Auto, CPC and CPA costs are calculated.

Conversions not showing

The general checklist when postbacks don’t arrive.