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PopCash traffic source template PopCash is a popunder network with worldwide coverage, much of it mobile traffic. You bid per visitor and start with a small deposit. This guide sets up PopCash as a traffic source in ClickFlare. It covers passing PopCash’s visit data into your reports, passing the bid as cost, and sending conversions, with payout, back to PopCash so its stats and yours agree. You do everything from the campaign editor. The PopCash traffic source is created inline, without leaving the campaign.

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At a glance

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How it works

1

PopCash sends the visit

A visitor opens a page on a PopCash publisher site and your popunder loads. PopCash opens your ClickFlare campaign URL and fills in its macros: the click ID in clickid, your bid in bid, plus the site, country, OS, device, browser and other details.
2

ClickFlare stores the PopCash click ID

ClickFlare saves the value of clickid as the visit’s External ID, records the bid as the visit’s cost, 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 PopCash

ClickFlare fires the PopCash postback, replacing {external_id} with the stored PopCash click ID and {payout} with the revenue. PopCash matches it to the original visit.
The mirror to keep straight: in the campaign URL you write ClickFlare’s parameter (clickid) and PopCash’s macro ([clickid]). The template does this for you. In the postback URL you write PopCash’s parameter (clickid) and ClickFlare’s token ({external_id}). PopCash macros use square brackets. ClickFlare tokens use curly braces. A postback should contain only curly braces.

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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.
  • Find your aid in PopCash. Each PopCash account has its own aid, and it goes into the postback URL. You copy it from PopCash’s Conversion Tracker in Step 2.
  • Decide which conversions PopCash should receive. PopCash takes a main postback and a second postback. If your funnel has several steps (lead, then sale), decide now which ones to send. See Tracking several events.

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Step 1 – Create the campaign and the PopCash traffic source

  1. Go to Campaigns and click New.
  2. In Traffic Source, open the dropdown and click + New Traffic Source.
  3. Type popcash in the search box and select the PopCash template.
  4. Enter a Name, for example PopCash.
  5. Leave Cost currency on USD unless your PopCash account is billed in another currency.
The template fills in the Parameters table for you: The PopCash template's Parameters table in ClickFlare, with PopCash's macros pre-filled Each tracking field becomes a column you can group reports by. siteid is the one you will use most: it tells you which publisher sites convert, so you can block or bid up sites in PopCash. Note the one row whose names differ: ClickFlare’s parameter is countrycode, but PopCash’s macro is [cc]. That is correct. Don’t rename the macro to match.
Don’t change or remove the externalId row. Without clickid=[clickid] in the campaign URL, ClickFlare has no PopCash click ID to send back, and PopCash cannot match any conversion.
To pass more PopCash data, click Add Parameter, give it a name and parameter, and enter the PopCash macro as the TS Token. ClickFlare assigns the next free tracking field. PopCash lists its macros on the campaign form, behind the link to view the tracking tokens. Check them before adding any.

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Step 2 – Set up the postback

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

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Get your aid from PopCash

  1. In your PopCash advertiser account, open Conversion Tracker from the menu on the left.
  2. Copy the Main Postback URL. It looks like this:
  1. Note the number after aid=. It is unique to your account. Use the one PopCash shows you, never one from an example.

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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 PopCash template's postback
  1. Replace REPLACE with your aid. Keep {external_id} and {payout}, which are ClickFlare’s tokens. 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 PopCash traffic source selected.
If REPLACE stays in the URL, PopCash cannot tell which account the conversion belongs to and drops it. ClickFlare still sends the postback, so Logs → Postback Status shows it as sent. Always check the URL for REPLACE before saving.
If you copy PopCash’s own postback instead of editing the template’s, replace whatever click ID and payout tokens it contains with ClickFlare’s {external_id} and {payout}. PopCash pre-fills them for the tracker you chose, and another tracker’s tokens mean nothing to ClickFlare. If your offers pay in a currency other than your PopCash account’s, 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. See Cost.
  3. Choose Redirect or Direct tracking. Redirect is the usual choice for popunder 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 PopCash macro from the template, for example clickid=[clickid], siteid=[siteid] and bid=[bid]. 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 PopCash. See Creating a Campaign in ClickFlare.

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Step 4 – Create the campaign in PopCash

  1. In PopCash, go to Campaigns and click Create Campaign.
  2. Paste the ClickFlare campaign URL into the Landing URL field.
  3. Choose your targeting, bid and budget as usual.
  4. Click Start Campaign.
Paste the URL exactly as ClickFlare gives it. PopCash replaces each [...] macro when the popunder opens.

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Step 5 – Test the integration

  1. Run the campaign with a small budget until the first visits arrive.
  2. In ClickFlare, open the campaign report and group by External ID. Each visit should show a PopCash click ID. If the column is empty or shows [clickid] as text, the macro is missing or was edited in the campaign URL.
  3. Complete the offer yourself through a real visit, or wait for the first real conversion.
  4. Go to Logs → Postback Status and filter by the campaign. A successful postback to ct.popcash.net confirms ClickFlare sent it. Open it and check that clickid= holds a PopCash click ID and payout= holds the payout.
  5. In PopCash, check that the campaign’s statistics show the conversion.

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Tracking several events

PopCash can track two actions for the same visitor, with a main postback and a second postback. For example, a lead submission and then a card payment.
  1. In ClickFlare, create a custom conversion for each step, for example lead and purchase.
  2. In PopCash’s Conversion Tracker, copy the second postback URL.
  3. On the PopCash traffic source, click + Another postback URL.
  4. Paste the second postback, with your aid, and replace its click ID and payout tokens with {external_id} and {payout}.
  5. Map each postback to its ClickFlare event: lead to the main postback, purchase to the second.
  6. Test each event.
  • Two events at most: the main postback and the second postback.
  • One postback per event. Don’t combine events in one URL.
  • Copy the second postback from your own Conversion Tracker. Don’t build it by changing the main URL by hand.
  • Both postbacks must carry the same click ID. They do, because ClickFlare sends the same stored External ID for every event of a visit.
If PopCash should only see your final sale, keep a single postback and map it to that event. Earlier steps still show in ClickFlare. They just don’t reach PopCash.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 your bid with every visit. PopCash fills bid=[bid] in the campaign URL, and ClickFlare records it as the visit’s cost. PopCash bids are per visitor: a bid of 0.004 buys 1,000 popunders for 4 USD. So [bid] is already a cost per visit, and no conversion is needed. Set the Cost Model on the campaign to Not Tracked. Despite the label, ClickFlare then uses the value PopCash passes in the URL. See Cost Models. After the first few hundred visits, compare ClickFlare’s Cost column with the spend PopCash reports for the same period. If you set a high bid but PopCash charged less, ClickFlare’s cost runs above the real spend. Correct it with a manual cost upload. See How to Set Up Traffic Source Cost Tracking.

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Delayed revenue

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

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Troubleshooting

  • Traffic source postback URL is off on the PopCash traffic source.
  • REPLACE was never replaced with your aid, or the aid belongs to another account.
  • The postback contains another tracker’s tokens instead of {external_id} and {payout}. ClickFlare sends unknown tokens as literal text.
  • 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 PopCash returned.
  • The campaign URL in PopCash is missing clickid=[clickid], or the macro was edited. Copy the URL from ClickFlare again.
  • The externalId row was removed from the traffic source.
The cost model is not Not Tracked, or the cost row was removed from the traffic source.
The macros were not replaced, usually because the URL was edited or pasted somewhere PopCash 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 PopCash traffic source for all my PopCash campaigns?
A1: Yes. The aid identifies your account, so one postback serves every campaign. Create a second PopCash traffic source only if a campaign needs a different postback, for example a different event setup.
Q2: Why is the country parameter countrycode but the macro [cc]?
A2: They are two halves of the same value. countrycode is the name ClickFlare reads from the campaign URL. [cc] is the name PopCash gives the country code macro. Both are correct as the template sets them.
Q3: Why is it clickid in both the campaign URL and the postback?
A3: The template uses PopCash’s own name for ClickFlare’s parameter too. The two halves still work differently: in the campaign URL, clickid receives PopCash’s [clickid]. In the postback, clickid sends back ClickFlare’s {external_id}. Change neither.
Q4: Should I use Redirect or Direct tracking with PopCash?
A4: Redirect is the usual choice for popunder traffic. Use Direct only if PopCash must see your lander’s domain as the destination. See Direct Campaign Tracking.
Q5: Do I need the postback at all?
A5: ClickFlare tracks your conversions and ROI without it. The postback is what lets PopCash see them too, so its statistics show which sites convert. Set it up anyway. It takes a minute.

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 Auto costs are calculated.

Conversions not showing

The general checklist when postbacks don’t arrive.