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RollerAds traffic source template RollerAds is a self-serve ad network selling push, in-page push, OnClick (popunder) and Direct Click traffic. This guide sets up RollerAds as a traffic source in ClickFlare. It covers passing RollerAds’ click data into your reports and sending conversions back to RollerAds so its CPA Goal bidding and your stats agree. You do everything from the campaign editor. The RollerAds traffic source is created inline, without leaving the campaign.

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At a glance

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How it works

1

RollerAds sends the click

A visitor clicks your ad. RollerAds opens your ClickFlare campaign URL and fills in its macros: the click ID in externalId, the cost in cost, plus the campaign, creative, zone, feed, device and other details.
2

ClickFlare stores the RollerAds click ID

ClickFlare saves the value of externalId as the visit’s External ID, records the 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 RollerAds

ClickFlare fires the RollerAds postback, replacing {external_id} with the stored RollerAds click ID. RollerAds matches it to the original click.
The mirror to keep straight: in the campaign URL you write ClickFlare’s parameter (externalId) and RollerAds’ macro ({clickId}). The template does this for you. In the postback URL you write RollerAds’ parameter (click_id) and ClickFlare’s token ({external_id}). RollerAds and ClickFlare both use single braces, so a RollerAds macro in the postback looks valid but is never filled in.

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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.
  • Open your RollerAds Tracking tab. Your personal postback URL is there, with your account number and tracking key in it. Both go into the ClickFlare postback.
  • Decide which conversion RollerAds should receive. RollerAds’ CPA Goal and CPA optimization need a postback, and learn from the conversions you send. If your funnel has several steps, choose the one that matters. See Tracking several events.

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Step 1 – Create the campaign and the RollerAds traffic source

  1. Go to Campaigns and click New.
  2. In Traffic Source, open the dropdown and click + New Traffic Source.
  3. Type roller in the search box and select the RollerAds template.
  4. Enter a Name, for example RollerAds.
  5. Leave Cost currency on USD unless your RollerAds account is billed in another currency.
The template fills in the Parameters table for you: The RollerAds template's Parameters table in ClickFlare, with RollerAds' macros pre-filled Each tracking field becomes a column you can group reports by. zone_id and feed_id are the ones you will use most. They tell you which placements and feeds convert, so you can exclude or bid up zones in RollerAds. RollerAds recommends passing the Feed ID to trackers, and the template already does.
Don’t change or remove the External ID row. Without externalId={clickId} in the campaign URL, RollerAds has no click ID to receive back, and no conversion reaches RollerAds.
RollerAds macros are case-sensitive. {clickId} works, {clickid} does not. Keep the template’s spelling. To pass more RollerAds data, click Add Parameter, give it a name and parameter, and enter the RollerAds macro as the TS Token. ClickFlare assigns the next free tracking field. RollerAds also offers {browserVersion}, {osVersion}, {countryName}, {connectionType}, {UserAgent}, {ageGroup} (days since the push subscription) and {format}. {ageGroup} is useful on push traffic. Check the macro list in your RollerAds account before adding one.

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Step 2 – Set up the postback

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

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Get your postback values from RollerAds

  1. In RollerAds, open the Tracking tab (my.rollerads.com/campaigns/tracking).
  2. Copy your personal postback URL. It has the form https://eu.rollerads.com/conversion/aid/ACCOUNT_NUMBER/TRACKING_KEY?click_id={clickId}.
  3. Note the two values after /aid/: first your account number, then your tracking key.

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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 RollerAds template's postback
  1. Replace REPLACE_WITH_ACCOUNT_ID with your RollerAds account number, and INDIVIDUAL_ACCESS_TOKEN with your tracking key. Keep {external_id}, which is ClickFlare’s token for the stored RollerAds click ID. The result:
  1. Compare the result with the URL from your Tracking tab. Apart from the click ID token (RollerAds’ {clickId}, ClickFlare’s {external_id}), the two should match. If your RollerAds URL has a different host than eu.rollerads.com, use your host.
  2. In the dropdown on the left, choose the ClickFlare event that should fire the postback. The dropdown lists the Default Events (Conversions, Clicks, Visits) and your Custom Conversions. Keep Conversions to send every conversion. If your final action is a custom conversion (for example purchase), choose that instead.
  3. Click Save. You are back in the campaign editor with the RollerAds traffic source selected.
Replace both placeholders. With either one still in the path, RollerAds can’t tie the conversion to your account, and no conversion shows in RollerAds. ClickFlare still sends the postback, so Logs → Postback Status shows it as sent.

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Sending the payout

The template’s postback sends only the click ID. RollerAds’ guide to campaigns also mentions a payout and a conversion status you can add in the Tracking section when you generate the postback. If your generated URL has a payout parameter, add it to the ClickFlare postback with the parameter name RollerAds shows and the {payout} token as its value, for example &PARAMETER={payout}. Don’t guess the name. 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, so ClickFlare uses the cost RollerAds passes. See Cost.
  3. Choose Redirect or Direct tracking. Redirect is the usual choice for RollerAds’ push and OnClick 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 RollerAds macro from the template, for example externalId={clickId} and zone_id={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 RollerAds. See Creating a Campaign in ClickFlare.

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Step 4 – Create the campaign in RollerAds

  1. In RollerAds, create a campaign (or edit one) and choose the ad format.
  2. In the general step, paste the ClickFlare campaign URL into the Target URL field, with all its parameters.
  3. Set the targeting, the pricing model (CPC, CPM, SmartCPC, SmartCPM or CPA Goal) and the bid as usual.
  4. Submit the campaign for moderation.
Paste the URL exactly as ClickFlare gives it. RollerAds replaces each {...} macro when the ad is clicked.

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Step 5 – Test the integration

RollerAds can check the setup from its Tracking section before you spend anything.
  1. In RollerAds, open the Tracking tab, paste your ClickFlare campaign URL into the test’s URL field and select Test.
  2. Follow the test link. You land on your lander or offer through ClickFlare.
  3. Complete the offer the way a real visitor would.
  4. Check the result in RollerAds. A notification that the conversion is registered means the integration works.
  5. In ClickFlare, go to Logs → Postback Status and filter by the campaign. A successful postback to eu.rollerads.com confirms ClickFlare sent it. Check that the request URL has a real click ID after click_id=, not an empty value.

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Tracking several events

The template sends one postback for one event. RollerAds bids on CPA Goal campaigns using the conversions it receives, so send the conversion you want it to optimize for.
  1. In ClickFlare, create a custom conversion for each step of your funnel, for example lead and purchase.
  2. On the RollerAds traffic source, map the postback to the event RollerAds should learn from, for example purchase.
  3. Leave the other steps without a postback. They still show in ClickFlare’s reports.
You can click + Another postback URL and map a second event to the same RollerAds URL. RollerAds will count both as conversions, so its conversion count and CPA will mix the two steps. If RollerAds’ Tracking tab offers separate goals in your account, use the URL it generates for each goal instead, with {external_id} as the click ID.
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 cost per click. The Cost row sends RollerAds’ {cost} macro, and ClickFlare records it as the visit’s cost. On the campaign, set the Cost Model to Not Tracked so ClickFlare uses the cost passed in the URL.
Compare ClickFlare’s Cost column with your RollerAds spend after launch. If it is empty or doesn’t match, for example on CPM or SmartCPM campaigns, switch the Cost Model to CPC and enter your cost per click. On CPM bids for OnClick traffic, where one impression is one visit, that is the CPM bid divided by 1,000.
For RollerAds CPA Goal campaigns, set the Cost Model to CPA, with your target price per conversion, if you want ClickFlare to count cost per conversion instead of per click. When the recorded spend differs from your RollerAds spend, correct it with a manual cost upload. See Cost Models. ClickFlare has no cost-tracking API integration for RollerAds. The cost in the URL is the source of truth.

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Delayed revenue

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

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Troubleshooting

  • One or both placeholders (REPLACE_WITH_ACCOUNT_ID, INDIVIDUAL_ACCESS_TOKEN) are still in the postback, or the account number and tracking key are swapped.
  • The postback has a click ID token other than {external_id}, for example {externalId} copied from an older setup. ClickFlare doesn’t fill it in. In Logs → Postback Status, a request with no click ID after click_id= points to this.
  • The campaign URL in RollerAds is missing externalId={clickId}, or the macro was retyped as {clickid}. Copy the URL from ClickFlare again.
  • The External ID row was removed from the traffic source.
  • Traffic source postback URL is off on the RollerAds 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.
  • Check Logs → Postback Status: a failed request shows the status code RollerAds returned.
The template doesn’t send a payout. Add the payout parameter from your RollerAds Tracking tab, with {payout} as its value. See Sending the payout.
The macros were not replaced, usually because the URL was edited or a macro’s case changed. 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 RollerAds traffic source for all my RollerAds 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 RollerAds traffic source only if a campaign needs a different postback, for example a different event.
Q2: Other trackers’ guides tell me to change {clickId} to {externalid}. Should I do that?
A2: No. That is the token for those trackers. In ClickFlare the token is {external_id}, with an underscore and in lower case.
Q3: Why is it externalId in the campaign URL and click_id in the postback?
A3: They are two halves of the same value. ClickFlare reads RollerAds’ click ID from its own externalId parameter. RollerAds expects it back in its own click_id parameter. Keep both names as the template sets them.
Q4: Should I use Redirect or Direct tracking with RollerAds?
A4: Redirect is the usual choice and works with every RollerAds format. Use Direct only if RollerAds must see your lander’s domain as the destination. See Direct Campaign Tracking.
Q5: Does the template work for RollerAds CPA Goal campaigns?
A5: Yes, once the postback is fixed. CPA Goal and CPA optimization need the postback, because RollerAds bids on the conversions it receives.

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.