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SourceKnowledge traffic source template SourceKnowledge is a self-serve performance network, part of MRGE. It sells CPC traffic from publisher sites, shopping and coupon sites, browser extensions, apps, push and native placements, mostly for e-commerce and affiliate offers. This guide sets up SourceKnowledge as a traffic source in ClickFlare. It covers passing SourceKnowledge’s click data into your reports and sending conversions back to SourceKnowledge, so its optimization rules and your stats agree. You do everything from the campaign editor. The SourceKnowledge traffic source is created inline, without leaving the campaign.

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At a glance

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How it works

1

SourceKnowledge sends the click

A visitor clicks your ad. SourceKnowledge opens your ClickFlare campaign URL and fills in its macros: the click ID in clickid, the campaign CPC in adv_price, plus the campaign ID, the publisher sub ID and the visitor’s location.
2

ClickFlare stores the SourceKnowledge click ID

ClickFlare saves the value of clickid 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 SourceKnowledge

ClickFlare fires the SourceKnowledge postback, replacing {external_id} with the stored SourceKnowledge click ID. SourceKnowledge matches it to the original click, campaign and sub ID.
The mirror to keep straight: in the campaign URL you write ClickFlare’s parameter (clickid) and SourceKnowledge’s macro ({clickid}). The template does this for you. In the postback URL you write SourceKnowledge’s parameter (clk) 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.
  • Have a SourceKnowledge advertiser and campaign set up, or ready to create. In SourceKnowledge, campaigns sit under an advertiser profile.
  • Decide which conversion SourceKnowledge should receive. SourceKnowledge counts every postback as a conversion. If your funnel has several steps, pick the one that matters, usually the sale.
If you are an advertiser tracking your own store, SourceKnowledge’s JavaScript pixels or its Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento and BigCommerce apps are another way to report sales. The postback in this guide is SourceKnowledge’s option for advertisers who track through a tracker and can’t place its pixel. Pick one route, so each sale is reported to SourceKnowledge once.

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Step 1 – Create the campaign and the SourceKnowledge traffic source

  1. Go to Campaigns and click New.
  2. In Traffic Source, open the dropdown and click + New Traffic Source.
  3. Type sourceknowledge in the search box and select the SourceKnowledge template.
  4. Enter a Name, for example SourceKnowledge.
  5. Leave Cost currency on USD. SourceKnowledge works in USD by default.
The template fills in the Parameters table for you: The SourceKnowledge template's Parameters table in ClickFlare, with SourceKnowledge's macros pre-filled Each tracking field becomes a column you can group reports by. Sub ID is the one you will use most. It is the publisher ID, and SourceKnowledge optimizes by sub ID: you can bid a sub ID up or down, pause it, or add it to an allow or block list. Grouping ClickFlare’s report by Sub ID gives you the revenue and ROI side of that decision.
Don’t change or remove the External ID row. Without clickid={clickid} in the campaign URL, ClickFlare has no SourceKnowledge click ID to send back, and SourceKnowledge cannot match any conversion.
To pass more SourceKnowledge data, click Add Parameter, give it a name and parameter, and enter the SourceKnowledge macro as the TS Token. ClickFlare assigns the next free tracking field. Check the macros your SourceKnowledge account lists before adding them.

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Step 2 – Set up the postback

The postback is what sends conversions to SourceKnowledge. It lives on the traffic source, so every campaign that uses this SourceKnowledge traffic source sends conversions the same way. SourceKnowledge’s postback format is fixed and the same for every account:
CLICK_ID is the {clickid} value SourceKnowledge passed on the click. No account ID is needed. The click ID alone tells SourceKnowledge which campaign and sub ID the conversion belongs to.

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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:
It sends the stored SourceKnowledge click ID as {external_id}. There is nothing to replace.
  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 SourceKnowledge traffic source selected.
The Traffic source postback URL switched on, showing the SourceKnowledge template's postback SourceKnowledge recommends installing the postback on every campaign. Its Rules feature, under the Tools menu, automates sub ID optimization, and it relies on the conversions the postback reports. To learn what each postback token does, see How to Configure a Traffic Source S2S Postback URL.

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Sending the order value

The template sends conversions only, without revenue. SourceKnowledge’s own postback article documents only the clk parameter. If you want the sale amount in SourceKnowledge, for example to judge RoAS there, you can add it. FunnelFlux’s SourceKnowledge template sends it with two extra parameters, the same names SourceKnowledge’s own sales pixel uses:
{payout} is the conversion’s revenue in ClickFlare and {txid} its transaction ID. Ask your SourceKnowledge account manager to confirm the order amount shows in your dashboard before relying on it. SourceKnowledge supports one currency at a time and defaults to USD.

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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 SourceKnowledge passes. See Cost.
  3. Choose Redirect or Direct tracking. Redirect is the usual choice for SourceKnowledge.
  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 SourceKnowledge macro from the template, for example clickid={clickid} and sub_id={sub_id}. 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 SourceKnowledge. See Creating a Campaign in ClickFlare.

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Step 4 – Add the URL to your SourceKnowledge campaign

  1. In SourceKnowledge, open your advertiser and create or open the campaign.
  2. Go to the campaign’s Campaign Settings.
  3. Paste the ClickFlare campaign URL as the campaign’s tracking URL.
  4. Leave Tracking URL Allows Deep Linking off. Deep linking swaps in a product page through the {oadest} macro, and the ClickFlare campaign URL sends visitors to the offer you set in ClickFlare instead.
  5. Set your CPC bid and budget, and save.
Paste the URL exactly as ClickFlare gives it. SourceKnowledge replaces each {...} macro when the ad is clicked.

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Step 5 – Test the integration

SourceKnowledge does not document a test conversion tool. Check each half of the setup instead.
  1. The click side. Once the campaign gets its first clicks, open the campaign’s report in ClickFlare and group by Sub ID. You should see real publisher IDs. Open a visit and check that its External ID holds a value, not the literal text {clickid}.
  2. The conversion side. When the first conversion arrives, go to Logs → Postback Status in ClickFlare and filter by the campaign. A successful request to upx.provenpixel.com confirms ClickFlare sent the postback, with the click ID in clk.
  3. SourceKnowledge’s side. Check that the conversion shows in your SourceKnowledge campaign’s stats for the same day.
If you want to test before buying traffic, ask your SourceKnowledge account manager. A postback with a made-up click ID reaches SourceKnowledge but is not credited to any campaign.

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Sending one event or several

SourceKnowledge does not document an event parameter in its postback. Every postback it receives counts as a conversion.
If your funnel has several steps (lead, then sale), map the postback to the step you want SourceKnowledge to count. Create a custom conversion for that step in ClickFlare and choose it in the event dropdown next to the postback. Earlier steps still show in ClickFlare. They just don’t reach SourceKnowledge.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.
SourceKnowledge’s Channel Summary report shows performance by sub ID. To find it, click the advertiser name, then the campaign, and switch the report menu at the top center from Daily Summary to Channel Summary. From there you can bid sub IDs up or down, pause them, or add them to an allow or block list.Use ClickFlare’s Sub ID column to see which publishers actually make money, then act on them in the Channel Summary.

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Cost

The template passes cost in the URL. The Cost row sends SourceKnowledge’s {adv_price} macro, which is your campaign’s CPC. 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.
SourceKnowledge runs on CPC only, so there is no CPM bid to convert. {adv_price} is the CPC set on the campaign, which may not be exactly what you are charged for every click. After launch, compare the Cost column in ClickFlare with your SourceKnowledge spend. If they differ, correct it with a manual cost upload.
ClickFlare has no cost-tracking API integration for SourceKnowledge. See Cost Models.

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Delayed revenue

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

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Troubleshooting

  • Traffic source postback URL is off on the SourceKnowledge 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 postback uses CLICK_ID from SourceKnowledge’s article instead of ClickFlare’s {external_id}. ClickFlare sends CLICK_ID as literal text.
  • Check Logs → Postback Status: a failed request shows the status code SourceKnowledge returned.
The visit has no External ID. The campaign URL in SourceKnowledge is missing clickid={clickid}, or the macro was edited. Copy the URL from ClickFlare again and paste it unchanged.
That is expected with the template as it is. It sends the click ID only. To send revenue, add &order_amount={payout}&order_id={txid}, as in Sending the order value.
The macros were not replaced, usually because the URL was edited, or deep linking is on and the URL was rebuilt. 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 SourceKnowledge traffic source for all my SourceKnowledge campaigns?
A1: Yes. The postback has no account-specific value, so one traffic source works for every SourceKnowledge campaign and advertiser profile.
Q2: Why is it called clickid in the campaign URL and clk in the postback?
A2: They are two halves of the same value. ClickFlare reads SourceKnowledge’s click ID from its own clickid parameter. SourceKnowledge expects it back in its own clk parameter. Both names are fixed. Change neither.
Q3: SourceKnowledge lists Voluum, BeMob, CPV Lab, Keitaro and FunnelFlux as integrations, not ClickFlare. Is that a problem?
A3: No. Those integrations are tracking URLs pasted into the campaign settings, plus the same postback. ClickFlare’s template does the same.
Q4: Should I use the postback or SourceKnowledge’s pixel?
A4: Use the postback when ClickFlare tracks the conversion, which is the case with affiliate offers. Use SourceKnowledge’s pixels or store app when you run your own store and want its retargeting and new-customer features. Don’t report the same sale through both.
Q5: Should I use Redirect or Direct tracking with SourceKnowledge?
A5: Redirect is the usual choice. Use Direct only if SourceKnowledge must see your lander’s domain as the destination. See Direct Campaign Tracking.

Traffic source postbacks

Every token you can use in a postback.

Custom conversions

Pick the one event SourceKnowledge should count.

Cost models

How CPC, CPA and RevShare costs are calculated.

Conversions not showing

The general checklist when postbacks don’t arrive.