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TaurusX traffic source template TaurusX is a programmatic DSP (demand-side platform). It buys in-app and mobile web inventory in real time, with banner, native, video, video end card and playable creatives. It runs two kinds of campaigns: App Promotion, measured through a mobile measurement partner, and Web Promotion, measured with the TaurusX Pixel or with server-side API events. This guide sets up TaurusX as a traffic source in ClickFlare for Web Promotion campaigns. It covers passing TaurusX’s click data into your reports and sending conversions back to TaurusX as API events, so its CPA bidding and your stats agree. You do everything from the campaign editor. The TaurusX traffic source is created inline, without leaving the campaign. The TaurusX template needs some work before launch. Its postback has an event name to fill in, one row has a stray space, and the Cost row is empty. This guide goes through each one.

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At a glance

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How it works

1

TaurusX sends the click

A visitor clicks your ad. TaurusX opens your ClickFlare campaign URL and fills in its macros: the click ID in click_id, plus the campaign, ad group, creative, device, OS, language and country.
2

ClickFlare stores the TaurusX click ID

ClickFlare saves the value of click_id as the visit’s External ID 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 TaurusX

ClickFlare fires the TaurusX postback, replacing {external_id} with the stored TaurusX click ID and {payout} with the revenue. TaurusX records it as the API event named in event_name and matches it to the original click.
The mirror to keep straight: in the campaign URL you write ClickFlare’s parameter (click_id) and TaurusX’s macro (__CLICK_ID__). The template does this for you. In the postback URL you write TaurusX’s parameter (click_id) and 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.
  • Create an API event in TaurusX first. TaurusX won’t save an ad without an asset. Go to Assets > Events, click Manage under API Events, click Create API Event, name it, select the events you want to track and click Confirm. Note the exact event names. One of them goes into the postback.
  • Decide which conversions TaurusX should receive. TaurusX’s CPA bidding optimizes on the event you choose in the ad group. If your funnel has several steps, decide now which ones to send. See Tracking several events.
ClickFlare is not a mobile measurement partner. For App Promotion campaigns (installs and in-app events), TaurusX expects an MMP such as AppsFlyer, Adjust, Singular, Tenjin, Kochava or Branch. Use this template for Web Promotion campaigns.

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Step 1 – Create the campaign and the TaurusX traffic source

  1. Go to Campaigns and click New.
  2. In Traffic Source, open the dropdown and click + New Traffic Source.
  3. Type taurusx in the search box and select the TaurusX template.
  4. Enter a Name, for example TaurusX.
  5. Leave Cost currency on USD. TaurusX reports spend in USD.
The template fills in the Parameters table for you: The TaurusX template's Parameters table in ClickFlare, with TaurusX's macros pre-filled Each tracking field becomes a column you can group reports by. Ad group, creative and device are the ones you will use most. They map straight to the levels you control in TaurusX: ad groups hold the targeting and bid, and creatives rotate inside them.
The Ad Group Id row’s TS Token is __AID__, with a space before the macro. Click into the field, delete the space so it reads __AID__, and save. With the space, the campaign URL carries adgroup_id=%20__AID__ or a raw space, and the macro may not be replaced.
Don’t change or remove the External ID row. Without __CLICK_ID__ in the campaign URL, TaurusX cannot match the postback to a click.
To pass more TaurusX data, click Add Parameter, give it a name and parameter, and enter the TaurusX macro as the TS Token. ClickFlare assigns the next free tracking field. TaurusX doesn’t publish its macro list, so ask your TaurusX account manager before adding new ones.

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Step 2 – Set up the postback

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

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Get the event name from TaurusX

  1. In TaurusX, go to Assets > Events and click Manage under API Events.
  2. Open the API event you created and note the name of the event to send, exactly as it appears. For a purchase, that is usually purchase from TaurusX’s standard events.
TaurusX’s standard events include registration, login, add_to_cart, checkout, purchase, start_trial, view_content and search. If your event isn’t on the list, TaurusX lets you add it with + Custom Event.

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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 already sends the click ID ({external_id}) and the payout ({payout}), both as ClickFlare tokens. The Traffic source postback URL switched on, showing the TaurusX template's postback
  1. Replace REPLACE with the event name from your TaurusX API event. For a purchase:
  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 TaurusX traffic source selected.
Replace REPLACE with an event name that exists in your TaurusX API event, spelled exactly the same. If REPLACE stays in the postback, TaurusX receives an event it doesn’t know and can’t count it toward your optimization event.
event_value carries the payout. TaurusX reports spend in USD, and its help center doesn’t name another currency for event values, so send USD payouts. If your offers pay in another currency, 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. Use CPA if you bill on CPA in TaurusX, otherwise CPC. See Cost.
  3. Choose Redirect or Direct tracking. Redirect is the usual choice for TaurusX.
  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 TaurusX macro from the template, for example click_id=__CLICK_ID__ and adgroup_id=__AID__. 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 TaurusX. See Creating a Campaign in ClickFlare.

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Step 4 – Create the campaign in TaurusX

  1. In TaurusX, create a campaign. Choose Web Promotion as the promotion objective, name it and set the budget.
  2. Create an ad group. As the promotion target, choose Web and select the API event you created as the optimization event.
  3. Set the billing method, bidding strategy, targeting, budget and schedule. For CPA bidding, the event must already be set up in the API event.
  4. Under the tracking links, paste the ClickFlare campaign URL into Landing Page URL. Leave Click Tracking URL and Impression Tracking URL empty unless your TaurusX account manager tells you otherwise.
  5. Add your creatives and submit the ad.
Paste the URL exactly as ClickFlare gives it. TaurusX replaces each __...__ macro when the ad is clicked.
The promotion target can’t be changed after the ad group is created. If you picked App instead of Web, create a new ad group.

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Step 5 – Test the integration

TaurusX’s help center doesn’t describe a test tool for API events. Test with a live click instead.
  1. Launch the ad group with a small budget.
  2. In ClickFlare, open the campaign’s report and check that External ID and the ad group and creative columns are filled in. A value like __CLICK_ID__ means TaurusX didn’t replace the macro in the field you used. Ask your TaurusX account manager which field replaces macros.
  3. Complete the offer yourself through the campaign URL, or wait for a real conversion.
  4. In ClickFlare, go to Logs → Postback Status and filter by the campaign. A successful request to pb.taurusx.com confirms ClickFlare sent it. Check that event_name shows your event and not REPLACE.
  5. In TaurusX, check that the event appears under Assets > Events and in the ad group’s performance report.

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Tracking several events

TaurusX separates events by event_name. Each event you send needs its own postback:
  1. Add each event to your TaurusX API event, with the same names.
  2. In ClickFlare, create a custom conversion for each step, for example registration and purchase.
  3. On the TaurusX traffic source, click + Another postback URL once per extra event.
  4. Map each postback to its ClickFlare event: the registration custom conversion to the event_name=registration URL, purchase to event_name=purchase.
  5. In the TaurusX ad group, choose the event to optimize for.
  • One postback per event. Don’t combine events in one URL.
  • Event names must match the TaurusX API event exactly, including case.
  • Send revenue only on events that have revenue. For a registration with no payout, event_value arrives as 0.
If TaurusX 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 TaurusX.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.
TaurusX has a Search Arbitrage flag on API events. Turning it on preloads 6 standard events and offers 2 optional ones. TaurusX’s standard events include term_view, term_click, ad_view, ad_click, revenue_estimated and revenue_finalized. Map each one to the matching ClickFlare custom conversion, one postback per event, and check the preloaded names in your API event before you build the URLs.

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Cost

The template passes no cost. Its Cost row has an empty TS Parameter and TS Token, so nothing is added to the campaign URL. TaurusX doesn’t publish a cost macro. Choose the Cost Model by how you pay TaurusX:
  • CPA billing: set the Cost Model to CPA and enter your price per conversion.
  • CPM billing: set the Cost Model to CPC and enter your effective cost per click (spend divided by clicks). TaurusX’s banner, native and video ads get far fewer clicks than impressions, so the CPM bid divided by 1,000 would understate your cost.
Effective CPC is an estimate. After launch, compare ClickFlare’s Cost column with TaurusX’s spend and correct it with a manual cost upload.
ClickFlare has no cost integration for TaurusX. See Cost Models.

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Delayed revenue

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

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Troubleshooting

  • event_name is still REPLACE, or doesn’t match an event in your TaurusX API event.
  • Traffic source postback URL is off on the TaurusX 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 TaurusX returned.
TaurusX didn’t replace the macro. Check that you pasted the campaign URL unchanged, and ask your TaurusX account manager whether macros are replaced in Landing Page URL or only in Click Tracking URL. Without a real click ID, TaurusX can’t match the postback.
The Ad Group Id row still has the leading space in __AID__. Remove it, save the traffic source, and copy the campaign URL again. See Traffic Source Tokens Arriving Empty.
The template’s Cost row is empty, so no cost comes from the URL. Set the campaign’s Cost Model to CPC or CPA, as described in Cost.
For the general checklist, see Conversions not showing.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q1: Can I use the same TaurusX traffic source for all my TaurusX campaigns?
A1: Yes, as long as they optimize on the same event names. The postback is set once on the traffic source. Create a second TaurusX traffic source if a campaign needs a different event_name.
Q2: Can I track TaurusX App Promotion campaigns with ClickFlare?
A2: Not for attribution. TaurusX attributes app installs and in-app events through an MMP. ClickFlare tracks web funnels: use Web Promotion with an API event.
Q3: Should I use the TaurusX Pixel or the ClickFlare postback?
A3: Pick one per event. The pixel runs in the visitor’s browser on your site. The postback is server to server and works on offers you don’t control, such as affiliate offers. For affiliate funnels, use the postback.
Q4: Should I use Redirect or Direct tracking with TaurusX?
A4: Redirect is the usual choice. Use Direct only if TaurusX 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

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.