What is a postback?
A postback is how a brand tells Routy that one of your visitors converted: they signed up, made a first deposit, or did whatever else the brand pays you for. Routy uses it to count the conversion against the click that brought the visitor, so it lands on the right account, link and traffic source.
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Transcript
A postback is how a brand tells Routy that one of your visitors converted. In two minutes, you'll see how it works, and the one agreement that makes it work.
It starts with a click. A visitor clicks your Routy tracking link. Routy records the click, and gives it an ID.
Then Routy sends the visitor on to the brand. On the way, it writes the click ID into the brand's address, in a named slot. Here, the slot is called sub I D. The brand's platform reads that slot, and remembers the ID along with the visitor.
This is the part most first setups get wrong. Think of it as a handshake. The postback has to send the ID back from the same slot the link sent it in. Routy knows which slot your brand's platform uses, and builds your postback URL to read that same slot. So the URL Routy gives you already keeps the agreement. Your job is to keep it intact.
Days later, the visitor signs up, or makes a deposit. The brand's platform still has the ID it remembered from that slot.
So it calls the postback URL you gave it, and fills in its placeholder with that ID. That call, from the brand back to Routy, is the postback.
Routy looks up the ID, finds the click, and counts the conversion. It lands on the right account, the right link, and the right traffic source.
When a first postback doesn't work, it's almost always one of these. The postback reads a different slot, so the ID comes back empty. Or it uses a placeholder the brand doesn't fill in, so Routy gets the placeholder's name instead of an ID. Or a real ID was typed in by hand, so every conversion lands on that one click. And if the right ID comes back in the wrong parameter, Routy corrects it, and raises an issue so you can fix the setup.
So remember: one ID, out and back, in the same slot. Copy the URL Routy gives you, and keep its placeholder exactly as it is. The first time you set one up with a brand, ask their account manager to confirm the structure, and test it once. The next video shows how to do that in Routy.
How it works
- A visitor clicks your Routy link. Routy records the click and gives it an ID.
- The ID goes out with the visitor. Routy sends the visitor on to the brand
and writes the click ID into the brand's address, in a named parameter (a
"slot"), for example
?subid=RT10000. The brand's platform keeps it with the visitor. - The visitor converts, maybe days later.
- The brand calls Routy back. It calls the postback URL you gave it, and fills in its placeholder with the ID it kept. That call is the postback.
- Routy matches the ID to the click and counts the conversion.
The handshake
A postback only works when both halves agree on one thing: the slot the click ID travels in.
- Your tracking link sends the ID in a slot the brand's platform reads, for
example
subid. - Your postback URL must send it back from that same slot, using the brand's
own placeholder for it, for example
dyn={subid}.
Routy knows which slot each brand's platform uses, and the postback URL it generates already reads from it. Your job is to keep the agreement intact:
- Don't touch the placeholder. The brand fills it in for every conversion.
- Don't type a real value in its place. Every conversion would land on that one click.
- Don't swap in a placeholder from somewhere else, such as another brand's,
or Routy's own link placeholders like
[%Dynamic%]. Those are filled in only inside Routy's tracking links. A placeholder the brand doesn't know comes back unfilled. - The first time you set up a postback with a brand, ask their account manager to confirm the URL structure before you rely on it.
Routy's click ID comes in two forms, and the postback names which one it carries:
When the first postback doesn't work
Almost every first-time problem is one of these:
To set one up step by step, and test it, see Postbacks event log.
When to contact support
- The postback URL Routy generates has neither
dyn=norclickid=in it. Without one, no postback can be matched. - Your test click lands on the brand's page with no click ID in the address.