NATS For Networks LinkCodes

NATS For Networks For Affiliates Automatic SubIDs Affiliate Stats Dumps Linkcode Affiliate Custom Pixels Affiliate Host and Post Affiliate Area Affiliate Account Details Affiliate Account Change Log Affiliate Creatives Affiliate Creatives Search Affiliate Settings Affiliate Custom Pixels Affiliate Linkcodes Affiliate Linkcode Settings Affiliate Login History Affiliate Messages Affiliate Dashboard Dashboard Key Statistics Dashboard Statistics Summary Affiliate Payment History Quick Links Affiliate Referrals Report Affiliate Referring URL Report Affiliate Remote Login Affiliate Signup Affiliate Statistic Filters Affiliate Statistic Views Affiliate SubIDs NATS For Networks Setup Creating Admin Accounts Tracking Domain Edit Affiliate Text Edit CSS Colors Getting Started Admin Quick Start Guide Tracking in NATS For Networks Pixel Builder Postback Examples Replacement Variables Currency Exchange Rates Admin Dashboard The Admin Dashboard Reporting Admin The Reporting Admin Track and Strack   Report Breakdowns Profit and Loss Report Subscription Report Transactions Reports Affiliate Ratios Report Affiliate Managers Report Referral Tier Payouts Report Referral Signup Payouts Report Additional Commissions Report Graphical Affiliate Comparison Report The Single Day Comparison Report Actual Affiliate Payments Report Offers Admin The Offers Admin Offers Offer Setup Affiliate Referrals Tracking Domain Commissions Commission Changes Suppression Lists Pixel Builder ID Numbers Offer Partner Offer/Landing Page Redirection Setting Rules Admin Host and Post Offer Goals Affiliates Admin The Affiliates Admin ID Numbers Affiliate Managers Affiliate Referrals Affiliate Activation Admin-Only Settings Affiliate Overrides Creating Admin Accounts In-House Accounts Add Manual Sale Manual Invoice Affiliate Documents Affiliate Enabled Offers Change Affiliate Status Account Changes Advertisers Admin The Advertisers Admin Account Changes Advertiser Invoices Generate Invoice Advertiser Approval Change Advertiser Status Customers Admin Customers Admin Manually Adding a Customer ID Numbers Payments Admin The Payments Admin Payvia Types Payout Periods Payvia Dump Formats Payment Dump Entry Numbers Payment Dump Variables Check Functions Setting Rules Payment Methods Payza REST API General API Overview GET /service/ping GET /service/set_currency_exchange_rates Advertiser POST /advertiser/add_advertiser PATCH /advertiser/edit_advertiser Affiliate GET /affiliate/get_links GET /affiliate/get_single_link GET /affiliate/search GET /affiliate/decode_trackingcode PATCH /affiliate/edit_affiliate POST /affiliate/add_affiliate POST /affiliate/affiliate_login_ips Config GET /config/get_global_void_ips GET /config/get_global_post_ips GET /config/get_global_hostnpost_ips POST /config/add_global_void_ip POST /config/remove_global_void_ip POST /config/add_global_post_ip POST /config/remove_global_post_ip POST /config/add_global_hostnpost_ip POST /config/remove_global_hostnpost_ip Creative GET /creative/get_creatives GET /creative/get_creative_fields GET /creative/get_creative_rules PATCH /creative/delete_creative PATCH /creative/edit_creative PATCH /creative/edit_creative_rules PATCH /creative/undelete_creative POST /creative/add_creative POST /creative/add_creative_rule POST /creative/delete_creative_rules Offer GET /offer/get_conversion_caps GET /offer/check_orderid_exists GET /offer/get_commission_changes GET /offer/get_details PATCH /offer/activate_offer PATCH /offer/edit_landing_page PATCH /offer/edit_offer PATCH /offer/pause_offer PATCH /offer/set_commission_change_payouts PATCH /offer/set_enabled_affiliates PATCH /offer/set_offer_categories PATCH /offer/set_offer_countries PATCH /offer/set_offer_goals PATCH /offer/set_offer_groups PATCH /offer/set_offer_marketing_types PATCH /offer/store_offer_ips POST /offer/add_commission_change POST /offer/add_landing_page POST /offer/add_offer POST /offer/add_tracking_domain Reporting GET /report/profitloss GET /report/transaction Customer PATCH /customer/lock PATCH /customer/unlock GET /customer/export PATCH /customer/forget Transaction GET /transaction/transaction_payout_preview PATCH /transaction/transaction_update_revenue_by_orderid PATCH /transaction/transaction_update_revenue_by_transaction_hash POST /transaction/process_void POST /transaction/process_chargeback POST /transaction/process_reversal GET /transaction/click_details Creatives Admin The Creatives Admin Add New Creatives Add New Creative Type Tracking Code Code Builder Track and Strack Setting Rules   Default Creative Types Creative Types Image Banners Flash Banners Dynamic Text Banners Feeds Mailers Video Download Video Embed Page Peels IM Popups Footer Ads Page Ads Overlays Communications Admin The Communications Admin Add News Item Sending Messages Signup Questions Configuration Admin The Configuration Admin Affiliate Signup Postback URL Edit Affiliate Text Edit CSS Colors Misc. Rules Freeform Date Affiliate Custom Signup Tracking Code Tracking in NATS For Networks Void Conversions Remotely

A linkcode is a referral url created and tracked by NATS For Networks. Linkcodes are how affiliates promote and get credit for the traffic they redirect to your offers. To get an affiliate linkcode, visit the offers page on the affiliate side of NATS For Networks, and select an offer.

Linkcode is synonymous with Tracking Link.

There are four types of linkcodes that NATS For Networks will recognize:

• Encoded Links
• Un-Encoded Links
• Shortname Links
• Tiny URL Links

All four types contain the same information and work the same way, they are simply displayed differently.

To change the kind of code you use by default, visit your Affiliate Display Settings.

Encoded Linkcodes

File:NFN ExampleLinkcode.png

Figure 1.1 - Encoded Linkcode Explained

Encoded linkcodes are the most common in NATS For Networks. All of the information required by NATS For Networks to tie an affiliate to a visitor is located in the string of characters at the end, which are base64-encoded. The last part of the sample URL is known as the Tracking Code, which has multiple uses in NATS For Networks.

For more information on any of these topics, please visit our wiki articles:

• Tracking Domain
• Track
• Tracking Code

Unencoded Linkcodes

File:NFN UnEncodedLinkcode.png

Figure 1.2 - UnEncoded Linkcodes Explained

Un-encoded linkcodes display a period-delimited list of all information that would be in an encoded string within your URL. This is an alternate way to display affiliate linkcodes; the following example will break down what is displayed in an un-encoded linkcode.

• Tracking Domain – The domain of your NATS For Networks install, necessary for proper cookie tracking. This can be a custom domain as long as it points to the domain of your NATS For Networks Install.
• Track - The alias to the NATS For Networks tracking script you are using. Could also be strack.
• Affiliate Username - The username of the affiliate who referred this visitor.
• Commission ID - The numeric ID of the commission that the visitor's transaction will be paid out under (See Things to Remember).
• Offer ID - The numeric ID of the NATS For Networks offer your visitor is trying to visit
• Landing Page ID - The numeric ID of the offer's landing page that your visitor will be redirected to (See Offers Admin for details).
• Affiliate Campaign or SubID set - The numeric id of the Campaign or SubID set associated with the affiliate (0 = the default SubID for that affiliate).
• Creative ID - If the visitor followed a linkcode associated with a creative, this will represent the numeric ID of the creative the visitor saw. If no creative was used, this will default to 0.
• Custom Affiliate Pass-Throughs - If you would like, you can pass back additional parameters from an external website. NATS For Networks Offers will then assign to it a numeric ID number.
• SubAffiliate ID - The numeric ID of the SubAffiliate associated with this linkcode (if any).

Shortname Linkcodes

Shortname linkcodes look very similar to un-encoded linkcodes, with a crucial difference. Instead of using ID number like an un-encoded linkcodes, this format uses the shortnames of the commission, offer, and landing page you have specified in the URL.

Example:

http://demo.natsfornetworks.com/track/natsfornetworksdemo.15azo.baseball.baseball.0.2.0.0.0.0.0.0/

Tiny URL Linkcodes

Sometimes a linkcode can be very long, and therefore seem messy or unkempt. A Tiny URL creates the smallest possible linkcode for your affiliates. This code consists of the Tracking Domain, "tiny", and a shortened Tracking code.

Example:

http://www.natsfornetworks.com/tiny/wkqbc

Decoding Linkcodes

Encoded linkcodes can be decoded using base64 decoding, which uses ASCII characters and binary to encode/decode links. For the admins, we built a page that allows for creating/decoding Tracking Code. Visit this page in the Code Builder section of the Creatives Admin. The affiliates also have a page that is not shown by default. Affiliates can visit this page from their linkcodes page, by selecting Details of a particular linkcode.

Things to Remember

• All four formats are interchangeable!
• The non-encoded formats are security-smart! If an affiliate alters a linkcode so that he/she sends traffic to an offer/landing page that can not be promoted, the affiliate will not get paid out on any transactions that result from that traffic.
• The non-encoded formats are NOT fool-proof! If an affiliate alters the linkcode so they are using a commission they don't belong to or using a landing page that doesn't belong to the offer, they will not get the desired payment or the visitor will not land on the right landing page in most cases.

Deep Linking

Affiliates can link to any other page on your offer by appending a forward-slash and a relative URL to the linkcode. For example, using the following linkcode to link to http://example.natsfornetworks.com/landing_page1.html:

http://example.natsfornetworks.com/track/MjozOjE/landing_page1.html

Affiliates can also manipulate the query string. For example, the affiliate can pass the variable extra_var=1234 to a landing page by appending a question mark and the variable assignment to their linkcode:

http://example.natsfornetworks.com/track/MjozOjE/?extra_var=1234 

Additional Fields

Affiliates can dynamically populate a number of different fields in their tracking links. Any field passed into a tracking link is available in a pixel / postback by wrapping the field name in %%. Fr example with the tracking link

http://example.natsfornetworks.com/track/MjozOjE/?extra_var=1234 

The value 1234 would be available in a pixel by using

http://your pixel url?field=%%extra_var%% 

Some pre-defined fields with special significance are:

• _ocid - your unique click / transaction id. Normally used as a pass through for postbacks
• subaff - your sub affiliate. this can be used by the network owner to identify how traffic from this source is performing
• subaff2 - additional source field. this can be used by the network owner to identify how traffic from this source is performing
• subaff3 - additional source field. this can be used by the network owner to identify how traffic from this source is performing
• subaff4 - additional source field. this can be used by the network owner to identify how traffic from this source is performing
• subaff5 - additional source field. this can be used by the network owner to identify how traffic from this source is performing
• autocamp - a new comma separated list of subids to replace the existing subids for a link
• autosubids - a new comma separated list of subids to append to the existing subids for a link