NATS4 Cascade
What Are Cascades?
A cascade sends surfers through multiple [Biller|billers]] based on their payment option in order to encourage more customers to sign-up. If a customer is rejected from one billing processor, the cascade will put them through all available billing options until they are either accepted by a processor, or rejected by all available processors.
Cascades At A Glance
If a particular biller denies a surfer transaction, the surfer is sent to the next biller in the cascade. The diagram, Figure 1.1, provides a simple, graphical representation of this process:
Surfers are sent from one biller to the next until they complete a transaction or the surfer reaches the end of the Cascade. A cascade ends with either of the two special cascade steps: Stop Cascade or Switch Cascade step. For example: a credit card processing cascade might switch cascade to a check processing cascade.
Each Cascade has a description attribute, which is displayed to the surfer on the Join Form. Usually this description is "Join by payment type." By selecting a payment type, the surfer transparently selects the Cascade to handle their transaction.
Cascades can also geo-target whole Cascades or individual Cascade steps using the GeoIP program. Geo-targeting sends surfers from a designated location to a different cascade than surfers from another location.
NATS can also randomly choose the cascade a surfer sees. For example: you can divide your surfers between two billers to test the biller's effectiveness.
Adding a cascade
To create a new cascade, go to Billers Admin and click the Add a Cascade tab.
- Two cascades are automatically created if you select a biller that has both credit card and check processing. You may use or ignore these default cascades.
- Click on the Add a Cascade tab at the top.
- On the next page, enter a short name for the cascade, a description, the weight, and the first biller. The short name must not contain spaces.
- Add more billers as needed and repeat the previous steps.
- When all cascade options have been exhausted by a customer, NATS sends them to the Denial URL.
The cascade description is displayed on the pre-join form of each site that uses this cascade. The description is also used for random cascade switching. The cascade weight works with random cascade switching, but can be set to 256 to disable the pre-join form.
After creating the cascade, you can go back and edit its settings, including the geo-targeting settings for individual steps or the cascade as a whole.
Editing the Steps in a Cascade
- Click on the View icon (magnifying glass) on the cascade to view the biller order already set up in this cascade.
- Other billers can be selected from the drop-down box below the cascade. After clicking Add, the biller will appear in Edit mode.
- Select a method of processing from the first drop-down menu.
- By selecting a country in Target (or Exclude), the cascade only performs (or ignores) that step for people of that country. Selecting no billers selects all billers, while multiple countries can be selected by holding down the CTRL key while selecting. CTRL and re-clicking will unselect an item.
- After saving, four options appear in the biller actions line: arrows that will move the option up or down in the list, edit, and delete.
- There are 4 other options in the Biller drop-down box that can be used to set up a cascade:
- Stop Cascade -- stop executing the cascade
- Switch Cascade -- switches from one cascade to another
- Show Template -- shows a predetermined template on the site
- Redirect -- sends them to a designated web page
Editing the Cascade's Details
- Edit changes the cascades details
- Two features use the Weight setting
- NATS will switch between two cascades with the same description, using the weight to decide which to display. The option with a higher weight will appear more.
- Automatic Cascade skips the join form cascade selection and sends the surfer directly to the first biller in the cascade. This option is usually used with geo-targeting.
- Hide Cascade lets you associate the cascade with a site but not have it appear on the join form. You can use this to offer the cascade later, like on the Denial template when other options have been exhausted.
- Target/Exclude can be used on the entire cascade. This will actually add or remove it from the join form for those countries
Extra Cascade Rules
You can add extra cascade rules by clicking the Edit Cascade Rules icon. The extra rules let you only only display this cascade on a specific tour or program or for a specific affiliate or during a specific time.
