January has been a busy month for us. Coming off of the Holidays and then Affiliate Summit, we’ve had incredible feedback from clients, and we’ve already rolled out many of those suggestions. Please take a few minutes to read through these updates as they will likely help make your business more efficient or help you explore new ways to grow. The grand finale of this update is the ability to track application installs on mobile devices, so be sure to make it to the end of the list.
Update Creative Files
We’ve made updating creative files much simpler by allowing you to replace existing creatives by uploading new files rather than deleting creatives and creating new ones. Simply select the creative you wish to update and upload a new file that will overwrite the existing file. This should make creative management a little more efficient.
Wiki: Update Offer Files
Wiki: How can I update creatives?
Default Redirect URL
Set a network wide default redirect. The default redirect URL allows you to specify a location to send traffic in the event that there are no valid offer URLs associated with the offer or in the same offer group. Below are the events for which traffic is directed to the Default Redirect URL:
· URL is formatted incorrectly missing the affiliate ID or offer ID
· Offer not found because it was deleted or doesn’t exist
· Advertiser not found because it was deleted or doesn’t exist
· Affiliate not found because it was deleted or doesn’t exist
· Affiliate doesn’t have approval to run offer
· Offer is paused and no offer to redirect to
· Offer is expired and no offer to redirect to
· Offer has exceeded its lead cap and no offer to redirect to
· User doesn’t match offers country or browser targeting and no offer to redirect to
Email Lists
Two new email lists were added to the Mail Room: Company News and Offer Updates. Affiliates, advertisers and employees are automatically added to both of these lists. The users or employees with access can update the user’s settings to opt out of receiving email from these lists. The Mail Room also includes unsubscribe links that will be included in the emails. These lists will enable you to enhance communication and education with your network.
Wiki: Email Lists
Wiki: Opt Out Email Lists
Wiki: Unsubscribe Links
Whitelist Referral Domain
Last month we allowed specific IP addresses to be whitelisted for offers that use Postback URLs. In a further initiative to cut down on fraud, domain names can now be whitelisted for offers that use iFrame or Image pixels. When a referral domain is whitelisted, the ad servers check to make sure the referring URL to the conversion pixel matches a whitelisted URL. The conversion pixel’s referral domain should be the same URL that hosts the pixel. If the referring URL does not match a whitelisted domain, the conversion is deemed fraudulent and will be rejected.
Offer URL in Conversion Report
We are always adding new ways to view reports, and we thought this feature suggestion was really helpful. Offer URLs are now included in the Conversion Report. This provides another powerful way to drill down your campaigns and those of your affiliates to find the right combinations for success.
Wiki: View Offer URL on Conversion Report
Track iPhone, iPad, Android App Installs
Mobile applications are growing faster than ever, and now HasOffers can track application installs on Androids, iPads, iPhones, and other mobile devices. This allows application developers to incentivize and compensate affiliates for generating installs of applications. We call this new tracking protocol Mobile App Postback. Mobile App Postback is strictly a method for tracking application installs on mobile devices, and the Mobile App Postback URL must be embedded in the application for tracking to be recorded. Be one of the first to adopt this feature and be included in our case study.
Wiki: Track Mobile App Installs
What is wrong with conventional tracking methods for App Installs?
Standard cookie-based tracking will not accurately track application installs on mobile devices because users are directed from a mobile browser, to a marketplace, to download the application, and finally on to install the application. The application cannot read the cookies that were set in the mobile browser. In this case it would seem that standard cookie-less tracking methods with postback URLs are an appropriate alternative. However, when users are directed to a marketplace for downloading an application, a tracking token (transaction ID / click ID) cannot pass to the marketplace and then on to the application. Since the application cannot receive the tracking token that was created in the mobile browser, it cannot load a postback URL to record the conversion. HasOffer’s Mobile App Postback enables developers to track installs of their mobile applications accurately by using proprietary cookie-less technology.
We could not be more excited about 2011 and the many ways we will improve your tracking technology to help your business succeed. As always, keep the feedback coming. As you can see by this release, we really listen to our customers.
