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Onboarding : Custom network onboarding process

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This article will review:

  • This particular process is aimed at brands / agencies / partners who have greater responsibility over their integrations and are mostly self sufficient
    • The stages in the onboarding process for a new campaign
    • The roles and responsibilities for each onboarding stage
    • Detailed tracking implementation options and testing verification
    • Access to additional onboarding documentation

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Index

Overview

When brands create new campaigns on Partnerize, there are various stages to the onboarding process to ensure a smooth transition.  Agencies, brands and partners can manage the majority of the onboarding process, if required.  Alternatively, they can follow the 'standard' integration process, where the Partnerize Integrations team are more heavily involved (see Partnerize Onboarding Process)

However, should an agency, brand or partner want to be more self service, they can opt for a custom network onboarding process, where predefined requirements and options are agreed up front, and are then applied to all future campaigns that are required.  This provides the agency, brand or partner with greater control over their integration process and will result in the campaign implementation time being significantly reduced, due to the streamlined process.

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Onboarding Steps

The stages of the onboarding process are covered below, including:

  • Description of the stage
  • Stage Owner
Stage Description Stage Owner

New campaign request

The agency, brand or partner will need to contact their Partnerize Customer Success Manager to advise that a new campaign is required

Agency, Brand, or Partner

Submission to Integration Team

Customer Success Manager will notify the Integration team of the new campaign request

Partnerize - Customer Success

Campaign Creation

Create campaign(s) on Partnerize platform

Partnerize - Integration team

Tracking Solution Instructions

Standardised tracking implementation instructions will be used for all campaigns - referenced below

Partnerize - Integration team
Tracking Solution Implementation Implement Tracking Solution

Agency, Brand, or Partner

Platform readiness

  • Upload campaign collateral
  • Set up commissions
  • Partner migration planning (if applicable)
Agency, Brand, or Partner

Tracking Solution Testing

Testing of implemented tracking solution and verifying results

Agency, Brand, or Partner

Final Review

Internal sign off:

  • Legal - contract received
  • Finance - fees set up
  • Integration - tracking / campaign settings checks
Partnerize - Integration team

Launch

Set campaign(s) live

Partnerize - Integration team

 

Default Campaign Requirements

For all campaigns on the network, standardised requirements and campaign settings will be used​. There will still be options for technical variations per campaign (Destination URL, Campaign Name etc), and this can be included in the new campaign request.

Below are the standard settings that will be set for all networks that utilise this integration process: 

Campaign requirement Default Campaign setting Notes

Cookie Period

30 days N/A
Force Approval Period Never N/A

Default Currency

GBP A different standard default currency can be agreed, should the agency / brand / partner have different requirements
Conversions per Click Unlimited N/A
Duplicate Conversion References

Completely Ignore Duplicates

N/A

Deeplinking Enabled Yes N/A

Reporting Timezone

[GMT+00:00] Greenwich Mean Time (Europe/London) This can be updated once a campaign is live to a more suitable timezone, if required
Default Publisher Commission Rate (%) 0% This can be updated once a campaign is live, as default commissions will differ per brand

What to Invoice

Publisher Commission & Network Override N/A
Who performs the payments Payments are performed by Partnerize N/A

 

Tracking Solution to Implement

For agencies, brands or partners who choose to integrate as a custom network, we recommend that the following approach is taken to web tracking:

As agencies and partners may have multiple campaigns with different brands, it is still possible to implement different solutions for different brands, depending on the individual requirement.  However, tracking parameters should be standardised.

In addition to the above solutions, should any brands be working with eCommerce platforms, we also have the following integrations:

Testing and verification

Once tracking has been implemented, a test order must be placed on the live brand site to ensure that tracking has been successfully implemented. The tests must be reviewed and meet criteria referenced below, before tracking implementation can be signed off.

Step 1: Place test order

Place the test order as per the instructions in this document:

https://help.phgsupport.com/hc/en-us/articles/360019824018-Testing-Tracking-Solutions-FAQs

Step 2 : Check Partnerize to verify test transaction

There are two ways in which to check if the test conversion has tracked and also the validity of the data:

  • Via the Partnerize platform
  • Via the Partnerize API

Option 1 : Check conversion data via Partnerize platform

  • Log in to the Partnerize platform
  • Access the campaign that is being tested
  • Navigate to Analytics > Transaction Report
  • If the conversion has tracked, this should appear in the Reporting Table:

Screenshot_2022-01-06_at_14.33.52.png

  • You can then perform the checks (see Step 3 for detailed instructions on what should be checked).  You can check the item level data using the Conversion Items table, shown above, and check any additional item metadata by exposing the data points via the 'Columns' drop down

Option 2 : Retrieve conversion data via Partnerize API

Use the below API endpoint to retrieve the conversion data:

https://<app_api_key>:<user_api_key>@api.partnerize.com/reporting/report_advertiser/campaign/<campaign_id>/conversion.json?conversion_reference=<order_id>

The below values will need to be injected into the relevant parameter within the API call:

API parameter Description
app_api_key Can be found in the platform via Account Settings > User application key
user_application_key Can be found in the platform via Account Settings > User API key
campaign_id The campaign ID for the campaign that is being tested
order_id The Order ID for the test order that was placed

Populated API call example (NOTE: Example values have been used for illustration purposes):

https://abcdef:ghijkl@api.partnerize.com/reporting/report_advertiser/campaign/100l12345/conversion.json?conversion_reference=348876522

Once the above values have been injected, the API call can be pasted into your browser

If a transaction has tracked successfully, you will receive a response containing all of the conversion data associated with the order. The response should appear like the below example screen shots:

Screenshot_2021-11-16_at_17.08.29.pngScreenshot_2021-11-16_at_17.10.03.png

 

Step 3: Testing verification & success criteria

If a successful response is received, check each test order for the following:

Test condition Parameter name to check values Description / Success criteria Example value
Correct item value used item_value
  • Is the item_value correct and consistent with the value for the items placed? (NOTE: The value used should be the net item value)
  • The item_value should be a value greater than 0.01. If the item_value is populated with 0.00, this could be due to any voucher codes applied, but please check this
  • Negative or empty/blank values are not permitted
29.99
Correct/valid voucher code used voucher_code
  • If any voucher code was used, has this been correctly passed into the voucher_code parameter?
  • If no voucher code was used, this parameter should be empty/blank. No values such as 'NULL', 'NO VOUCHER', etc. should be used, as they will be treated as actual voucher codes
 
Latest/correct clickref used clickref
  • Is the correct clickref value present? This should be the clickref from the most recent click
  • For example, if there have multiple clicks via the test partner link, different clickref values will have been generated and the last clickref generated should be associated with the conversion
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Correct Order information tracked conversion_reference
  • The Order ID that was generated at order confirmation must be passed into the 'conversionref' parameter
  • This ID is the unique transaction ID within the brand's own system, and is used to validate conversions within the Partnerize platform
325454780
currency
  • Should be populated with the local currency used for purchase.
  • Must conform to the ISO 4217 3-letter currency codes.
GBP, EUR, USD, etc.
category
  • Should be populated with the top level product category
 
sku
  • Should be populated with the product SKU for each item within the order
5264362666
Multiple items tracked correctly N/A
  • Have all individual items tracked as expected? (NOTE: You should place an order containing multiple items for each test)
N/A
Live site testing N/A
  • Was the test transaction placed via the live brand site?
N/A

If any of the above tests fail and do not meet the success criteria outlined above, then this will need to be reviewed by the agency / brand / partner. Once resolved, a further test will need to be placed and checked in the same way as above.

Troubleshooting tips:

Potential issue Steps to check
No conversions shown in the Partnerize platform
  • Check the date range selected in the platform to ensure that this corresponds with the date the test order was placed
  • Ensure you are logged into the correct campaign (for instances where there are multiple campaigns on one network)

If these are correct, this means that the test transaction has not tracked.  Further steps to check: 

  • Was a link clicked prior to placing the test order?
  • Was the test order placed via the live brand site?
  • Has the tracking been implemented on the live site?
  • If the answer is YES to all of the above, then contact the Partnerize Integration team for more assistance

 

If NO response is received when querying the API:
  • Check that the API keys, campaign ID and order ID are all present and valid

If the conversion count returned is zero, this means that the test transaction has not tracked.  Further steps to check: 

  • Was a link clicked prior to placing the test order?
  • Was the test order placed via the live brand site?
  • Has the tracking been implemented on the live site?
  • If the answer is YES to all of the above, then contact the Partnerize Integration team for more assistance

 

Next Steps

Contact your Partnerize Sales representative or Customer Success Manager to begin the onboarding process.

 

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