Conversion Tracking

Server-to-Server Postback (Affiliate Networks)

Use a postback when you don't control the destination page — the normal situation when you promote someone else's offer. The advertiser owns the checkout, so you can never install a script on it. Instead, the network calls a URL of yours the moment a sale is approved. Nothing runs in the visitor's browser, so ad blockers, cookie banners and closed tabs can't break it.

Your postback URL

https://api.gettrack.link/postback?click_id={CLICK_ID}&payout={PAYOUT}&txid={ORDER_ID}

Replace the parts in braces with your network's own macros — the table below has them for the common networks. On every plan, the Conversions page in your dashboard gives you a keyed URL (https://api.gettrack.link/postback/<your key>) that ties every postback to your workspace, so sales that can't be matched still show up there. On Pro and up it can be made the only accepted form, and every postback your networks send is logged.

New key replaces the key at once: networks still using the old URL stop being matched to your workspace until you paste the new one. Turn on Only accept postbacks with this key once every network uses the keyed URL; plain https://api.gettrack.link/postback postbacks for your links are then refused.

Step 1 — Pass the click ID into the network

Put {click_id} in your affiliate link where the network expects its sub-ID. Track Link replaces it with the click's ID on every click:

Destination:  https://hop.clickbank.net/?affiliate=you&vendor=offer&unique_aff_sub1={click_id}
Visitor gets: https://hop.clickbank.net/?affiliate=you&vendor=offer&unique_aff_sub1=c9hw979uq47q69

The Links page spots common networks and offers to add the right parameter for you. A link without the token still gets the ID appended as utm_click, which works for your own site but not for a network — networks only return their own sub-ID field.

Step 2 — Register the postback with your network

* Macro names come from a tracker's integration guide rather than the network's own documentation — confirm them in your network before going live. Can't report sales back: CJ (Commission Junction), Amazon Associates, PartnerStack.

Step-by-step guides: ClickBank, Digistore24, NewsBreak.

Accepted parameters

Networks all name their parameters differently and none let you reshape the callback, so the endpoint accepts every common spelling. Parameter names are case-insensitive.

Amounts are forgiving: 49.95, $49.95, 49,95 and 1.049,95 are all read correctly. A negative amount is recorded as a refund.

Duplicates, upsells and refunds

A conversion is identified by its click, event and transaction ID. A network retrying the same postback updates the conversion it already made, a new transaction ID on the same click (an upsell) is a new conversion, and a lead followed by a sale are two. When a network later sends the same transaction as refunded or declined, the conversion changes status and drops out of your revenue. A refund that arrives with a transaction ID of its own (Digistore24 does this) is applied to the sale on the same click with the same amount, or else the most recent sale on that click, and a resent refund isn't applied twice. When the postback says the payment is part of a subscription, a later payment on the same click is recorded as a rebill event: it adds revenue, and isn't sent to your traffic source as another sale.

What the endpoint returns

Always 200 OK with the body 1 — even for an unknown click or a duplicate, because networks treat any non-2xx as a failure and retry. The X-Tracklink-Result header says what happened, and on Pro the postback log on the Conversions page keeps each result for 30 days. Results that can't be tied to your workspace, such as an unknown key, only appear in the header.

Test it before you go live

The quickest check is in the app: open your tracked link once, then press Simulate a sale in the setup guide. It confirms the link passes the click ID and the postback finds the click, and records nothing. Then press your network's own test button to confirm the network can reach Track Link.

To test by hand instead, click one of your own tracked links, copy the click ID out of the address bar, then run:

curl -i "https://api.gettrack.link/postback?click_id=PASTE_ID_HERE&payout=9.99&txid=test-1"

The conversion appears on that link's detail page and on the Conversions page. Use a throwaway test link rather than a live campaign, so you don't put fake revenue into real reporting.

Tokens for your destination URL

Put any of these in a link's destination and Track Link fills it in on every click. Values are URL-encoded; write {_name} to insert one as-is. Anything in braces Track Link doesn't recognise is left untouched.

Send conversions back to your traffic source (Pro)

Ad platforms optimise on the conversions they see. When your sale is reported to Track Link by an affiliate network, Track Link can pass it on to the platform that sent the click:

1. Add the traffic source's click-ID macro to your ad's landing URL — your Track Link short link — as shown below. Track Link stores that ID with the click.
2. On the Conversions page, add a forward for the traffic source and paste its postback URL. The presets fill in the right format; {source_click_id} marks where the platform's ID goes.
3. Use Send test with the test click ID your traffic source gives you, then go live. Every send is logged with the traffic source's response.

By default only approved sales are sent. Each sale is sent once, the first time it's pending or approved, so a pending sale that later gets approved isn't counted twice. Declined and refunded updates are only sent when the URL includes {status}; without it the traffic source would count them as new sales. A failed send is retried with growing gaps for about two hours (a 4xx answer other than 429 isn't retried, because it won't succeed later), and a forward that fails 15 times in a row switches itself off until you press Enable. A sale whose click came in with another platform's click ID (say fbclid when the forward is for NewsBreak) isn't sent. A workspace can have up to 10 forwards.

Example for NewsBreak: https://gtlk.link/your-slug?nb_cid=__CALLBACK_PARAM__. Google, Meta and TikTok click IDs (gclid, fbclid, ttclid) are captured too, but those platforms need their own conversion APIs rather than a postback URL.

Alerts when tracking breaks

A broken postback usually goes unnoticed until the ad spend is gone, so Track Link watches for the two common failures and tells the workspace owner with a notification in the app and an email:

• Sales aren't reaching your traffic source. Three sales in a row couldn't be sent to a forward, and again if it switches itself off after 15.
• Sales stopped arriving. Checked daily. A link that had at least 3 postback sales in the previous 30 days, still gets clicks, and has had no sales for 3 days when its usual rate says about 3 were due. The alert says whether postbacks arrived and were refused, or nothing arrived at all.

Each alert is sent at most once a week for the same problem, and every alert links to the Conversions page.

Manual Implementation

If you prefer not to use our script, you can implement conversion tracking manually.

API Endpoint

Request Body

{
  "click_id": "C9HW979UQ47Q69",
  "value": 49.99,                    // Optional - revenue for this conversion
  "currency": "USD",                 // Optional - ISO code, defaults to USD
  "event_type": "sale",              // Optional - "sale" | "lead" | "signup" | custom
  "event_name": "Checkout",          // Optional - human label
  "order_id": "ord_987",             // Optional - a second order counts separately
  "user_id": "user_12345",           // Optional
  "name": "John Doe",                // Optional
  "email": "[email protected]",       // Optional
  "host": "yoursite.com",            // Optional
  "page_url": "https://yoursite.com/success",  // Optional
  "metadata": "{\"plan\":\"pro\"}"     // Optional - JSON string
}

Response

{ "success": true }

The response is deliberately identical whether or not the click existed, so the endpoint can be called from a public page without revealing which click IDs are valid. Repeating a call with the same click, event and order ID changes nothing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Need Help?

If you have questions about implementing conversion tracking, please contact us at [email protected]