Publisher conversion postback demo

What is affiliate attribution? Publisher conversion flow

Affiliate attribution links advertiser conversions back to the traffic source you sent. This demo shows how the source click id (source_click_id, also known as sub_id) is passed and returned in the publisher postback URL.

What is affiliate attribution?

Affiliate attribution is the process of matching a conversion back to the publisher or traffic source that drove it.

From the publisher side, you send traffic with your identifier (Affset's source_click_id). When that user converts, the ad server calls your postback URL with the same value.

Why it matters

Returning source_click_id in a conversion postback lets you credit the right source, optimize campaigns, and sync conversion data into your own tools.

This is the practical foundation of publisher conversion tracking and payout validation.

How the flow works

  1. Publisher sends user traffic with a source_click_id identifier.
  2. User reaches the advertiser and completes a conversion action.
  3. Advertiser notifies the ad server about that conversion.
  4. Ad server attributes the conversion and calls the publisher postback URL with the same source_click_id identifier captured when the click was created.
  5. Publisher receives the callback and logs or processes the conversion.

Flow diagram

steps 0/6 completeActive: Publisher

click sent → source_click_id=publisher_click_123 attached

source_click_id links your original traffic to the conversion callback.

Use this page as your demo postback URL

Configure this route as a publisher postback URL in your ad server. Any request that includes source_click_id is logged as a conversion callback. Accepted query parameters:

  • source_click_id - publisher tracking value originally set when sending traffic (required to record the request; legacy sub_id is also accepted)
  • payout - optional macro {payout}, amount the affiliate gets for the conversion

Example URL with macro:https://affset.com/affiliate-attribution-demo?source_click_id={source_click_id}&payout={payout}

# Preview URL
https://affset.com/affiliate-attribution-demo?source_click_id=publisher_click_123&payout=12.50

Detected parameters

source_click_id

(not set)

payout (optional)

(empty)

Quick test instructions

  1. Open this page with ?source_click_id=your_value.
  2. Confirm the source_click_id value appears in the detected parameters box.
  3. You can use this URL in Affset ad server zone settings to validate conversion callbacks end-to-end.
  4. You will find the requests log below.
Open the preview URL

Requests log timeline (last 24h)

When this page receives a request with source_click_id, the request is logged here. Entries disappear after 24 hours or when you clear the log.

No requests logged yet.

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