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Concept PublisherNetwork

What happens after a user clicks

Updated

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We record the tap, check it and send the user on to the app store or the offer with a click ID attached. When the advertiser’s tracking reports an install or a step, we match it to that click, record the conversion and send your postback.

See also: Click tracking

On this page
What Reporting, Flight Recorder shows when you open a conversion. A failed delivery shows the reason on the last step.

One tap, step by step

Example. Player u_48213 taps Harbor Blocks in Pebble Rewards on an iPhone in Texas at 2:06 PM. The link carries sub_id=u_48213.

  1. The tap reaches our link. Every tracking link opens on our click host (or your own domain), with the offer, your account and your user in it.
  2. A short page may show first. Depending on your account, the user sees “Preparing your offer…” or a blank page for a moment while our checks run in the browser. A few offers show “Find Harbor Blocks” with a button to the store instead.
  3. We check the tap. Our traffic checks, the US state the tap comes from where the offer turns states away, whether the offer is still live and open to your account today, and whether the phone’s OS version fits. A tap that fails a check gets a page that says why and never reaches the advertiser.
  4. Already installed? If this user already installed the app through this offer and was credited, they go to the app’s store page, where the button reads Open. That tap doesn’t count as a click.
  5. We record the click. It gets a click ID, here clk_7Q2f81, stored with your sub_id, the time, country, device and any sub1 to sub10 you added.
  6. The user goes on. We send the phone to the advertiser’s link with the click ID attached, and from there to the App Store. The user installs Harbor Blocks and opens it at 2:09 PM.
  7. The advertiser reports it. The game’s tracking reports the install with the click ID, and we match it to clk_7Q2f81. That’s the conversion.
  8. We post back. We send your server a signed postback with sub_id=u_48213 and the amounts. Later steps, such as level 10, repeat steps 7 and 8, each with its own postback.

What we keep from the tap

Open a conversion under Reporting, then Flight Recorder, and its Related Click section shows what we recorded:

FieldExample
Click IDclk_7Q2f81
Time10/29/2026, 2:06:14 PM
Sub IDu_48213
CountryUS
OS / DeviceiOS / mobile
IP203.0.113.24
User agentThe browser string the phone sent

Your sub1 to sub10 values are kept for 90 days and come back on that conversion’s postbacks, reversals included. If the same user taps the same offer twice, the latest tap that carried them is the one returned.

How long a user has

There’s no single window. Each step can have its own time limit, set by the advertiser’s side and counted from the tap or the install: goals[].maximumCompletionTimeDays in the Offer API, null when there’s none.

Edge cases

  • Old links. Links outlive offers: saved lists and cached walls keep sending taps to offers that have ended. Those users see “This offer has ended”, not an error.
  • The phone’s advertising ID. Fill {DEVICE_ID} with it when you have it. Advertisers credit more installs with it. An empty or all-zero value is dropped and the tap works as before.
  • No postback. We match and record the conversion even when your postback can’t be sent, for example with no postback secret. It shows in Conversions and Flight Recorder either way.
  • Networks. Your own links and your publishers’ links follow the same steps. Trace a conversion under Reporting, then Flight Recorder.
Click ID. A unique ID we give each tap, so a later install or event can be matched back to it.What is a click ID?
Conversion. A step the advertiser's tracking confirmed, so it can be paid.What is a conversion?
Postback. A request we send to your server when a conversion happens, so you can credit the user.What is a postback?

Support

Still stuck? Write to us.

One address for every question: hello@affiliateos.ai. Put the details from this list in your first message so we can find the click or conversion without asking you for them again.

Put these in your message

  1. 01The email you sign in with
  2. 02Your role: publisher, advertiser or network
  3. 03The offer ID
  4. 04The click ID or action_id
  5. 05The time it happened, with your time zone
  6. 06What you expected to happen

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