Affiliate networks

A network is who pays you. In UTMCAP it is mostly one thing: the postback configuration — the URL to hand them, and how to read what they send back.

Everything else on the record is a contact book, and useful, but it is not what the network is here for.

#The postback URL

Each network has its own, on its own page, already carrying that network's parameter names:

https://your-domain.com/postback/{network id}?cid={click_id}&payout={payout}&status={status}

Give it to the network. On most networks it is configured per offer rather than per account, which is the usual reason one offer reports and another does not.

The full detail is on postbacks.

#Mapped parameters

If the network uses names UTMCAP already recognises — and the common ones are a long list — there is nothing to map.

If it does not, map its names here: click id, payout, status, conversion id, goal. Mapped params on the list shows at a glance which networks have been told and which are relying on guesswork.

#Mapped statuses

The four states cover most vocabularies, but not all. A network that reports paid, or qualified, or stage2 has words nothing recognises — and an unrecognised word is held as pending, never booked as revenue.

Map them here and the conversions arrive as what they are. Mapped statuses on the list is how you spot a network still sending words nobody has taught it.

This is worth doing before you need it. The symptom of not doing it is a column of pending conversions that look like an approval delay, and people wait weeks on those before checking.

#Secret

A postback URL is a public address that books revenue. A network can be given a shared secret, sent as a secret or token parameter or an X-Postback-Secret header, and it is compared in constant time.

Secret on the list shows which networks are authenticated. Anything without one is accepting revenue reports from whoever knows the URL.

#The rest of the record

The contact fields matter more than they look. Reconciling a month against a network's statement is a conversation with a named person, and the fastest version of it starts with their Telegram already to hand.