ShareASale Integration

ShareASale Integration Overview

ShareASale and AnyTrack have teamed up to simplify the process of tracking conversions. With this integration, ShareASale affiliates can now send their conversion data directly into AnyTrack's platform where it is forwarded to various third-party advertising platforms such as Google Ads, Facebook Conversion API and Tiktok API in real-time. This allows them to get accurate insights on which campaigns are performing well so they can make more informed decisions about future ad spend. The setup process only takes a few minutes and requires no coding experience - making it simple for anyone to use!

How does the ShareASale AnyTrack integration work:

1. Traffic: When visitors land on your website, AnyTrack collects traffic source data and First Party data.
2. Engagements: When visitors click on your ShareASale affiliate links, AnyTrack does a few things:
   1. Collects granular data tied to the OutboundClick.
   2. Triggers Event Tracking API requests to your pixels and analytics.
3. Conversions: When visitors convert on the merchant's website, AnyTrack receives real time conversion data through Postback URL.
4. Attribution: AnyTrack processes the conversion data and reports it across various reporting sections of the Anytrack Dashboard.
5. Conversion API: AnyTrack then sends your conversions to your Ad Platforms' Conversion API so you can feed your ad platform's Machine Learning, AI and automatic optimization according to 100% of your conversion data.

Technical details

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Shareasale Short URLs

ShareAsale short links are NOT SUPPORTED and won't be tracked.

Standard Conversions

The ShareASale Postback URL

The Postback URL is fully pre-defined and ready to be implemented with your ShareASale account.

https://t1.anytrack.io/hBtoE3hN/collect/shareasale?afftrack=!!afftrack!!&transtype=!!transtype!!&merchantID=!!merchantID!!&orderNumber=!!orderNumber!!&transID=!!transID!!&amountOfSale=!!amountOfSale!!&commission=!!commission!!&transDate=!!transDate!!

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Before you begin

The ShareASale integration requires that the AnyTrack Tracking Tag in the head section of your website or landing pages. Learn now to Install the AnyTrack Tag on your website.

Setup Guide

Step #1: Add ShareASale to your AnyTrack Account

1. Go to the Integration Catalog, search for ShareASale.

2. Now click on the ShareASale cardand then Click on Install.

Step #2: Connect your ShareASale account

1. Copy the predefined Postback URL
2. Send it to your affiliate manager to set it as the global destination for your ShareASale postback notifications.
3. Save

Step #3: Adjust the Conversion Event Mapping

The Event Mapping allows you to define which events to track and map them to Conversion Events you will forward to your Ads Integrations (ex: Facebook Conversion API)

Validate your integration

This section will enable you to validate the main aspects of your conversion tracking setup.

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Install the AnyTrack Pixel Helper Extension

Install the AnyTrack Pixel Helper Chrome extension to verify the AnyTrack Tag is installed on your website. It also shows connected ad networks and browser-side events. Learn more.

Link tracking

Since Tracking starts when visitors clicks on offer links, you should verify that your links are tracked and AutoTagged with the AnyTrack click_id.

To do so you can simply load your website and hover on one of your ShareASale links.

AutoTag Methods

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Reminder about AutoTag:

AutoTag is a function that is enabled by default through the AnyTrack Tracking Tag, and that appends afftrack & click_id data to affiliate links. Learn more about AutoTag.

• Default: By default, AnyTrack automatically identifies and AutoTags ShareASale links found on your website. For example, if you're looking for a good wordpress hosting company, you should consider WPEngine (warning: Affiliate Link).
• AutoScan: AnyTrack scans links that are embedded in redirects plugins and AutoTags them accordingly. See hover on the link below link.

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Good to know

AutoScan is a bot that crawls the page and when a link is found it scans it to find out what is the final url destination. If the final destination is a link that can be AutoTagged, it will save the link and page in a tiny javascript that that carries the tracking group attribute.

Finally, when a visitor loads your page, the AnyTrack Tag will AutoTag the URL with the correct subid parameter and an autogenerated click_id

AutoScan example

• Internal redirect link: https://anytrack.io/links/wpengine
• Final URL: https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=394686&u=1011620&m=41388&urllink=&afftrack=
• AutoTagged URL:

html

https://anytrack.io/links/wpengine?afftrack=w23xvjXjemr5dY7898ztVmpSGxqLWXI6ab

• Manual:
  • Tracking Group Attribute: You add the tracking group attribute to links according to their tracking requirements. For example: data-tracking-group="shareasale" or rel="shareasale". More about Tracking Group.
  • Click ID Token: You Manually append the subid: &afftrack=--CLICK-ID-- to the offer link.

Once the links are set up, you can check in your ShareASale account reports and see whether the afftrack parameters are passed to the offer links.

Here is an example of how you would manually update links from shareasale:

<a href="<https://anytrack.io/links/wpengine>" data-tracking-group="shareasale">Hover on the ShareASale Demo   
Link to see the AnyTrack `click_id`</a>

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Tracking Group

Tracking Group refers to the integration technology. For example, ShareASale Tracking Group tracking group is shareasale and ClickBank is clickbank. The Tracking Group

Conversion Tracking

To validate your setup, you should either wait for a conversion or trigger a test conversion yourself and inspect the conversion logs.

ShareASale conversion payload example

{
  "amountOfSale": "79",
  "orderNumber": "2617207",
  "merchantID": "87575",
  "transtype": "SALE",
  "transID": "198198598",
  "transDate": "2023-05-21 00:57:45",
  "afftrack": "Zojr5qPF3fVk6VlfJbAcGeuHnxkcOst2gr",
  "commission": "39.5"
}

FAQ & Troubleshooting

• Can I import past conversions into Anytrack?

  No. Anytrack can only ingest conversions that have been triggered following a visitor session on your website.

• Can I run direct linking campaigns?

  Yes, but this requires a custom setup. Please refer to this article.

• Can I use a different subid parameter than the afftrack parameter?

  No.

• Can I track conversions without the click_id?

  No. The click_id passed to the ShareASale links is required to track conversions.

• The Conversion Event Name is not what I am expecting, how can I change it?

  You can update the Event Mapping in the Integration page.

• Why am I getting errors in the conversion logs?

  1. You are using Shareasale short URLs
  2. Some of the pages you are promoting your offers don't carry the AnyTack tag.
  3. AutoScan is being blocked by your Host. You can see this information on the property settings.

Take these steps to troubleshoot errors you encounter in AnyTrack

• General troubleshooting

  • Verify that your tracking tag is set in the head section of your website.
  • If you're on the free plan, verify that you didn't reach the monthly traffic limit and upgrade if needed.

• Conversion sources

  When you are not tracking conversions, or most conversions trigger an error follow the guidelines below.

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Good to know

Before you reach out to the tech support, please inspect the conversion log to see what type of errors you are getting and try to fix the integration by following these troubleshooting guidelines.

• Native integrations

  Native integrations refer to platforms that are predefined in the catalog and should provide an error-free data flow.
  The most common error is that the click_id is unknown or missing. It happens when AutoTag could not be activated.
  • Check that your links are not hidden behind some javascripts or double redirects.
  • Check that the links are in a standard a element.
  • Try to manually set the tracking group attribute (check the integration guidelines).
  • Check whether your offers are not getting traffic from websites where the AnyTrack Tag isn't set.
  • If you just installed AnyTrack, errors might be from traffic that wasn't tracked by AnyTrack.

  • Conversion data doesn't trigger an error 🔴, but is not validated 🟢:

    • Check that the Postback URL you've set in the integration matches the pre-defined Postback URL we provide.
    • Copy the Event Reference from the Conversion Event Log and contact the support.

  • You're not getting any conversions:

  • Check that the Postback URL is set and active in your platform.
  • Check that you're passing the correct AutoTag afftrack parameter to the offer link.
  • Check that the Postback URL is correctly inserted in the custom integration.