Skip to main content
Adnium traffic source template Adnium is a self-serve ad network selling popunder, banner, instant message (IM) and video traffic on desktop and mobile, billed per impression (CPM). This guide sets up Adnium as a traffic source in ClickFlare. It covers passing Adnium’s click data into your reports and sending conversions, with payout, back to Adnium through its conversion API so its stats and yours agree. You do everything from the campaign editor. The Adnium traffic source is created inline, without leaving the campaign.

​
At a glance

​
How it works

1

Adnium sends the visit

A visitor clicks your banner or opens your popunder. Adnium opens your ClickFlare campaign URL and fills in its macros: the conversion tracking ID in conversion, the cost in cost, plus the ad zone, site, campaign, banner, country and device details.
2

ClickFlare stores the Adnium click ID

ClickFlare saves the value of conversion as the visit’s External ID, records the cost, and redirects the visitor to your lander or offer.
3

The conversion reaches ClickFlare

Your affiliate network or store posts the conversion back to ClickFlare, matched on the ClickFlare click ID.
4

ClickFlare posts it back to Adnium

ClickFlare calls Adnium’s conversion API, replacing {external_id} with the stored Adnium ID and {payout} with the revenue. Adnium matches it to the original visit.
The mirror to keep straight: in the campaign URL you write ClickFlare’s parameter (conversion) and Adnium’s macro ({conversion}). The template does this for you. In the postback URL you write Adnium’s parameter (atrack) and ClickFlare’s token ({external_id}).

​
Before you start

  • Set up your own tracking domain. Run the campaign and the postback on your own custom domain. Shared domains get flagged by networks and blocked by browsers. See Custom Domains.
  • Have an offer ready in ClickFlare, and its affiliate network set up to post conversions back to ClickFlare. See Creating an Offer and Adding an Affiliate Network.
  • Generate your Adnium API token. The postback authenticates with it. In Adnium, click the profile icon at the top right, choose My Profile, open API and click Generate. Copy the token.
  • Know which formats you will buy. Adnium passes cost only for pop campaigns. For banner campaigns you set cost another way. See Cost.

​
Step 1 – Create the campaign and the Adnium traffic source

  1. Go to Campaigns and click New.
  2. In Traffic Source, open the dropdown and click + New Traffic Source.
  3. Type adnium in the search box and select the Adnium template.
  4. Enter a Name, for example Adnium.
  5. Leave Cost currency on USD unless your Adnium account is billed in another currency.
The template fills in the Parameters table for you: The Adnium template's Parameters table in ClickFlare, with Adnium's macros pre-filled Each tracking field becomes a column you can group reports by. adzone and site are the ones you will use most: they tell you which zones and sites convert, so you can whitelist or blacklist them in Adnium. The last five rows pass Adnium’s internal IDs, not readable names. If you’d rather see names, change the TS Token on those rows:
Don’t change or remove the externalId row. Without conversion={conversion} in the campaign URL, ClickFlare has no Adnium ID to send back, and Adnium cannot match conversions.
To pass more Adnium data, click Add Parameter, give it a name and parameter, and enter the Adnium macro as the TS Token. All ten tracking fields are already used, so swap out a row you don’t need. Useful extras:

​
Step 2 – Set up the postback

The postback is what sends conversions to Adnium. It lives on the traffic source, so every campaign that uses this Adnium traffic source sends conversions the same way. Adnium’s postback is a call to its conversion API. It takes your API token, the Adnium ID of the visit (atrack) and the amount.

​
Get your postback URL from Adnium

  1. In Adnium, open Advertisers and click Conversions.
  2. Scroll to the bottom of the page. Your postback URL is there.
  3. If you haven’t yet, generate your API token: profile icon, My Profile, API, Generate. Conversion tracking only works once the token is generated.

​
Add it to the traffic source in ClickFlare

  1. Back in the New Traffic Source form, scroll to Passing conversion info to traffic source.
  2. Turn on Traffic source postback URL. The template’s postback appears:
The Traffic source postback URL switched on, showing the Adnium template's postback It already sends the Adnium ID ({external_id}) and the payout ({payout}), both as ClickFlare tokens.
  1. Replace [GENERATE_API_TOKEN], square brackets included, with your Adnium API token.
  2. Delete &subid={trackingField1} from the end. In this template, {trackingField1} is the country, and Adnium’s conversion API documents only atrack and amount. The result:
  1. In the dropdown on the left, choose the ClickFlare event that should fire the postback. Keep Conversions to send every conversion. If your final action is a custom conversion (for example purchase), choose that instead.
  2. Click Save. You are back in the campaign editor with the Adnium traffic source selected.
Replace [GENERATE_API_TOKEN] with your token, brackets included. The token is how Adnium knows the conversion belongs to your account. Without it, every postback is rejected.
The API token gives access to your Adnium account through Adnium’s API. Treat it like a password. If it leaks, generate a new one in Adnium and update the postback.
amount is the conversion’s revenue. Send it in USD. If your offers pay in another currency, see Multicurrency in ClickFlare. To learn what each postback token does, see How to Configure a Traffic Source S2S Postback URL.

​
Step 3 – Finish the campaign and copy its URL

  1. Name the campaign.
  2. Set the Cost Model: Not Tracked for pop campaigns, so ClickFlare uses the cost Adnium passes. For banner campaigns, see Cost.
  3. Choose Redirect or Direct tracking. Redirect is the usual choice for Adnium’s popunder and banner traffic.
  4. Click Next and, on Destination, add your lander (optional) and your offer.
  5. Save, open Tracking, select your own tracking domain and copy the campaign URL.
The campaign URL already contains every Adnium macro from the template, for example conversion={conversion} and adzone={adzone}. If you use a lander, its call-to-action must link to the ClickFlare click URL, not to the offer directly. Otherwise the visit reaches the offer without a ClickFlare click ID, and the conversion cannot be traced back to Adnium. See Creating a Campaign in ClickFlare.

​
Step 4 – Create the campaign in Adnium

  1. In Adnium, open the Advertisers menu and select New campaign.
  2. Work through the targeting steps: format, countries, devices and the rest.
  3. When you reach the banners step, click Click to add banners.
  4. Select your creative and paste the ClickFlare campaign URL into the destination URL field. Click Upload.
  5. Adjust the bid if needed and click Submit. The campaign goes to review.
Paste the URL exactly as ClickFlare gives it. Adnium replaces each macro when the ad is served. Adnium offers Flat Bidding (a fixed bid you control) and Smart Bidding (a maximum bid that lowers itself to just above the next advertiser).

​
Step 5 – Test the integration

Adnium has no test-conversion tool. Test with a small budget.
  1. Launch the campaign with a low daily budget.
  2. In ClickFlare, check that visits arrive with the adzone and site columns filled. Empty columns mean the macros were not replaced. See Troubleshooting.
  3. Complete the offer yourself through an Adnium visit, or wait for the first real conversion.
  4. In ClickFlare, go to Logs → Postback Status and filter by the campaign. A successful request to api.adnium.com confirms ClickFlare sent the postback. If it failed, the status code and response tell you why, usually a missing or wrong token.
  5. In Adnium, check the campaign’s stats for the conversion. Allow some time for Adnium’s stats to update.

​
Optimizing on zones, sites and SubIDs

Group your ClickFlare reports by the adzone or site columns. Zones and sites that spend without converting can be blacklisted in Adnium. The ones that convert can be whitelisted into their own campaign.
Adnium’s SubID Optimization works on {sub.id}. Add it to the template (see Step 1), find the SubIDs that perform, then enter them in the campaign’s Keyword Targeting field, one per line, up to 50 per campaign.
Adnium has no documented multi-event postback. Send it the one event it should count, usually your final sale. Earlier steps (leads, sign-ups) still show in ClickFlare. They just don’t reach Adnium.To send a postback only for some conversions, for example only those above a certain payout, use Event filter under the postback to add conditions.

​
Cost

The template passes cost in the cost row, with Adnium’s {cost} macro. Adnium fills it only on pop campaigns. On banner campaigns the macro carries no usable cost. Adnium says banner cost has to be tracked through its API, and ClickFlare has no Adnium cost integration.
  • Pop campaigns. Set the Cost Model to Not Tracked, so ClickFlare uses the cost passed in the URL. A popunder impression is roughly one visit, so the per-visit cost lines up.
  • Banner and other CPM campaigns. Set the Cost Model to Not Tracked and correct spend daily with a manual cost upload, using the spend from Adnium’s stats. A banner impression is not a visit, so a CPC figure derived from your CPM bid would be wrong.
For pop campaigns where {cost} arrives empty, switch the Cost Model to CPC and enter your CPM bid divided by 1,000 as the cost value. Then compare the Cost column with your Adnium spend after launch.
See Cost Models.

​
Delayed revenue

If you run search arbitrage (RSOC or AFD) behind Adnium, the feed reports revenue hours or days after the click. To pass that revenue to Adnium once it arrives, see Sending Delayed Revenue to Traffic Sources.

​
Troubleshooting

  • [GENERATE_API_TOKEN] was never replaced, or the token was regenerated in Adnium since. Paste the current token.
  • The campaign URL in Adnium is missing conversion={conversion}, or the macro was edited. Copy the URL from ClickFlare again.
  • The externalId row was removed from the traffic source.
  • Traffic source postback URL is off on the Adnium traffic source.
  • Disable sending postbacks to traffic source is on in the campaign.
  • The postback is mapped to a different event than the one the conversion logged. Check Logs → Event Logs to see which event was recorded.
  • Check Logs → Postback Status: a failed request shows the status code Adnium returned.
Expected. Adnium passes {cost} on pop campaigns only. Upload banner spend with a manual cost upload.
Expected. Those macros pass Adnium’s internal IDs. Switch the TS Token to {os.name}, {device.type} or {language.code} for readable values (Step 1). Empty columns are different: they mean the macros were not replaced. See Traffic Source Tokens Arriving Empty.
For the general checklist, see Conversions not showing.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q1: Can I use the same Adnium traffic source for all my Adnium campaigns?
A1: Yes. The postback is set once on the traffic source and every campaign using it sends conversions the same way.
Q2: Why is it conversion in the campaign URL and atrack in the postback?
A2: They are two halves of the same value. ClickFlare reads Adnium’s ID from its own conversion parameter. Adnium’s API expects it back in atrack. Both names are fixed. Change neither.
Q3: Where does the API token come from?
A3: From My Profile → API in Adnium. If you ever generate a new token, update the postback in ClickFlare too, or Adnium stops accepting your conversions.
Q4: Should I use Redirect or Direct tracking with Adnium?
A4: Redirect is the usual choice and works with every Adnium format. Use Direct only if Adnium must see your lander’s domain as the destination. See Direct Campaign Tracking.
Q5: Can I keep the subid part of the template’s postback?
A5: It does no harm, but it sends the visitor’s country, which Adnium doesn’t use. Removing it keeps the postback to what Adnium’s API documents.

Traffic source postbacks

Every token you can use in a postback.

Manual cost upload

Correct spend for banner campaigns.

Cost models

How CPC, CPA and RevShare costs are calculated.

Conversions not showing

The general checklist when postbacks don’t arrive.