Record conversions by server to server postback, JavaScript or image pixel, CPL lead, or CPC auto-conversion on the click.
A conversion is the moment an advertiser tells you something happened that they will pay for. The hard part is not recording it - it is accepting it from whatever the advertiser is actually able to send. Some can post server to server. Some can only drop a snippet on a thank-you page. Some are running lead forms. Some are paying for the click itself. Offer Capsule supports four ways of recording a conversion, all of which land in the same record with the same lifecycle behind it, so how a conversion arrived never changes how it is treated afterwards.
The most reliable method. When Offer Capsule tracks a click, it produces a trackback token identifying that click. The advertiser stores it, and when the action completes on their side they call the conversion endpoint from their own server, passing the encrypted offer id, the trackback token, and optionally an order id and order amount. Nothing depends on the visitor's browser still being open, on cookies surviving, or on a third-party script loading. The offer id and token are both encrypted, so the URL exposes nothing useful and cannot be hand-assembled by someone who should not be firing conversions.
For advertisers who can only add a snippet to a page, Offer Capsule generates one for each offer, ready to copy. It is a script tag pointing at the conversion script with the offer's encrypted id already in it, followed by a noscript block containing an image pixel that hits the conversion endpoint directly. If JavaScript is blocked or does not run, the image still fires. The advertiser pastes the whole block on their confirmation page and is done. Both the trackback URL and the pixel snippet are generated per offer, so there is no template for anyone to fill in incorrectly.
CPL offers pay for a submitted lead rather than a completed sale, and they have their own endpoint. A lead can be identified by the encrypted offer id, by the trackback token from the originating click, or both. Leads carry the same lifecycle columns as conversions - status, hold window, frozen payout and revenue - and get their own admin review queue so lead quality can be scrubbed on its own terms.
On a CPC offer the click is the billable event, so there is nothing for the advertiser to fire. The conversion is recorded automatically on the click itself, taking the offer's payout, and then behaves like every other conversion from that point forward.
A fifth route exists for traffic that never produced a click at all - see coupon attribution.
Both the server-to-server call and the generated pixel accept an order id and an order amount. The order id is the advertiser's own reference for the transaction, which is what makes a dispute resolvable against their system rather than against your memory. The order amount is the value of the sale, which is what a revenue-share offer type is computed against. Both are stored on the conversion, appear in reports, and are available as macros in affiliate postbacks, so the affiliate sees the order value on their own side too.
A conversion can be recorded as a test. Test rows are stored so you can confirm an integration end to end - the advertiser fires it, you see it arrive, they see it accepted - but they never bill, never fire a postback, and are excluded from every report. That means an advertiser can validate their integration against production without polluting anyone's numbers or triggering a payout.
Recording a conversion never moves money. Every conversion lands Pending with its payout and revenue frozen at that instant, and settlement happens later on a background sweep. A billing problem can therefore never fail a pixel. See the conversion lifecycle and billing and payouts.
See Offer Capsule running against your own offers. We will follow up to arrange a walkthrough.