Quickstart for networks

This guide is for affiliate networks and agencies that sit between advertisers and partners. Everything happens in the TrackCrown panel at https://app.trackcrown.com. You need the owner or admin role for steps 2 and 3.

1. Create your workspace#

1. Open https://app.trackcrown.com/signup.
2. Fill in Company, Your name, Work e-mail and Password (at least 10 characters), then click Create account.
3. Depending on how the platform is configured, the workspace is active at once or reviewed first ("New networks are reviewed before activation"). While it is pending, tracking links do not reach offers.

2. Set the workspace basics#

Open Settings → Workspace (details):

1. Under Time zone & currency, choose the Time zone (report days and daily caps follow it) and the Currency (default for new offers).
2. Under Tracking, add the landing-page hosts of your advertisers to Allowed destination domains if you will use transparent links (Google Ads). Example: shop.example.com or *.example.com.
3. Optionally set a Default fallback URL for clicks an offer cannot accept.

3. Choose a tracking domain#

Links work on the shared tracking domain trackcrown.com straight away. To use your own hostname, open Tracking → Tracking domains, click Add domain, enter for example trk.yourbrand.com and create the DNS records shown (an ownership TXT record plus a CNAME or A/AAAA records). See Tracking domains.

4. Add an advertiser#

1. Go to Offers → Advertisers and click New advertiser.
2. Save. The advertiser's postback token is on its Integration tab; the advertiser uses it to report conversions.

5. Create an offer#

1. Go to Offers → Offers and click New offer. The wizard has four steps:
   • General: Offer name (required), Advertiser, Category, Description, Restrictions, Preview URL, Thumbnail URL, Tags, Featured offer.
   • Tracking: Destination URL (required), Fallback URL, Allowed transparent destinations, Conversion tracking, Attribution window (days), Default conversion status, One conversion per click.
   • Revenue & payout: Currency, Revenue type and Revenue, Payout type and Payout.
   • Visibility: Public, Requires approval or Private, and Start as (Active, Paused or Pending).
2. Put the click ID in the destination URL so the advertiser can send it back:

https://shop.example.com/landing?ref={click_id}&pid={aff_id}&s1={sub1}

3. Click Create offer. Full reference: Offers.

6. Add a partner and give access#

1. Go to Partners → Affiliates and click New affiliate. Enter a Name; tick Create a partner portal login to get an invite link for the partner. Click Create affiliate.
2. Open the offer, tab Affiliates, click Add affiliates, pick the partner, set Access to Approved and save. (A Public offer needs no access row.)

Partners can also sign up themselves through https://app.trackcrown.com/join/<Workspace ID>.

7. Get the tracking link and send a test click#

1. On the offer, open the Tracking tab. In Affiliate tracking link, choose the Tracking domain and the Affiliate, and optionally fill sub1…sub5 and source_id.
2. Copy the Tracking link:

https://trackcrown.com/r/OFFERCODE/PARTNERCODE?sub1=campaign-a

3. Open it in a browser. You land on the destination with {click_id} replaced by a 32-character ID. The click appears within seconds in Reporting → Clicks and Reporting → Live.

8. Record a test conversion#

1. On the same Tracking tab, under Advertiser conversion tracking, copy the Server-to-server postback URL:

https://trackcrown.com/pb?click_id={click_id}&amount={amount}&txid={order_id}&token=ADVERTISER_TOKEN

2. Replace {click_id} with the click ID from step 7 and call the URL. Add &test=1 first to validate the call without storing anything.
3. Without test=1 the answer is {"ok":true,"conversion_id":"…","status":"approved"} and the conversion shows in Reporting → Conversions. Parameters, statuses and pixels: S2S postback.

9. Notify the partner#

The partner adds their own postback in the partner portal (Postbacks), or you add one on the affiliate's Postbacks tab:

https://partner-tracker.example.net/postback?cid={sub1}&payout={payout}&tx={conversion_id}

Postbacks the partner creates in the portal never receive {revenue} or {advertiser_id} (they expand to empty); postbacks your team adds on the affiliate can use every macro. Options and presets: Partner postbacks.

Next steps#

• Caps, targeting and payout rules: Caps & pacing, Targeting, Payout rules.
• Google Ads traffic: Quickstart for media buyers.
• Automate with the REST API.