Offer Fail Traffic Overview

Clicks can be deemed invalid for multiple reasons. Some of the most common are related to targeting requirements, fraud detection, and daily cap limitations. The Fail Traffic function allows you to set up rules for re-routing invalid clicks to a specified destination that would otherwise lead to a dead/blank page.

We recommend that you combine Fail Traffic with Smart Links - [Learn More]

First, find the offer for which you would like to re-route invalid clicks and switch on the Enable Fail Traffic toggle for functionality.

(OFFERS > MANAGE > Select the Offer > FAIL TRAFFIC)

Priority - This allows you to create a top down, or waterfall-like flow for possible redirect destinations. An invalid click will be re-directed to Offer 1 after checking for the Targeting Rules and Fail Reason for eligibility. If the click does not meet targeting rules for Offer 1, it will be redirected to Offer 2, and so on, EXCEPT with the use of Smart Links or Offer Groups, hereby explained:

Smart Link and Offer Group exception - When an Offer Group or Smart Link is configured, the invalid click will be redirected to the Smart Link/Offer Group instead of the lower priority offers in the Fail Traffic flow. 

Weight - This option allows you to redirect a certain percentage of invalid clicks to each potential redirect offer according to its assigned weight. For example, 50% of invalid clicks are sent to Offer 1, 25% of invalid clicks are sent to Offer 2 and the remaining 25% of invalid clicks are sent to Offer 3.

Priority OR Weight with Global Fail Redirect - If there is no viable offer in the Fail Traffic flow, the user is redirected to the Global Fail Redirect which you define in your 'Fail Traffic Destination External URL' configuration at the network level.

Set up your Global Fail Redirect destination at the network level: CONTROL CENTER > CONFIGURATION > on 'Global Settings' card click Edit - switch on toggle for Enable Global Fail Traffic > enter external destination URL

Destination Type

A destination type is set for each redirect in the flow. Please find a brief description for each type below.

Offer - This function sends invalid clicks to a specific offer (e.g. Offer 1). If the user does not meet targeting requirements for this offer (Offer 1), they are redirected to the next offer defined in the Fail Traffic flow (Offer 2) - NOT the offers associated with any Fail Traffic redirects for Offer 1. In other words, only the original Fail Traffic flow is considered per invalid click.  

Offer Group - This function allows the platform to randomly select an offer from the defined "Offer Group" for redirection of an invalid click. If the user does not meet the targeting requirements of this randomly selected offer from the "Offer Group," they will be taken to a dead/blank page - NOT to a second consecutive redirect.

Pass Through - Enabling this feature means that invalid clicks will still be sent to the offer despite not meeting targeting requirements.  Any conversions from these invalid clicks will be marked as pending conversions, and won’t be displayed as payable to your partners.

Smart Link [Recommended] - The user will be taken to the Smart Link tree at which point they will follow all the defined logic, which considers all targeting rules for each offer included in the Smart Link tree. This function prevents the click from being sent to an offer which doesn't match the associated targeting settings.

Fail Reason

When specific fail reasons are defined, a user can only be sent to the associated redirect if the fail reason matches the defined reason. 

 When looking at Fail reason  "Other", this can include the following:

• Traffic Blocking
• Offer Forwarding Rule
• SmartSwitch
• Wrong domain at the Affiliate level
• Scrubbed Click
• Duplicate Click (with filter enabled)
• No Matching Campaign

Targeting Rules 

Leaving this blank will not take any targeting into consideration when sending the user to that Fail Traffic offer. This setup only checks that the partner has visibility to the Fail Traffic offer. Even if the click doesn't match the Fail Traffic offer's internal targeting requirements, the user will still be sent to that offer unless you've also added targeting rules in this section shown above. If you want  each offer's internal targeting setting to be considered, use the Smart Link feature.

Please note - If the partner doesn't have visibility to the offer, clicks will automatically fail and be sent to the next offer in the chain where they do have visibility.

Pay Partner

Turning on this feature allows for paying your partner for conversions on the defined Fail Traffic offer, unlike a typical Fail Traffic redirect. However, the original click is still considered invalid and will track as an invalid click in reporting. 

Please note: The partner must have visibility/permission for the Fail Traffic offer in order for this feature to function properly. 

Designate Affiliates/Partners

Lastly, you will choose which Affiliates/Partners this Fail Setting applies to. If you wish to send all Affiliates/Partners to the same Fail offer, you will leave the toggle set to green/on. If this rule should only apply to specific partners, you will turn the toggle to red/off and select the partners who you wish to apply the setting to. An affiliate specific setting will override the general setting. 

Rules
*IMPORTANT NOTE* Keep in mind that when using the Priority feature, an invalid click can only be redirected to an offer other than the first offer in the Fail Traffic flow if you have set up Targeting Rules, Fail Reasons, or the first offer in the flow was set as inactive. 

If that first offer in the Fail Traffic flow is not set up with Rules, Fail Reasons, and it is active, then the user will be redirected to it. 

Example #1

• The click fails to meet the base offer requirements, so the user is redirected to Offer ID 461 Amazon Prime Video iOS. The click is considered invalid and will not be shown to the partner nor will they receive any payouts for conversions. 
• If the click fails to meet the requirements for Offer ID 461, the user be redirected to the Fail Traffic offer associated with Offer ID 461 - NOT a consecutive offer from the original base offer's Fail Traffic flow. 
• If the click fails due to Offer ID 461 being inactive or not being visible/approved for the partner, the user is redirected to the Smart Link. 
• Since the Pay Partner feature has been turned on, the partner will see all clicks, conversions, and payouts for any offers associated with the Smart Link. 

Example 2

• The click fails to meet the base offer requirements. If the click failed due to a geo-targeting mismatch, the user will be redirected to Offer ID 461 Amazon Prime Video iOS. Please note in this case that a total of 2 clicks would be tracked in the partner UI: an "invalid" click for the original base offer and a valid click for Offer ID 461.
  • The user will pass through to the original base offer if the click failed for any other reason, but the partner will not see any conversions or associated payouts. One click will be tracked per pass through.
• Since the Pay Partner feature is turned on, the partner sees all clicks, conversions, and payouts associated with Offer ID 461.

Example 3

• The click fails to meet the base offer's requirements. The user has a 50% chance of either "passing through" to the base offer without possibility of partner conversion/payment or being redirected to Offer ID 461. 
• If the user is redirected to Offer ID 461, the partner will track the associated click and any conversions. 
• If the click fails to meet requirements for Offer ID 461, the user will be redirected to the Fail Traffic flow for Offer ID 461. 

Partner's UI > Fail Traffic Reporting

Partners can add the column "Redirect Traffic Rev" to any of the following reports: offer, sub id, daily, hourly, smart link, flex and the entity detail views. Please note that only the rev amount will show, no clicks or conversions.