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Receiving applications from a customer

Explains: D-PROD-03, D-PROD-10, D-PROD-14, D-027-05, D-027-06, D-027-20, D-027-23, specs/027-conversion-tracking#req-002, specs/027-conversion-tracking#req-003, specs/027-conversion-tracking#req-004, specs/027-conversion-tracking#req-010, specs/027-conversion-tracking#req-014, specs/027-conversion-tracking#req-015

A customer tells ClickFactor about an application by postback: when someone applies, the customer's server sends one request naming the click ID we put on the job's address (cf_click_id). ClickFactor finds the click, and so the publisher and campaign that sent the job seeker, and counts the application there. Each customer has a Conversions tab where you switch this on and manage it.

Turning it on

  1. Open the customer's Conversions tab and choose Turn on under Postback. Nothing is received until you do.
  2. Choose Create a key. The key starts with cfk_live_ and is shown once; copy it then and give it to the customer's integrator. ClickFactor keeps only a fingerprint of it, so a lost key cannot be read back: create another.
  3. The customer's server sends the click ID with the key as a bearer token (the tab shows the exact request with your address filled in). A tool that can only call a web address can send the key as key= in the address instead.

A customer can have two live keys at a time, so one can be replaced without a gap: create the second, move the customer over, then Revoke the first. A revoked key stops working at once. Creating and revoking are in the customer's Activity, with who did it and never the key (D-027-05).

If a key is ever sent from a web page it is public, so ClickFactor refuses it and the tab warns you to revoke it.

What counts

An application counts only when all of these hold (specs/027 REQ-004):

  • the click ID belongs to this customer, and the click is at most 30 days old by ClickFactor's clock (a time the customer sends is ignored);
  • the customer is not archived, and its postback is on;
  • somebody was billed for the click. If the job seeker clicked twice and the second click was the one nobody was billed for, the application is credited to the first, billed click (D-027-06);
  • a job reference, if the customer sends one, names one of that customer's jobs. Without one, the application is on the job that was clicked.

One click earns at most three of each kind of event, and sending the same application twice is one application, not two (D-PROD-03).

Applications that are shown but not counted

The tab keeps three figures apart:

  • Counted: the job seeker applied to the job they clicked.
  • On another job: the same click led to an application on a different job. It is real and listed, but it is not the application the advertising was run for, so it is left out of every conversion rate (D-027-23).
  • Repeat applicant: the same job seeker applied to the same job again within 30 days, for example through a second billed click. It is listed on its own and left out of every count and rate (D-027-20).

When an event is refused

The tab lists the newest 100 refused events from the last 7 days, each with the reason in words. Read the reason to the customer's integrator; each one names what to fix, such as an old click, a job reference that matches no job, or a click that was not billed. A click that belongs to another customer reads as "no click with that ID", never as something that tells the sender where it is.

Nothing a customer sends changes what any click was charged or paid, and no publisher sees any of it unless the customer provides it and your shop approves (D-PROD-10, D-PROD-14).