Outbrain as a Traffic Source

Outbrain is one of the biggest native ad networks in the industry. They work with one of the most recognizable brands in the industry. The following guide describes how to set up tracking of their traffic with Voluum.

The following things are required before setting up tracking:

• An active Outbrain account.
• An active Voluum account.
• An offer and optionally, a lander.
• A creative.

Once you have everything, proceed with the guide.

The first thing you need to do is to create a campaign in Voluum. This will provide you with a direct tracking URL that you will submit to Outbrain as a destination URL. Because Outbrain scans links that you submit, you cannot use a redirect method of tracking, as that redirect URL would not be correctly scanned. With the direct method of tracking, you will submit a direct tracking URL to Outbrain. This will allow Outbrain to scan this link without a problem. In order to do so, perform the following steps:

1. Create an offer element. Read the Add an Offer to Voluum article to learn how to do that.
2. (Optionally) Create a lander element. Read the Add a Lander Element article to learn more.

3. Create a traffic source element. Voluum provides you with the Outbrain traffic source template, so you can use it and skip most of the manual setup. In order to use this template, perform the following steps:

   1. In Voluum, go to Traffic sources.

   2. Click the Create button and select the Traffic source option from the drop-down menu.

      

   3. Select the Outbrain template.

   4. Click the Next button.

      

   5. You can change or adjust any option in the New traffic source form. Once you have done so, click the Save button.

4. Create a campaign. 

   In Voluum, go to Campaigns, click the Create button and select the Campaign Simple or Campaign Advanced option from the drop-down menu.

   

   1. Select the Private Workspace that you want this campaign to be assigned to from the Workspace drop-down menu.
   2. In the New campaign form, select the Outbrain traffic source that you have just created from the Traffic source drop-down menu.
   3. Provide a name for the campaign in the Campaign name text field.
   4. Select Direct as the first transition.
   5. (Optionally) Select a lander you have previously created from the Landers drop-down menu.
   6. Select the offer that you have just created from the Offers drop-down menu.

   7. Click the Save button.

      

   8. Click the Copy buttons next to the direct tracking URL and a direct tracking script to copy them to the clipboard.

      

   9. Click the Done button.
5. Implement a direct tracking script into the landing page URL. Read the Track with a Direct Method article to learn how to do that.

The second thing you need to do is to create a campaign in Outbrain. You will set all traffic targeting options there and submit a campaign URL. But before you create a campaign, you should create a conversion event, if you would like to pass conversions from Voluum to Outbrain later. In order to do so, perform the following steps:

1. Create a conversion event.

   1. In Outbrain, go to the Conversions tab.

   2. Click the Add conversions button.

      

   3. Set the data source of your conversion and click Next.
   4. Select the Event-Based option.
   5. Select the conversion category from the drop-down menu.
   6. Provide a name for the conversion in the Name text field.
   7. (Optional) Set advanced options.

   8. Click the Create conversion button.

      

2. Create a campaign.

   1. In Outbrain, click the Create campaign button.

      

   2. Paste the landing page domain. In this example, it will be: my_lander.com
   3. Select the goal for your campaign.
   4. Select a conversion that you have created before.
   5. Select Audience & Targeting options.
   6. Set up your ads.
   7. In the Budget & Schedule tab, scroll down to the Track / Suffix . You need to paste only the suffix part of your direct tracking URL in the Suffix text field. Your direct tracking URL that you have copied from Voluum looks like this:

      https://my_lander.com/?cpid=ea47ae45-86e8-4a2f-8b4a-c78c417e4303&ob_click_id={{ob_click_id}}&campaign_id={{campaign_id}}&publisher_id={{publisher_id}}&publisher_name={{publisher_name}}&ad_id={{ad_id}}&ad_title={{ad_title}}&sctn_id={{section_id}}&section_name={{section_name}}&req_id={{req_id}}&promoted_link_id={{promoted_link_id}}&time_stamp={{time_stamp}}cpid=ea47ae45-86e8-4a2f-8b4a-c78c417e4303&ob_click_id={{ob_click_id}}&campaign_id={{campaign_id}}&publisher_id={{publisher_id}}&publisher_name={{publisher_name}}&ad_id={{ad_id}}&ad_title={{ad_title}}&section_id={{section_id}}&section_name={{section_name}}&req_id={{req_id}}&promoted_link_id={{promoted_link_id}}&time_stamp={{time_stamp}}

      The suffix part is everything after the ? character. So, in our example, paste the following part of the direct tracking URL to Outbrain:

      cpid=ea47ae45-86e8-4a2f-8b4a-c78c417e4303&ob_click_id={{ob_click_id}}&campaign_id={{campaign_id}}&publisher_id={{publisher_id}}&publisher_name={{publisher_name}}&ad_id={{ad_id}}&ad_title={{ad_title}}&sctn_id={{section_id}}&section_name={{section_name}}&req_id={{req_id}}&promoted_link_id={{promoted_link_id}}&time_stamp={{time_stamp}}cpid=ea47ae45-86e8-4a2f-8b4a-c78c417e4303&ob_click_id={{ob_click_id}}&campaign_id={{campaign_id}}&publisher_id={{publisher_id}}&publisher_name={{publisher_name}}&ad_id={{ad_id}}&ad_title={{ad_title}}&section_id={{section_id}}&section_name={{section_name}}&req_id={{req_id}}&promoted_link_id={{promoted_link_id}}&time_stamp={{time_stamp}}

      

   8. Set up additional options and click the Launch campaign button.

Your campaign is saved and is pending review.

This step is optional and should be performed only if you want to pass conversions from Voluum to Outbrain. In order to do so, perform the following steps:

1. In Voluum, edit the Outbrain traffic source that you have created.
2. Enable the Traffic source postback URL toggle.

3. Paste the following URL template in the Traffic source postback URL text field: https://tr.outbrain.com/unifiedPixel?ob_click_id=UNIQUE_CLICK_ID_VALUE&name=EVENT_BASED_CONVERSION_NAME
   

   To make passing conversions work, you need to modify this URL template in the following way:

   • Replace the phrase UNIQUE_CLICK_ID_VALUE with the {externalid} Voluum token.
   • Replace the phrase EVENT_BASED_CONVERSION_-NAME with the name of your conversion. In our conversion, it would be conversion.

   Your modified URL should look like this: https://tr.outbrain.com/unifiedPixel?ob_click_id={externalid}&name=conversion

4. Click the Save button.

   

Congratulations, you have now successfully configured passing conversions to Outbrain.

Token	Description
{{ob_click_id}}	Click ID
{{campaign_id}}	Campaign ID
{{publisher_id}}	Publisher ID
{{publisher_name}}	Publisher name
{{ad_id}}	Ad ID
{{ad_title}}	Ad titlew
{{section_id}}	Section ID
{{section_name}}	Section name
{{req_id}}	Request ID
{{promoted_link_id}}	External promoted link ID
{{time_stamp}}	Timestamp

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