Testing Guide

The number of conversions lost due to an incorrect setup could fill the Grand Canyon. Even experienced affiliates are prone to errors. One space in the postback URL, one unnecessary uppercase character in the offer URL, a wrong domain name and other typical errors can seriously mess with your data. You need to test every campaign before launching it to make sure that everything works correctly. To test your funnel, complete a visitor journey from a campaign URL to an offer, and then report a conversion. This is a technical test.

Apart from avoiding setup errors, there is another aspect of testing to consider: Your offers should resonate with your potential customers, and that is not only a matter of attractiveness but also accessibility:

• An offer should be displayed in a local language,
• A signup form should be easy to complete,
• A landing page should load quickly,
• A landing page should be displayed correctly.

An accessibility test is just as important as a technical test.

Before you start testing there is one clarification to be made about your stats: you will rarely get an exact match of data between your traffic source platform, affiliate network platform and Voluum.

• Some visits, clicks, and conversions always get lost due to technical problems, connection errors, timeouts and so on.
• Traffic sources usually count unique visits only, while Voluum counts all visits.
• Different time zones set in Voluum and other platforms.

In general, do not expect all the numbers to match up, but the difference shouldn't be bigger than 10%.

To make sure that your setup works, perform the following steps:

Check for technical errors:

1. Get a campaign URL from Voluum and enter it in the address bar of a web browser opened in incognito (private) mode. Activate it.
2. Depending on your campaign setup you should be directed either to an offer page or a landing page. In the latter case, click the CTA button with a click URL underneath it to go to an offer page. If you have not been redirected correctly to an offer page, verify the links and domain names.
3. At this point, Voluum should already have recorded a visit and a click (if a landing page has been used). Also, a click ID value has been assigned.

4. To test your postback settings, get the click ID value that has been assigned to you.

   1. Open a specific report for your campaign in Voluum by double-clicking your campaign name.
   2. Click the Live events button and select the Live visits option.

   3. Copy the click ID value and paste it in any text editing tool.

      

5. Copy the postback URL from Voluum and paste it in your web browser's address bar. Replace the word REPLACE with the click ID value that you have copied from Voluum and delete the rest of parameters. Your postback URL should look like this: https://voluum_dedicated_domain.com/postback?cid=wona7193p30h7jssi1lj3sdc

   Active this URL. This will be counted as a conversion.

6. In Voluum, verify that all events have been recorded correctly.

If Voluum has registered all event types, your technical setup is correct.

Common problems and solutions:

Here's a list of common problems and possible solutions:

• Domain mismatch: This may happen when you switch your tracking domain, but forget to change the domain name in a click URL on a landing page. Make sure that you use the same tracking domain throughout the whole campaign funnel.
• Blank spaces in URLs: If you have left a blank space in a URL, it will be changed to "%20" characters, making the tracking parameter or the whole URL unreadable. Make sure that there are no blank spaces in any URL.
• Case sensitive token names: Token names are case sensitive. This means that the {clickid} token is not the same as the {clickId} token. Make sure that you have entered your tracking parameter names and tokens correctly.

The second round of tests recreates an actual visitor's journey. Even if your setup is flawless, there are still some problems that you might face:

• Your landing page is not displaying correctly on some devices.
• Your sign-up form is too complicated or faulty.
• Some links are not visible on mobile devices.

To avoid those problems, you have to see your advertisement, landing page and offer in the same way as a visitor will. However, some problems may arise. If you advertise in a different country than the country you operate from, parts of your content may not be available to you. You offer might be limited to visitors coming from the targeted country. Also, some errors might be visible only on specific devices. To overcome those issues, you have to imitate your visitor's location and device types.

Use VPNs to avoid geo-blocking

VPNs, or virtual private networks, use a network of servers scattered around a globe to route your connection to the target server, located in the desired country. That way you may appear to be connecting to your landing page from within the targeted country.

There are free and paid VPN services for you to choose from:

• VyprVPN
• NordVPN
• CyberGhost VPN

Use User agent switchers to mimic other device types

When you browse the web, your web browser acts on your behalf as a user agent. It introduces itself with its name, version, device type, and some other information. You can manipulate user agent settings by either using built-in tools or browser extensions:

• Built-in tools: Both Chrome and Microsoft Edge have a user agent switcher built into their developer tools.
• Browser extensions: Search for the phrase "user agent switcher" in your web browser extension store and install one.

When you imitate the real-life conditions, try to follow a campaign funnel with a visitor's perspective in mind. Look for any problem that may deter visitors from taking your offer or at least make it difficult for them.

• View your landing page and check if everything is displayed correctly on various devices.
• Remember that page load time will be shorter for visitors that are actually in the targeted country and not using a VPN service.
• Verify if your CTA buttons work.

Go as far into generating a conversion as possible:

• Fill a sign-up form and check, how easy it was.
• Install an app and check, how much time it took.
• Add an item to a shopping cart and check that there were no problems when doing so.

Test on real devices:

If you want 100% certainty that your landing page works on various devices and browser, you can try the following tool:

• BrowserStack

It tests your landing page on 2000+ web browsers and mobile devices - real devices, not virtual machines. This is a paid option, however, a free trial is available.