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Smart Links & KPI Optimization
Smart Links & KPI Optimization

Adding Smart Links (SmartLinks) and setting up KPI Optimization for your Offers

Genny avatar
Written by Genny
Updated over a week ago

Updated - Feature Release 3.4.5 (February 2024)

  • Expanded the Run Frequency options in KPI Based Configuration to include additional intervals of 1 hour, 3 hours, and 6 hours.

Updated - Feature Release 3.4.1 (October 2023):

  • The weight redirect mechanism can now be configured at 0% which allows for the offer to remain in the Smart Link without sending traffic to it [Click Here]
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Table of Contents

Overview

Smart Links provide a powerful tool to ensure that you’re sending your traffic to the best matching Offers. With Smart Links, you’re creating a bundled group of Offers that are reached through a single tracking link. Each User’s Click will be matched up with an Offer through a downward list (Priority), in a random rotation (Weight), or through a KPI Optimized Smart Link.


Smart Links confirm that the Offer criteria would accept the User before delivering the Click and, if not, it will deliver the User’s Click with a different matching bundled Offer.

For your Offer’s Fail Traffic destination, Smart Links are the most effective setup.

Watch our Smart Links webinar below!

Use Case Example

You have an Offer that targets all OS, but each OS has its own designated landing page. Therefore, you set up three separate Offers with OS targeting applied: Offer 1 (iOS), Offer 2 (Android), Offer 3 (Desktop). You also have three creative assets that you want to distribute evenly to traffic from each OS (i.e. 1/3 of iOS users > URL A, 1/3 of iOS users > URL B, 1/3 of iOS users > URL C). In this case, you would redirect users based on a rotation (i.e. Weight) and allow Offer targeting to send users to the proper landing page per OS.

A How-To Guide

Step #1

  • Navigate to Offers > Smart Link > click + Smart Link button.

    You could also copy an existing Smart Link by clicking on three vertical dots and selecting 'Copy'.

Step #2

  • Fill in the required fields including Name, Status and Tracking Domain.

Step #3

  • Select whether Partners have visibility to Smart Links in their portal or if you will give the Smart Link to your Partners directly. Partners cannot view Smart Links in their portal by default.

When enabled, the Smart Link is viewable in the Partner portal by going to Smart Link > click on the name of a Smart Link - Tracking Links tab.
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If 'Show To Partners' is *not* enabled and you prefer to pull the Smart Link for your Partners, please click Offers > Smart Link > click the name of the Smart Link - Smart Link Tracking Links button.
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* PRO TIP: Partners need to be approved to run any/all Offers included in a Smart Link in order for it to function properly, including the Catch-All Offer, unless the Smart Link logic accounts for being blocked within the redirect flow.

Step #4

  • In Settings tab select whether or not you would like to have a Catch-all Offer for your Smart Link. When enabled, you can define which offer your traffic will be sent to if it does not meet the requirements for any Offers included in the Smart Link.
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See the following steps to understand how a User would ultimately reach a Catch-All Offer:
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User clicks on Everflow Partner's Smart Link. User is sent to the most relevant Offer included in the Smart Link based on all criteria and the defined redirect mechanism. If none of the Offers included in the Smart Link match with the Click, the User is taken to the Catch-All Offer, regardless of Weight or Priority. If the User does not match the criteria for the Catch-All Offer, the Fail Traffic logic associated with that Catch-All Offer takes over.
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Step #5

Select a Redirect Mechanism for your Smart Link:
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  • Weight (rotation-based logic): Define a percentage of traffic to be sent to each Offer.

  • Priority (waterfall-like logic): Define the order of priority for each Offer when the required Offer criteria (i.e. targeting, caps, approval) matches the User's Click. For example, Offer 1 will be shown first, however if the Offer's cap is already met or the targeting does not match, the user is sent to Offer 2 and so on.

  • KPI: prioritizing traffic based on how closely they are meeting your set KPI goals. When KPI is selected as your Redirect Mechanism, you will be prompted to configure your KPI routing settings:

    • Data Collection Period Threshold (Customizable) - This is the number of clicks that the Smart Link must have received in order for the optimization algorithm to be applied towards your best performing Offer or goal.

    • Run Frequency (1 / 3/ 6 / 12 / 24 hours) - This is the frequency in which Everflow checks the previous data lookback window's clicks and performance.

    • Metric (CV, CVR, EVR, RPC, CPC, EPC, Payout, Profit or Revenue) - This is the performance metric that you wish to optimize towards.

    • Use Specific Goal (Optional) - If you enter a Goal Value, the algorithm will optimize your clicks towards the Offer closest to your specific goal.

    • Data Lookback Window (12 hours, 24 hours, or 48 hours) - This is the amount of time Everflow will use to look back and evaluate the performance of the traffic received.
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  • If KPI redirect Mechanism is selected, you will have an extra card in General tab with an overview of your selected settings, as well as a new tab called Run Record.
    Under Run Record you will see a full record of applied optimizations within the Smart Link.
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Step #6

Select an Offer, and choose either Default URL (Base Destination URL) or one of separate Offer URLs. (You can read more about Offer URLs in this article).
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Step #7

Define additional targeting criteria to the Offers in the Smart Link.


The Offer targeting will always be applied first and will not be overridden by these additional rules.
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Important Notes

  • If any Offers are added to or removed from the Smart Link, the algorithm will reset and the allocation of the click will be set back to random. We are not able to reconcile previous data with the new Offer set. Your Date Collection Period Threshold will also be reset.

  • When evaluating performance of one Offer over another, we are looking at performance within the Smart Link ONLY. Network-wide performance of the Offer is not considered.

  • If the Duplicate Click Filter is enabled on the Offers within the Smart Link, then only the first click on the Smart Link will be valid and all subsequent clicks from the same User will be considered duplicate clicks.

  • All Conversions generated via Smart Link will be attributed to their respective individual Offers and therefore appear in reporting under each respective Offer in your portal as well as your Partners'. Use Smart Link reporting to analyze the overall Smart Link performance.

  • If the Offer is using cookies (no Everflow transaction id used) for tracking - then the Everflow Conversion pixel domain and tracking domain in the Smart Link must match to track correctly.

  • Forwarding and Fail rules setup on a specific offer will not work when the offer is clicked on from a SmartLink.

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