Awin is a global leader in affiliate marketing and one of the few platforms that has made server-side tracking mandatory for all advertisers. Through server-to-server integration, they ensure the affiliates' marketing efforts are correctly attributed and paid.
To simplify Awin server-to-server integration, we created the tag for the server Google Tag Manager. This blog post will discuss why server-to-server communication is necessary and how to set up Awin server-to-server tracking using server GTM.
Awin is committed to delivering advertisers and affiliates the best conversion tracking experience through its comprehensive system. As an industry leader, Awin strives for accurate data so all parties can easily see campaign success. Awin also wants to ensure that it uses the best and most reliable conversion tracking techniques since this is the key to success in affiliate marketing.
They aim to ensure that advertisers see the correct conversion reporting from affiliates and that affiliates receive the proper commission for all their marketing efforts.
Tracking conversion becomes challenging due to ITPs, ad blockers, and the limited use of third-party cookies. To help deal with all these browser tracking restrictions, they implemented server-to-server integration and made it mandatory for all advertisers within their platform.
Advertisers should send conversion data directly to Awin’s server. HTTP requests must contain conversion data and the original click id “awc” within the “cks’’ parameter. Product-level details can be added for more robust tracking reports.
Here’s a more detailed article about how server-side tracking works and the benefits of Stape as a server-side tracking solution.
Awin tag for server Google Tag Manager container can significantly simplify server-to-server integration by sending conversion data directly to Awin's server. You can choose from two types of events: pageview and conversion.
A pageview event tag stores the awc URL parameter inside the awin_ awc cookie.
The conversion tag sends the HTTP request with the specified conversion data. Within the tag settings, you can set:
Merchant ID - A unique numeric code of a merchant.
Order Reference - The unique booking or order reference that identifies the transaction.
Total Order Value - The total booking or order value excluding any taxes, delivery, and discounts. For a lead-based campaign or program, the value should be the number of leads, for example, "1". The value will be ignored if multiple commission groups are specified in the Commission Group Code field.
Currency Code - The value must be a 3-letter currency code per ISO standard (e.g., "GBP").
Commission Group Code - The code for the commission group you want to base the commission calculation on. The value can be either a single group name (e.g., "CD"), or a full set of groups and the commission value for each group (e.g., "CD:11.10|DVD:14.99").
Discount Code - The code or name of the discount code that was applied during check-out.
Last Paid Click Referring Channel—The value utilized to determine how AWIN should process the incoming transaction requests. It is most likely configured as the "utm_source" value.
You can also choose the checkbox In test mode. If checked, the tag will be fired in test mode, and the reported conversion will be ignored.
Follow this guide to create and set up a Google Tag Manager server container.
Send data to the server GTM container to enable server-to-server tracking.
The two most popular ways of sending data to sGTM are Google Analytics 4 and Data Tag/Data Client.
Add the Awin tag from the sGTM Template Gallery or from GiHub.
Define the event names that will trigger the PageView functionality and Conversion functionality of the tag.
Test Awin tag PageView functionality by enabling sGTM debug mode and adding awc to the URL. You should see the awc in the awin_ awc cookie.
Set up Conversion settings to capture important transaction data. You must add a Merchant ID. Other fields are optional but highly recommended.
You can use a Channel Flow tag to define the Last Paid Click Referring Channel.
You can enable the “In test mode” checkbox; in this case, a conversion tag will be fired in test mode, and a reported conversion will be ignored. Once done, publish changes in the server container.
Awin required all advertisers to implement server-to-server tracking as a fallback. This ensures that conversions are attributed correctly and affiliates get appropriate compensation for conversions referred by them.
This article covered Awin server-to-server integration using server GTM. Please contact us if you need assistance setting up your Awin integration or any other affiliate network. Thanks for reading!
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Ira has 10+ years of digital marketing experience, with the last 5 focused on server-side tracking. She understands how and when it works across various digital marketing scenarios.
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