Influencer Marketing: Getting Started with TUNE

To use the TUNE integration in Sprout Social Influencer Marketing, navigate to Organization Settings > Integrations and enable TUNE.

Once the TUNE integration is enabled, you can enable postback URL tracking in your store to successfully track conversions.

Enabling Postback URL Tracking

What is postback URL tracking?

Server postback tracking, also known as “postback tracking” or “server-side tracking”, is the method of tracking conversions using the advertiser’s server rather than the user’s browser. The website stores the information it receives from a redirect link and sends it to the tracking system (e.g. TUNE) once the conversion occurs. 

Why should you use postback tracking?

Postback tracking is the go-to method for affiliate marketing and is also the recommended method by TUNE. The main advantage postback tracking has over other client-side tracking methods is it doesn’t rely on cookies. Tracking methods that rely on cookies are prone to being unreliable because ad blockers or simply clearing cookies can affect their accuracy.

Initial setup

The exact steps to implement postback tracking will depend on your organization’s infrastructure.

Manual implementation

In its most basic form, Affiliate Tracking can be implemented into any system by adding support for two types of events: 

• Click - where your page needs to save information about the transaction ID
• Conversion - where your page needs to create a request including saved transaction ID and conversion amount data

1. Receive and store parameters from the Click event.

A unique tracking link is generated for each creator in a campaign. For every customers that uses a creator’s link a unique transaction ID is created and appended as a parameter to that tracking link.

The website where you expect the conversion to take place must be ready to retrieve the transaction ID from the tracking link and store it through the entire session up until the conversion point. This transaction ID is how conversion statistics are assigned to the appropriate creator.  

An example of a tracking link can look like this:

https://a.taggermedia.com/aff_c?offer_id=25&aff_id=14078

which ultimately redirects to

https://examplestore.com?transaction_id={transaction_id}

2. Send the parameters in the Conversion event.

When a conversion happens, data like the transaction ID and conversion amount are sent to TUNE to attach to a specific conversion. The postback URL, while subject to change, looks similar to the line below:

https://a.taggermedia.com/aff_l?transaction_id={transaction_id}&amount={amount}
    

where transaction_id is the parameter which was acquired from the tracking link, and the amount is the monetary value of the conversion. The advertiser should use an HTTP GET request to fire postbacks to TUNE.

For example, for a conversion of $250, your final Postback URL should look like the following: https://taggermedia.go2cloud.org/aff_l?transaction_id=123456789&amount=250 .

Google Tag Manager Implementation

If you are using Google Tag Manager, it’s possible to use dedicated TUNE Tag template to support “Click” and “Conversion” events. This Tag has built-in support for storing the appropriate transaction_id value and appending it to a Conversion event.

A prerequisite for correct implementation is defining a GTM Trigger that correctly identifies when a conversion event happens and storing the amount value in a GTM Variable.

For technical documentation on how to add a TUNE Tag to Google Tag Manager, read this article from TUNE.

Configuration details:

• Network ID = taggermedia

• Network Domain = https://a.taggermedia.com

• When configuring Click event, there's no need to add any default or override parameters.

  • name = amount

  • value = GTM variable storing the monetary value of the conversion (converted to an appropriate currency)

    When configuring Conversion event, you have to add one custom parameter called amount 

TUNE Tracking Setup for Shopify

The TUNE Javascript SDK enables Shopify customers to track conversion activity on their Shopify stores, and send conversion amounts back to TUNE for visualization on Influencer Marketing.

Code snippets must be placed in two different locations:

• theme.liquid master template

  • Navigate to the theme.liquid master template by selecting Themes under Online Store and clicking on Actions > Edit Code.

  • Select theme.liquid in the menu on the left under Layout.

  • Paste the following tracking snippet at the top of the file right below the first <head> tag:

<script> 
!function(){var o=window.tdl=window.tdl||[];if(o.invoked)window.console&&console.error&&console.error("Tune snippet has been included more than once.");else{o.invoked=!0,o.methods=["init","identify","convert"],o.factory=function(n){return function(){var e=Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments);return e.unshift(n),o.push(e),o}};for(var e=0;e<o.methods.length;e++){var n=o.methods[e];o[n]=o.factory(n)}o.init=function(e){var n=document.createElement("script");n.type="text/javascript",n.async=!0,n.src="https://js.go2sdk.com/v2/tune.js";var t=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];t.parentNode.insertBefore(n,t),o.domain=e}}}(); 

tdl.init("https://a.taggermedia.com") 
tdl.identify() 
</script>

For Shopify stores set up BEFORE April 2025

• Order Status page / additional scripts

  • Click on Settings > Checkout and Account then navigate to the Order status page section. In the Additional Scripts box, paste the following script:

{% if first_time_accessed %} 
{% unless checkout.discount_applications[0].type == 'discount_code' %} 
<script> 
!function(){var o=window.tdl=window.tdl||[];if(o.invoked)window.console&&console.error&&console.error("Tune snippet has been included more than once.");else{o.invoked=!0,o.methods=["init","identify","convert"],o.factory=function(n){return function(){var e=Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments);return e.unshift(n),o.push(e),o}};for(var e=0;e<o.methods.length;e++){var n=o.methods[e];o[n]=o.factory(n)}o.init=function(e){var n=document.createElement("script");n.type="text/javascript",n.async=!0,n.src="https://js.go2sdk.com/v2/tune.js";var t=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];t.parentNode.insertBefore(n,t),o.domain=e}}}(); 

tdl.init("https://a.taggermedia.com") 
tdl.convert( 
{ 
'amount':'#{{ total_price | money_without_currency | remove: ',' }}', 
}
)
</script> 
{% endunless %} 
{% endif %}

For Shopify stores set up AFTER April 2025

If you created your Shopify store after April 2025, your Additional Scripts will be deprecated. In this case, you need to use Customer Events.

1. Go to Customer Events in your Shopify Store Settings. Click Add Custom Pixel.
2. Place the following code:

!function(){var o=window.tdl=window.tdl||[];if(o.invoked)window.console&&console.error&&console.error("Tune snippet has been included more than once.");else{o.invoked=!0,o.methods=["init","identify","convert"],o.factory=function(n){return function(){var e=Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments);return e.unshift(n),o.push(e),o}};for(var e=0;e<o.methods.length;e++){var n=o.methods[e];o[n]=o.factory(n)}o.init=function(e){var n=document.createElement("script");n.type="text/javascript",n.async=!0,n.src="https://js.go2sdk.com/v2/tune.js";var t=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];t.parentNode.insertBefore(n,t),o.domain=e}}}(); tdl.init("https://a.influencer.sproutsocial.com") analytics.subscribe("checkout_completed", (event) => {  tdl.convert(  {'adv_sub': 'shopify',  'amount': `${event.data.checkout?.totalPrice?.amount}`  }) 

      3. After pasting the code, make sure to click Connect in the top right corner of your screen.

Testing your Postback Implementation

To test that you’ve correctly configured your store to send conversions back to Influencer Marketing via a postback link:

1. Create a campaign in Influencer Marketing.
2. Add a creator to the campaign and hire them, but don’t contact them. To generate an affiliate link for your test, you need to have a creator hired for a campaign
3. In the campaign, navigate to Settings and click Creator Flow. Make sure Affiliate Link is toggled ON and click Configure next to Affiliate Link in the right hand panel. 
4. Copy and paste the postback link in the Target URL field and fill out the affiliate offer details. Confirm your changes and click Save. 
5. Create a conversion in your store by simulating the experience your customer will have while shopping.
6. If configured correctly, the conversion should register in TUNE and Influencer Marketing. You’ll see the conversion recorded in the Campaign Summary.