The pixel can be found in Tools>Pixel Logging.
The pixel log contains searchable data related to sales generated by advertiser fired pixels and the Upload Sales Tool. The pixel log will be a great tool to use to troubleshoot pixel issues.
Search Values
Date Range: Pixel log will only allow access to the previous 60 days of data.
Affiliate Search: Search the log for affiliate specific information.
Campaign Search: Search the log for campaign specific information.
Status: Indicates whether or not the pixel fire registered a sale.
Hit ID: Search the logs by Hit ID.
Trans ID: Search the logs by Transaction ID
Method: Reporting Method used to log the sale.
Possible method types
Cookie: Hit ID information needed to track the sale retrieved from cookie.
Postback: Hit ID information was successfully inserted in the pixel by the advertiser and passed back to HitPath.
Upload: Sale reported was uploaded into the system by a user.
Output Fields
HitDate: Date and time of click
Pixel Date: Date and time of sale
Elapsed: Time elapsed between the click and the sale
Affiliate ID: ID of affiliate that registered the traffic
Campaign ID: ID of campaign where traffic is coming from.
Hit IP: IP address of click
Pixel IP: IP address of sale. Whenever a postback URL is placed for the offer the Hit IP and Pixel IP will not match, in all other cases both IP address will match.
Sub ID information: C1, C2 and C3 values that the affiliate is passing
Hit ID: HitPath click variable reference aka Hit ID
Trans ID: Identifier that the advertiser fires inside of the pixel.
Status: Indicates whether or not the pixel fire registered a sale.
Possible status types
Successful fires – anything with the status below should be visible in the Global Sales reporting.
Sale: Pixel attempt that was registered by your system as a sale. There should be a 1-1 correlation with Sales in the pixel log and the reporting in Global Sales, i.e. if it shows up as a sale in the pixel log, it should show as a sale in the detailed reporting. Any sale that was uploaded into the system will also be displayed as a sale.
Non-successful fires – you should not expect to see these in any of the reporting. These are attempts that have come into the system that the system has, for various reasons, duped out or considered as errors.
Duplicate: This is a pixel fire that was considered a duplicate. This most typically happens for one of two reasons. Either this is a non multi-sales campaign that is attempting to fire a second pixel against a Hit ID already registered as a sale, or this is a multi-sales campaign that has had a pixel fire come in with the same transid it has already seen in a previous sale.
Click Not Found: We have not been able to associate the pixel with any existing traffic in the system. The system looks for a hit with the Hit ID number, and if it cannot find it, it errors it out. Typically this happens when the advertiser is sending a numeric value in the hid field that is not actually a Hit ID, for instance, if the advertiser was sending back the affiliate id instead. The system does have logic that if it sees a non-numeric value in the hid field, it assumes that it is not a Hit ID and does not attempt to match it and relies on the cookie instead to track
Campaign Not Found: This is for a pixel fired against a campaign that does not exist
Campaign ID does not match Click: This is for a fire where the incoming Hit ID information is for a Hit ID that is associated with a campaign that is not the same as the one in the campaign id field of the pixel (sid=). For example, Hit ID 123456789 is from campaign 5, but the pixel placed on the confirmation page is for campaign 10. We will only consider it a successful fire if the Hit ID is from the same campaign as in the pixel. This is actually fairly common – for instance, if two different campaigns in your system have the same confirmation page, you can place both pixels on the page and know that your system will only successfully register the correct fire for the correct campaign and error the other one out with this error message. Ideally, rather than doing this, you should place a universal pixel. In a universal pixel you will be passing the campaign ID as well as the Hit ID in the redirect URL, but this is not always possible with some advertisers.
You can get details about pixel attempts by double clicking on any of the output fields.
Campaign ID and Name
Affiliate ID and Company Name
Type: The type of pixel used when the pixel was fired. You will see iFrame, Image, Javascript and Postback URL. Knowing the type of pixel that your advertiser fired for you will be helpful to determine whether or not you can fire that type of pixel for the affiliate. In the case that the pixel that was fired for you is unable to fire your affiliate's pixel, your affiliate will not see any sales. (Refer to Pixel Document to see how each pixel works)
Method: Reporting Method used to log the sale. You will see Cookie, Postback or Upload.
Status: Indicates whether or not the pixel fire registered a sale.
C1: The value that the affiliate passed in C1
C2: The value that the affiliate passed in C2
C3: The value that the affiliate passed in C3
TransID: Transaction ID included in your pixel by your advertiser when the pixel was fired.
Referring URL: The URL of where the sale was registered from.
User Agent: Browser type that end user was using.
Fields Posted
All field values reported in the pixel by the Advertiser, including fields that we do not record or display in reporting. Commonly occurring fields that are reported to us here are:
sid: This field is required. This is the only field that we have to see in order for the sale to register.
hid: Must be received and contain a correct value to be successfully tracking via the hit ID and not require recourse to cookie.
transid: Transaction ID that the advertiser included in pixel.
3rd Party Pixel
This is the pixel that we attempted to fire for the affiliate credited with the sale (if any). We will always attempt to fire the affiliate's pixel. You should not run into an instance where the affiliate does not see a fire because the system did not even try to. It will be an issue of we tried to fire it and it was not possible for some reason due to the general rules of HTTP (i.e. a secure pixel won’t fire a non-secure pixel or pixel placed for affiliate cannot be fired by your pixel).
Troubleshooting Affiliate Pixels
How to troubleshoot Affiliate's Pixels
Below are the questions that you will need to take a look at to troubleshoot tracking issues for your affiliate's pixels.
1.) What offer and affiliate is this in regards to? It is always important to refer to the campaign via its ID as many campaigns could have similar names. Also, it is important to know the affiliate ID as it is possible that the affiliate has multiple accounts within your system.
2.) Does the affiliate have a pixel placed? Is it placed for the correct offer? If it is not, correct the mistake and re-test.
3.) Is there a sale being reported for the affiliate in your system? Navigate over to Global Sales or Global Affiliates and run the report for the date range where the test was placed for the affiliate. If you do not see a sale being reported for the affiliate in your system, the affiliate will also never see a sale reported for them in their own tracking system. Ask the advertiser if they possibly have a block in place for the affiliate account. If the answer is no, clear your cookies, re-test the offer restart step 3.
4.) Navigate to the Pixel Log and filter accordingly.
5.) Once you find the sale based on all of the values that are displayed, go ahead and double click any of the values displayed to access the details.
6.) Take a look at the referring URL. Is it a secure conversion page (https://..) or a non secure conversion page (http://..)? Anytime that you have a secure conversion page your pixel and your affiliate's pixel will need to be placed as secure since secure pages can only fire secure pixels.
7.) Take a look at the pixel that was fired for you by your advertiser. This item will be "Type," which is found on the details of each sale. By referring to your pixels graphs, look at the pixel that your advertiser fired for you and see if that pixel is capable of firing your affiliate’s pixel. For example, if you have an image pixel and your affiliate has an iFrame pixel, your image pixel will not be able to fire your affiliate's iFrame.
8.) Does the Hit IP (click IP) match the Pixel IP? In most cases where both IP addresses do not match, it would indicate that your network's pixel was fired as a Postback URL. Remember that whenever you have a Postback URL placed for your offer, your affiliate will also need to place a Postback URL with you. If the "Type" of pixel does not indicate Postback, it is possible that the advertiser has your pixel placed incorrectly, so get a copy of your pixel from your advertiser and make sure it is a Postback URL.
9.) If you can not identify the reason why your affiliate's pixel is not tracking contact your HitPath Support Team!
