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Key Concepts

A quick reference for the core building blocks in Rinku.

Campaign​

A Campaign is the main tracking unit. It generates a tracking URL that you place in your ad network. Each campaign has:

  • A traffic source (where clicks come from)
  • A rotation (how clicks are distributed to offers)
  • A pricing model (CPC or CPA) for cost tracking

Rotation​

A Rotation is the logic layer inside a campaign that decides where to send each click. It contains:

  • Rules — conditional paths (e.g. "send mobile traffic from Germany to Offer A")
  • Paths — routes with one or more weighted offers
  • A default path for traffic that doesn't match any rule

Rule​

A Rule is a set of conditions. If all conditions match a click (AND logic), the click is sent to that rule's path. Rules are evaluated top-to-bottom; the first match wins.

Path​

A Path is a route within a rotation. Each path contains one or more Offers with optional weights for traffic splitting.

Offer​

An Offer is a destination URL (your affiliate network landing page). It includes:

  • Target URL — with placeholders substituted per click
  • Postback URL — what your affiliate fires to confirm a conversion
  • Optional Conversion Cap — redirect to alternative offer after N conversions

Traffic Source​

A Traffic Source defines the parameters passed by your ad network. It controls:

  • What tokens/parameters are parsed from incoming clicks
  • What postback URL Rinku fires back to the network on conversion

Click​

Every visit to a campaign tracking URL creates a Click record with:

  • Geographic data (country, city, region)
  • Device data (type, OS, browser, model)
  • All token values (token_1…token_30, net_* params)
  • Timestamp, IP, bot detection result

Conversion​

A Conversion is created when a postback fires with a valid click_id. Rinku links it to the original click and records the payout and event type.

S2S Postback​

Server-to-Server Postback (also called server postback or S2S) is the method affiliates use to confirm conversions. Your affiliate network sends an HTTP request to Rinku's postback URL with the click_id and payout — no browser involvement needed.

Token​

A Token is a custom parameter slot (token_1 … token_30). You can use them to pass any value through the tracking chain — zone IDs, sub-sources, publisher IDs, etc. Tokens can be renamed in Account Settings for readability.

Bot Detection​

Rinku automatically identifies crawler traffic. Each click is flagged as is_crawler: true/false. You can use this in routing rules and it's always visible in analytics — so you can separate real human traffic from bots in every report slice.