Glossary · Term
A server-to-server callback that reports a conversion, sale, or status change from the buyer or platform back to the source.
Definition
Postbacks are how conversions travel back through the funnel. When a buyer converts a lead or a call to a sale, a postback fires against a defined URL with defined parameters — click ID, payout, status, timestamp. Every attribution decision downstream depends on the postback arriving, arriving once, and carrying the correct fields.
Why it matters
Missing postbacks under-attribute publisher performance and cause payouts to drift downward. Duplicate postbacks over-attribute and cause overpayment. Both compound quickly and are difficult to detect from headline metrics — they only surface in month-end reconciliation.
How it fails in practice
Postback URLs move without notice, parameter names change, retry logic on the buyer side fires multiple times, or the receiving platform silently deduplicates on a field that is not stable. Postback health needs its own monitoring; it does not appear in campaign dashboards.
Related terms
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