Macro
A macro is a special token in a tracking link — {clickid}, {sub1}, {campaign_id}, and similar — that gets automatically replaced with a real value at the moment of the click: the click ID, the traffic source, the campaign number. Macros are what let click data flow through the whole chain, from the ad network to the offer and back.
How macros work across the traffic chain
The ad network fills its own macros into the link to the tracker (click ID, placement, geo), the tracker forwards some of them to the offer and stores the rest for reporting. When the offer fires a postback about a conversion, it returns that same {clickid}, which is how the tracker knows exactly which click and which campaign produced the conversion.
Macros in a PWA funnel
In PWA affiliate setups, the {clickid} macro typically travels from the ad through the prelander into the PWA and on into the postback, so a conversion inside the app ties back correctly to the original click and campaign. APEX supports macro passthrough in postbacks and S2S integrations (Keitaro, FB CAPI, and others), so the click-to-PWA-to-conversion chain doesn't break at the handoff between systems.
FAQ
- How is a macro different from a regular link parameter?
- A regular parameter is a static value you set yourself, while a macro is a placeholder the system fills in automatically based on the click's data.
- What happens if a macro doesn't make it into the postback?
- The conversion becomes hard or impossible to match to its original click and campaign, so reporting on that traffic ends up incomplete or lost entirely.
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