Traffic Cost Tracking

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Traffic Cost Tracking in CPV tracker (CPV Lab or CPV One) is the ability to record the cost of your advertising traffic alongside revenue data, so you can calculate profit, ROI, and EPC accurately. Without cost tracking, CPV tracker (CPV Lab or CPV One) can only report revenue from conversions, leaving you with an incomplete picture of campaign performance.

Why Cost Tracking is Important

Profit Calculation: Revenue alone doesn’t tell you if a campaign is profitable. CPV tracker (CPV Lab or CPV One) subtracts traffic costs to show net profit.
ROI Analysis: Determines whether the money spent is delivering acceptable returns.
Optimization Decisions: Helps identify which placements, keywords, or creatives generate the best margin.

How Cost Tracking Works in CPV tracker (CPV Lab or CPV One)

Traffic sources usually provide cost data via tokens. For example, {cost} or {bid}. CPV tracker (CPV Lab or CPV One) maps these tokens into campaign URLs and records the values.

Example Campaign URL with Cost Token:

https://tracker.com/click.php?campid=321&keyword={keyword}&cost={cost}

When the traffic source sends a click, {cost} is replaced with the actual CPC or CPM cost. CPV tracker (CPV Lab or CPV One) logs this cost along with the click.

If the traffic source doesn’t provide a cost token, you can manually enter the cost structure in CPV tracker (CPV Lab or CPV One) (e.g., fixed CPC of $0.05). This ensures that cost data is still included in reports.

Example

You are running a push ad campaign on PropellerAds at $0.02 CPC. With 5,000 clicks, your spend is $100. CPV tracker (CPV Lab or CPV One) records this automatically through the {cost} token. If you generate $150 in revenue, CPV tracker (CPV Lab or CPV One) calculates:

Profit: $50
ROI: 50%
EPC: $0.03

Without cost tracking, you would only see the $150 revenue and might mistakenly think the campaign is highly profitable.

Reporting in CPV tracker (CPV Lab or CPV One)

Traffic cost data is integrated into all optimization and drill-down reports. You can view costs by:

Campaign
Traffic Source
Landing Page
Offer
Token (e.g., placement, keyword)

This granularity lets you identify which specific elements of your campaign are profitable and which are draining budget.

Best Practices

Always map cost tokens when available.
Double-check that the traffic source uses the correct macro (e.g., {cost}, {bid}, {price}).
For CPM traffic, calculate cost-per-click in CPV tracker (CPV Lab or CPV One) by dividing CPM by impressions.
Verify costs by comparing CPV tracker (CPV Lab or CPV One) reports to traffic source invoices.

Common Issues

Zero Cost Reporting: Occurs if the cost token isn’t passed correctly.
Mismatch with Traffic Source: Rounding differences can occur but should remain within 1–2%.
Manual Input Errors: If entering costs manually, ensure values match the source settings.

In summary, Traffic Cost Tracking in the CPV tracker (CPV Lab or CPV One) completes the revenue equation. It ensures that reports reflect real profitability and helps you make smarter scaling and optimization decisions.

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