A conversion type is a specific goal or action you want to track and reward within your affiliate or performance marketing campaigns. It helps differentiate between various kinds of valuable user actions that occur after someone clicks a tracked link, such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or starting a free trial.
A click can lead to a specific conversion type depending on your use case. The difference between conversion types is their goal.
Every new account starts with the default conversion types Sale, Lead and Free trial. Take, for example, two of these default types, Lead and Sale. A lead conversion type is reached when a user registers in your system, and a sale is reached when, for example, an order is made.
Conversion types can be custom and beyond just the default options we have.
If you add a new conversion type, make sure that it is also set up on your Offer, as they need to match with types that should be tracked for the offer. If this is not done, then conversions for these conversion types will not be accepted and will result in an error in the Conversion error log.
Example Conversion types on an Offer:
There can be as many Conversion types as needed on the platform:
Above you can see that only Sale and Lead are on the Offer. Therefore, anything that is not Sale and Lead for the above example will not track for the offer.
How to add a new conversion type
In order to add a new conversion type, navigate to Settings → Tracking → Conversions. Click the Add a new conversion type button in the Conversion types block.
Then you will be able to select the conversion type on the offer when going to the Revenue & payouts section and clicking on Add conversion type.
After clicking on Add a new conversion type, select the name of the conversion type in the side panel that opens. See that a conversion type code was prefilled. The conversion type code is in a specific format to comply with standards used in JS scripts and postbacks. When the conversion of a specific conversion type is integrated, the code parameter is used in the script or postback.
How to delete a conversion type
A custom conversion type can be deleted from the same list as above by clicking the trash bin icon. Default types (Sale, Lead and Free trial) can't be edited or deleted.
Note that the conversion type can be deleted only if it hasn't been used. If it was used, it is locked and cannot be deleted due to compatibility reasons. To retire a type that is locked, archive it instead.
How to archive a conversion type
Archiving hides a conversion type from everyday use without removing it. It is the way to retire a type that has already been used, and therefore cannot be deleted.
Open the same list under Settings → Tracking → Conversions and use the Archive action on the row. Archived types stay in the list with an Archived badge, shown dimmed and sorted below the active ones, and Unarchive brings one back at any time.
Once a type is archived:
It no longer appears in selectors and filters across the platform, including reports, offers, smart links, the payout builder, quality control, tier automations, custom notifications, postback templates, offer caps and the open balance filter.
Its name still shows on historical data and anywhere it is already assigned, so past conversions and existing settings stay readable.
Trackdesk keeps accepting conversions and postbacks for it, so an integration that still sends that type will not start failing.
A value that is already selected in a form is kept when you save, so archiving does not silently drop it from an offer or a postback template.
The preserved types Lead, Sale and Free trial can be archived as well, although they still cannot be deleted.
If a conversion type is used in a conversion funnel, archiving is refused when it would leave that funnel with fewer than two steps, with the message "A funnel needs at least two conversion types." See Conversion Funnels and Funnel Report.