Universal links provide the best possible experience for mobile users of your product or service. They give you the ability to link directly into your mobile app if the user has it installed, the web if they don’t, or even defer deep linking until after the user installs the app. All of this goodness does take a bit of work to set up, but thankfully things are now much easier since TUNE is integrated with AppsFlyer’s OneLink. 

Without diving too deep into the technical details (you can read our help article for that), the crux of the issue is the redirect. Most networks and partner marketing platforms utilize a click redirect URL as part of the tracking process, but that does not play nice with universal links. On iOS specifically, the universal link domain must remain constant for the mobile device to properly open the app at click time. 

So, how do you keep measuring the clicks and conversions from your partners without redirecting the end users through a different domain? Server-side clicks to the rescue! Once AppsFlyer is selected as the universal link platform for your offer in TUNE, your partners will be able to generate an AppsFlyer OneLink automatically from the TUNE Partner Interface. The OneLink will have some special parameters appended that tell AppsFlyer to send TUNE a server-side click when a user clicks the OneLink, and the rest is business-as-usual. 

We can’t wait to see what kind of partnerships this new integration will enable! 

Did you know TUNE also integrates with AppsFlyer’s Aggregated Advanced Privacy framework? Read our blog post for more information, or email us your questions at sales@tune.com.

When Apple announced iOS 15 at WWDC in June, they stirred up quite the fervor with the latest privacy updates (a predictable pattern for the last couple of years). “No more IP address in Safari” seemed to be the big takeaway. Now that we’re getting closer to the September release of iOS 15, some of the details are becoming clearer. Using the iOS 15 public beta, I was able to test out some of these new capabilities. Here’s what I found. 

Safari Will Hide IP Addresses for “Trackers” Whether You Have iCloud+ or Not in iOS 15

In the settings for Safari, there are three options to hide your IP address: 

• Trackers and Websites 
• Trackers Only 
• Off 

The default setting is “Trackers Only,” and this does not require a subscription to iCloud+ to use. If you choose “Trackers and Websites,” you’ll be prompted to subscribe to iCloud+ and enable Private Relay. Although it does not specify here what a tracker is, I can only assume it will use the same on-device machine learning algorithm employed by Intelligent Tracking Protection (ITP) since 2017. 

There Are Two Settings for IP Address Location with Private Relay 

When iCloud+ Private Relay is active, there are two settings for IP Address location:  

• Maintain General Location 
• Use Country and Time Zone 

I believe the first option is meant to be more granular, and the second option is much broader. Unfortunately, these options were not fully operational in the beta test I ran. Even when I chose “Maintain General Location” (the default), Private Relay gave me an IP address in El Cajon, CA, which is quite far from my actual location in Seattle, WA. I fully expect this to change when iOS 15 is released. 

TUNE Postback Tracking Will Still Function Over Private Relay 

While I didn’t expect Private Relay to have any effect on our postback tracking, I tested it to make sure. I clicked a TUNE tracking link with Private Relay enabled, then triggered a conversion by visiting a confirmation page. The transaction ID was passed as normal, and the conversion fired.

Since server-side tracking doesn’t rely on a cookie or the user’s IP address, Private Relay should not cause any issues to your offers using postbacks.  

Messaging Around AppTrackingTransparency Continues to Be Frustrating 

Various wording in the tracking settings has changed with iOS 15, and it highlights the stark difference between Apple’s description of their own tracking practices versus the AppTrackingTransparency (ATT) prompt for all other developers. 

As you can see above, in Apple’s own prompt, they clearly frame personalized ads as a good thing. What’s more, they highlight the fact that opting out of personalized ads does not reduce the number of ads you receive. I think this is one of the biggest misconceptions about ATT: the average consumer likely believes that opting out of tracking will reduce the number of ads. 

In the ATT prompt on the right, the difference is night and day. They put it on developers to mention anything about personalized ads (as DoorDash has done in this example) and use aggressive anti-tracking language that makes it sound very bad. 

The Only Constant Is Change 

In such a fast-moving industry, the only thing we can count on is that it will keep changing. Many businesses are caught in the crossfire between tech giants like Apple and their endless jockeying for position, so we’ll do our best to keep reporting on the changes and their impact on partner marketing. 

Questions or comments about iOS 15? Let us know in the comment section below or reach out to us at partnermarketing@tune.com.  

G2’s Summer 2021 Grid® Reports are out, and once again TUNE has been named a Leader in Affiliate Marketing Software and Attribution Software. Products in the Leader quadrant of a G2 Grid® Report have received high customer satisfaction ratings and significant scores in market presence.

Summer 2021 Grid® Reports

To qualify for inclusion on a G2 Grid®, a product must meet a set of technical requirements and have a minimum number of reviews. Products are ranked by customer satisfaction and market presence to determine placement in four quadrants: Leader, High Performing, Contender, or Niche. 

TUNE has earned recognition in Summer 2021 for the following categories:

Leader | Grid® Report for Affiliate Marketing Software

To be included in the Affiliate Marketing category, a product must: 

• Offer a platform for advertisers to manage affiliate campaigns
• Include affiliate tracking capabilities

Leader | Grid® Report for Attribution Software

To be included in the Attribution category, a product must: 

• Track multiple marketing and communication channels (TV, social media, phone, email, digital advertising channels, etc) and capture data on the interactions between the company and its prospects or customers.
• Use multiple attribution models like single touch attribution (when all attribution is assigned to only one event), fractional attribution (to include multiple events in the attribution, with equal or differents weights), or algorithmic attribution (which uses data science for advanced attribution criteria and models).
• Provide dashboards and visualizations for users to understand which activities performed better and why. The analysis should be based on relevant historical data and user-defined key performance indicators.
• Integrate with software solutions used by sales, marketing, or public relations departments, like CRM, email tracking, demand generation, or sales analytics.

Highest User Adoption

The Highest User Adoption product in the Implementation Index earned the highest User Adoption rating in its category.

Best Estimated ROI

The Best Estimated ROI product in the Results Index earned the best estimated ROI rating in its category based on a combination of estimated time to achieve ROI and time to go live.

Fastest Implementation

The Fastest Implementation product in the Implementation Index had the shortest go-live time in its category.

For more of our past recognitions, see our blog posts covering G2’s Spring 2021 Reports and Winter 2021 Reports.

Ready to launch an award-winning affiliate program with TUNE? Get in touch with us.

Yesterday at WWDC21, Apple’s annual developer-focused (or rather software-focused) conference, they announced new versions of their operating systems as well as some interesting privacy updates. While I’m excited about some of the features in iOS 15, such as Live Text for capturing whiteboard notes from the camera, the privacy measures have me a bit more concerned.

No More Tracking Pixels in Email

Craig Federighi, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, started the Privacy section of the keynote by talking about the Mail app. Email tracking pixels will soon be blocked by Mail. This means email view/email open notifications for platforms like HubSpot or Marketo will be disabled, which seems like a reasonable measure. Furthermore, Mail will hide your IP address. I don’t use the Mail app, but I would be fine with these updates if I did.

No More IP Addresses in Safari?

However, Craig then mentioned that Safari would be obscuring IP addresses as well. My first question was how, exactly, is Apple planning to do that?

After doing a bit of digging, it’s still unclear to me whether Safari is going to obscure IP addresses for all traffic, or whether that requires the use of Private Relay (more on that below). 

This is where I’m a bit concerned. If IP address is truly obfuscated for all Safari traffic, it would make it much more difficult to do fingerprinting or probabilistic matching for mobile attribution. Apple has been quiet on fingerprinting since the release of iOS 14.5, perhaps because they knew this update was coming. IP obfuscation scope and functionality will be a key question to answer in the coming weeks.

Private Relay: The Apple VPN

Finally, they announced Private Relay, part of the new iCloud Plus service. While it sounds like a VPN at first glance, it’s actually doing quite a bit more work.

According to the iCloud Private Relay deep dive video, the service adds multiple secure proxies to help route user traffic and keep it private. The proxies are run by separate entities — one is Apple, and one is a content provider.

When someone uses Private Relay to access the internet, only the client IP address is visible to both the network provider and to the first proxy. The second proxy only sees the name the user is requesting and uses that to build the connection to the server. They claim that no one in the chain, not even Apple, can see both the client IP address and what the user is accessing. 

In Summary 

As usual, there are more questions than answers regarding these new privacy features. The reaction online has been largely positive from the tech press, and skeptical from industry press. The only constant is change, and we’ll keep our eyes open for new details as they arrive.  

As the rollout of Apple’s iOS 14.5 continues, mobile advertisers are beginning to weigh the impact and look for new ways to measure their campaigns. While Apple’s SKAdNetwork provides one route for measuring users who opt-out of tracking, it leaves much to be desired from a partner marketing standpoint.

That’s why AppsFlyer, the leading mobile attribution platform, designed the Aggregated Advanced Privacy (AAP) framework. Now, TUNE customers who use AppsFlyer can take full advantage of this technology thanks to a new integration with the AAP framework.

TUNE and AAP: The Basics

What exactly is the Aggregated Advanced Privacy framework? According to Oren Kaniel, CEO of AppsFlyer:

“Privacy and security experts widely agree that aggregated data is preferable to user-level data when it comes to privacy and security risks. We have also previously discussed how aggregated measurement can improve both users’ experience and privacy, without building extensive user-level profiles, by simply closing the user feedback loop on an aggregated level as opposed to user-level.

To that end, Aggregated Advanced Privacy will become the default operational mode, and user-level attribution data will not be available by default for Apple devices operating on iOS 14.5 or above, except in cases that are explicitly permitted by Apple, such as: owned media, ATT consented users, or users who have not yet updated to iOS 14.5.”

— Oren Kaniel, CEO, AppsFlyer

Given TUNE’s place in the partner marketing ecosystem, it makes perfect sense for us to integrate with the AppsFlyer AAP framework. This lets advertisers running their partner marketing program through TUNE measure their offers in a privacy-friendly way, as well as enabling TUNE-powered ad networks to provide the same for their customers and partners.

From a technical standpoint, the key difference between AAP and standard attribution is the type of postback used. TUNE’s standard postback format requires a transaction ID to be included on the click, and then passed back in the conversion. However, with AAP, the postback only requires an offer ID and affiliate ID. That way, we can still credit the conversion to the proper partner, but we don’t have a unique ID tying the click to the conversion.

How to Get Started

For advertisers and brands, getting started with the Aggregated Advanced Privacy framework is simple: just use the pre-built integration for TUNE within the AppsFlyer dashboard.

For networks, we can guide you through the process of activating AAP for your custom integration. Just reach out to integrations@appsflyer.com to get started. 

In Conclusion 

Needless to say, this change is a potentially large one with ramifications for all parties involved. That said, this is the most feasible way that we’ve seen for advertisers and networks to continue measuring partner marketing in a post-iOS 14.5 world. 

We’ll be taking a closer look at Apple’s iOS 14.5 on the TUNE Blog in the coming weeks and months. Check back often for information and updates on user opt-in rates, how advertisers are adopting, best practices when presenting pop-up prompts, and more. 

In addition, we also offer an integration with AppsFlyer’s OneLink, which makes it easier than ever to create and measure universal links with TUNE.

Have you heard of or implemented a different solution for measuring performance in iOS 14.5? Let us know in the comments below. 

In a March 2021 blog update, Google hammered the final nail into the coffin of third-party cookies.  

“Today, we’re making explicit that once third-party cookies are phased out, we will not build alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor will we use them in our products,” wrote David Temkin, Director of Product at Google. While the announcement set off a lot of discussion in the broader industry, it’s something that we’ve been prepared for at TUNE since 2018. 

Where the Industry Started Out

Beginning with Apple’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) in Safari, third-party cookies have been on the way out the door since 2017. Google announced its Privacy Sandbox initiative in late 2019. In March 2020, Apple started blocking third-party cookies in full by default. This was less than a month after Google restricted cookie tracking in Chrome 80 by changing their SameSite flag to a secure-by-default model.

Because of these updates, many advertisers and networks have already made the change to server-side tracking. In fact, in TUNE, it’s our default setup.

For a breakdown of all the changes to cookie tracking and our recommendations, you can download our white paper, “How to Become a Track Star: Your Guide to Tracking for Performance Marketing Campaigns.”

Where Google Is Going Now

Jumping back to the present, it’s clear that Google’s Privacy Sandbox is just the next step down the path they were already on. The thing that has people talking this time is the big new buzzword Google introduced: Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC). This is just a fancy way of saying they are replacing individual, cookie-based retargeting with aggregated, interest-based targeting.

In the FLoC model, as users browse the web, their browsing habits will be used to build an anonymized cohort or audience. Advertisers can then target ads to that cohort using Google Ads. Theoretically, this would keep a user’s personal information private while still providing enough data to be useful for marketing purposes. Developer tests of FLoC began this March, so we’ll have to wait and see if it actually works in practice.

Where Partner Marketing Fits In 

So, what does all of this have to do with partner marketing?  

Frankly, not a whole lot.

Partner marketing doesn’t need to retarget end users to provide relevant ads to them, since it is based on the publisher and their content. Like Apple’s recent privacy updates in iOS 14.5, I think these moves by Google only help to highlight the value of partner marketing relationships and their increasing importance in advertisers’ marketing mix.

The final point in Google’s Privacy Sandbox announcement is a strong one: first-party relationships are vital. When advertisers partner directly with publishers, it enables them to more easily create a first-party relationship with the customers they acquire through that partnership. Now more than ever, advertisers need to prioritize owning their relationships instead of relying on retargeting or massive reach on Google or Facebook to turn consumers into fans and repeat customers.

If you have any questions about Google’s Privacy Sandbox or about switching to server-side tracking, let us know at partnermarketing@tune.com.

The streak continues! Spring 2021 marks the fifth consecutive quarter TUNE has been recognized as a Leader in G2’s Grid^® Reports for Affiliate Marketing Software and Attribution Software.

To qualify for inclusion on a G2 Grid^®, technology solutions must meet a set of technical requirements and have at least 10 reviews from G2 users. Each solution is ranked by customer satisfaction and market presence to determine its placement in one of four quadrants: Leader, High Performing, Contender, or Niche. 

Products shown in the Leader quadrant of a G2 Grid^® Report have received high customer satisfaction ratings and significant scores in market presence.

Spring 2021 Awards

For Spring 2021, TUNE has earned recognition as a leader in seven categories:

Leader | Grid^® Report for Affiliate Marketing Software
To be included in the Affiliate Marketing category, a product must: 

• Offer a platform for advertisers to manage affiliate campaigns
• Include affiliate tracking capabilities

Leader | Grid^® Report for Attribution Software
To be included in the Attribution category, a product must: 

• Track multiple marketing and communication channels (TV, social media, phone, email, digital advertising channels, etc) and capture data on the interactions between the company and its prospects or customers.
• Use multiple attribution models like single touch attribution (when all attribution is assigned to only one event), fractional attribution (to include multiple events in the attribution, with equal or differents weights), or algorithmic attribution (which uses data science for advanced attribution criteria and models).
• Provide dashboards and visualizations for users to understand which activities performed better and why. The analysis should be based on relevant historical data and user-defined key performance indicators.
• Integrate with software solutions used by sales, marketing, or public relations departments, like CRM, email tracking, demand generation, or sales analytics.

Leader | Small-Business Grid^® Report for Attribution Software
Products in the Small-Business Attribution category must meet the same requirements as above. 

Highest User Adoption
The Highest User Adoption product in the Implementation Index earned the highest User Adoption rating in its category.

Fastest Implementation
The Fastest Implementation product in the Implementation Index had the shortest go-live time in its category.

Best Estimated ROI
The Best Estimated ROI product in the Results Index earned the best estimated ROI rating in its category based on a combination of estimated time to achieve ROI and time to go live.

Most Implementable
The Most Implementable product in the Implementation Index earned the highest Implementation rating in its category.

For more on TUNE’s past awards, see our blog posts covering G2’s Winter 2021 Reports and Fall 2020 Reports. 

Ready to launch an award-winning affiliate program with TUNE? Get in touch with us.

The big privacy push that Apple began last fall, then was delayed until spring, is finally at hand. With the upcoming release of iOS 14.5, Apple will start enforcing the AppTrackingTransparency framework and requiring mobile app users to opt-in to tracking before advertisers will get access to their IDFA. That’s the change in a nutshell, but let’s unpack what that means for the partner marketing industry.

What We Know

1.   Apple iOS 14.5 will require users to opt-in before sharing their IDFA with advertisers.

2.   SKAdNetwork is Apple’s mobile app attribution solution.

• Big walled-garden ad networks have integrated with SKAdNetwork:
  • Google
  • Facebook
  • Snapchat 

3.   Apple stated in their most recent FAQ that they will not allow fingerprinting without an opt-in.

4.   MMPs are taking various stances on these changes, with AppsFlyer leading the way:

• AppsFlyer created Advanced Privacy Mode to address fingerprinting concerns in a privacy-friendly way.
• Adjust was acquired by AppLovin, so they have been quiet on the innovation front.
• Branch and Kochava are stating that only opted-in users can be attributed.
• Singular is going all-in on SKAdNetwork, but they do believe fingerprinting can be done under certain circumstances.

5.   Apple has separately introduced Private Click Measurement as a new privacy-friendly web standard for measuring clicks and conversions.

What We Don’t Know

1.   How many mobile advertisers will adopt SKAdNetwork:

• It is non-trivial to implement SKAdNetwork in mobile apps, and it places an extra burden for launching campaigns.
• Advertisers may decide to shift focus to mobile web instead.

2.   How Apple will update SKAdNetwork in response to industry feedback. 

3.   How strictly Apple will enforce their “no fingerprinting” stance in iOS 14.5 and beyond. 

• Will AppsFlyer’s solution be acceptable to Apple? 

4.   Whether browsers other than Safari will adopt Private Click Measurement and make it a true web standard.

Summing It All Up

2021 is going to be a bumpy year for advertisers, networks, and publishers alike. But keep in mind that partner marketing is not the primary target of these iOS 14.5 changes by Apple: it’s Facebook and Google.

On the contrary, partner marketing has been more privacy-friendly from the beginning. Our industry is based on relationships between advertisers and publishers, not massive lookalike audiences built on cookie profiling and personal data. That’s really the difference between adtech and martech when you break it down: adtech requires information about the end user in order to serve relevant advertising, and martech doesn’t.

That’s why, despite the upheaval from industry giants and platform providers, I’m as bullish as ever on the future of partner marketing. TUNE has enabled privacy-friendly attribution from the beginning with tools such as our Server Postback with Partner ID protocol. This allows us to track what matters, how many conversions each partner sent to each advertiser, without identifying the end user at all.

For mobile advertisers facing the enforcement of iOS 14.5, the biggest thing to do right now is take stock of the places you are running traffic and decide if you will need to implement SKAdNetwork. If you are spending on Facebook, Google, Snapchat, or the other big walled-garden ad networks, you will likely want to implement it. But if you are focused more on partner marketing and smaller channels, you can wait and see how it plays out.

Publishers, influencers, content creators, and partners of all types need to make money in order to continue providing free content on the internet. And advertisers need to get their products in front of people who may be interested in them. In 2021 and beyond, partner marketing remains one of the most cost-effective and privacy-friendly ways to do that, fueling the modern web and helping to keep the internet free.

Questions about iOS 14.5 or partner marketing? Contact us to learn more.

Today, I’m excited to share that TUNE has been named a Leader in G2’s Winter 2021 Grid Reports for Affiliate Software and Attribution Software. Technology products in the Leader quadrant in G2’s Grid Reports are rated highly by G2 users and have substantial Satisfaction and Market Presence scores. 

Once again, TUNE has also earned the #1 spot across four mid-market product categories. In addition, this quarter we’re proud to add a new distinction as a Leader in the Small-Business Grid for Affiliate Software:

• New! Leader | Small-Business Affiliate:
  Products in the Leader quadrant in the Small-Business Grid® Report are rated highly by G2 users and have substantial Satisfaction and Market Presence scores

• Best Estimated ROI:
  The Best Estimated ROI product in the Results Index earned the best estimated ROI rating in its category based on a combination of estimated time to achieve ROI and time to go live

• Highest User Adoption:
  The Highest User Adoption product in the Implementation Index earned the highest User Adoption rating in its category

• Most Implementable:
  The Most Implementable product in the Implementation Index earned the highest Implementation rating in its category

• Fastest Implementation:
  The Fastest Implementation product in the Implementation Index had the shortest go-live time in its category

TUNE was identified as a leader in these categories based on high levels of customer satisfaction and likeliness to recommend ratings from real users on G2. These awards follow our recognition across 6 categories in G2’s Fall 2020 Reports, and as a Leader in the Summer 2020 and Spring 2020 reports. 

G2 Reports and Rankings

G2 is the world’s largest review platform for business software and services, with more than 1 million user reviews published to date. Visitors use the site to research and compare technology solutions based on peer reviews and synthesized social data. 

Rankings on G2 reports are based on data provided by actual, verified users of the software or service. This sets it apart from other review sites that primarily use self-reported information from vendors to compare and rate products.

Thank You

Once again, we want to extend a heartfelt thanks to TUNE’s loyal customers: the advertisers, publishers, agencies, networks, and other partner marketing professionals that make this industry so special. We appreciate your business and are grateful for your continued support.

As always, we encourage all TUNE customers to let us know how we’re doing. Whether it’s a review on G2, an email to your customer support manager, or a feedback note for our Product Insights Program, we want to hear from you!  

It seems like ages have passed since we rebranded from HasOffers and launched the TUNE Partner Marketing Platform. In fact, it’s only been a year and a half – but what a year and a half it’s been. In that time, we released a record number of improvements to help our customers partner the way they want to, from in-platform payments to promo codes. We’ve put in long hours to continue providing our users wih the world-class service and support support they’ve come to expect, even during a pandemic. And we’re doing everything possible to keep up the momentum in finding new ways for marketers to thrive in these challenging times.

It’s great to see all that hard work pay off in the form of happy customers.

Today, we’re excited to announce that TUNE has been named a Leader in G2’s Affiliate Marketing and Attribution categories for Fall 2020.

In addition, TUNE has earned the #1 spot across several mid-market product categories:

• Best Estimated ROI
  The Best Estimated ROI product in the Results Index earned the best estimated ROI rating in its category based on a combination of estimated time to achieve ROI and time to go live.

• Highest User Adoption
  The Highest User Adoption product in the Implementation Index earned the highest User Adoption rating in its category.

• Most Implementable
  The Most Implementable product in the Implementation Index earned the highest Implementation rating in its category.

• Fastest Implementation
  The Fastest Implementation product in the Implementation Index had the shortest go-live time in its category.

TUNE was identified as a leader in these categories based on high levels of customer satisfaction and likeliness to recommend ratings from real users on G2. The Fall 2020 awards follow TUNE’s recognition as a Leader in the Summer 2020 and Spring 2020 reports.

G2 Rankings Explained

G2 is the world’s largest review platform for business software and services, with more than 1 million user reviews published to date. Visitors use the site to research and compare technology solutions based on peer reviews and synthesized social data.

Rankings in G2 reports are based on data provided by actual, verified users of the software or service. This sets it apart from other review sites that primarily use self-reported information from vendors to compare and rate products.

Thank You!

We want to thank the 100+ TUNE customers who took the time to review their experiences using our products and interacting with our teams. We appreciate your business and are grateful for your continued support in these trying times.

As always, we encourage all TUNE customers to get in touch and let us know how we’re doing. Whether it’s a review on G2, an email to your customer success manager, or a feedback note for our Product Insights Program, we want to hear from you!

If you’re not a TUNE customer, we hope these rankings and reviews inspire you to give us a try.

One of my favorite things about partner marketing is that you can do it from anywhere. It’s a perk of our industry that I’ve not taken advantage of so far in my career, but I’m more grateful for it every day. Waking up to headlines of unemployment numbers not seen since the Great Depression puts our privilege as marketers into stark contrast with the millions of folks around the world who can’t go to work this month.

In this industry, we at TUNE are doubly lucky in that our product enables not just us to work from home, but also our customers. Partnerships are more important than ever now that we’re isolated from a lot of our normal forms of communication. By its very nature, this form of marketing is more risk-averse than practically any other channel out there. Partner marketing is not just smart in these times, it’s also safer than placing big bets on media buys that may or may not pan out.

So how do we move forward in this new normal? Nothing has changed in our industry, technically speaking. But the world around us has changed. I believe this is where we get to define what partnerships really mean, and not just in the marketing sense. How can you have true partners that stick with you no matter what? 

This is just my opinion, but I think it’s all about the human connection. Reach out to the people you work with every day and even those you only chat with every now and then. See if they’re OK. See how you can help. A true partnership is when both parties help each other, no matter what.

Here are some concrete steps we can all take to ensure our partnerships remain strong:

• Make sure payments are not disrupted. For many folks, this is their livelihood. And even if it’s an additional income stream, that additional income is more crucial now that many primary incomes have been reduced or eliminated.
  
• Over-communicate everything. The signal-to-noise ratio is highly askew at the moment, and who knows if it will ever recover. Make sure to keep the channels of communication open with your partners, and be available for them when questions arise.
  
• Consider a special bonus or payout bump. With margins slimmer than ever, this may seem counterintuitive. But partners won’t forget who took care of them when the going got rough. Set the example amongst your competitors and make a stand.

How we treat each other in times of need can define the relationship for the rest of our lives. Let’s forge partnerships that can overcome any adversity thrown our way. Let’s thrive together.

Yesterday saw one of the worst Amazon Web Services (AWS) outages to-date: the S3 service in the us-east-1 AWS region experienced errors for several hours, creating a cascade of errors and outages across the entire AWS ecosystem.  You may have noticed, given the sudden proliferation of Twitter apologies from many of the largest SaaS businesses on the internet.

As many tech companies do, we too make extensive use of S3: for logging, to serve creative, and to be the single source of truth against which we can compare disparate data sets. During an average day, we sync every event HasOffers receives to S3 for logging and continuity purposes. We make use of these logged events to replay data, ensure data correctness, and be a critical part of our disaster recovery strategy. Normally we log all of this data to our S3 buckets in, you guessed it, us-east-1. On a normal day, this works great. But what about yesterday?

HasOffers weathered the storm.  Because HasOffers engineering planned ahead.

As a contingency for this exact scenario, the HasOffers engineering team has already split our critical operations over multiple AWS data centers – which is a prerequisite if you truly want your service to be highly available in the modern, distributed internet. That includes creating failover versions of our S3 buckets, reducing a potentially time consuming operation to just a quick configuration change. We also handle any and all failure cases from both S3 and our statistics pipeline by logging and replaying all failures. This keeps our tracking instances safe from any short to medium-term outages in either system, and allows our clients’ offers to keep tracking like nothing happened. Finally, we have the ability to shift traffic from one AWS region to our other tracking regions, with minimal delay.

All of this preparation meant that when S3 failed, we could easily:

• Capture the data that couldn’t be stored, and queue it for replay.
• Shift our traffic to our other data centers.

-and-

• Redirect our services to S3 in another region.

This all allowed us to keep our links tracking and conversions rolling in, despite the ongoing outage.

Is there room for improvement here? Of course – we’re never satisfied. We’ll be working on our alerting, automated responses, and deploy procedures over the coming weeks to make a failover of this magnitude more seamless.  We’re also already in the process of improving how we enforce caps to make them more resilient in the face of issues like these.

We’re delighted that the foresight and hard work of our engineers paid off, and we’re sure the more than 250 million clicks we tracked and reported on during the outage have our clients feeling that way too.