ClickMate
Overview
ClickMate provides a wrapper that you can use on any link to convert it, on the fly, to a Howl Link. This means that clicks of that link will go through our systems and are automatically monetizable if they match a domain we handle.
Build a ClickMate Link
If you wanted to monetize a link to https://dermstore.com.example/shop/product1234
you could use our web dashboard or use our Chrome Extension to turn it into a Howl Link.
You would put that link in your HTML. ClickMate gives you another option.
You would wrap the link in the form:
https://howl.link/link/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdermstore.com.example%2Fshop%2Fproduct1234&publisher_slug=myacct&article_name=my-story&article_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmyblog.com%2Fmy-story
On click, if dermstore.com.example is one of the domains we handle,
our system will create or reuse a Howl Link in your account and redirect the user to
the appropriate destination. If there is no match, the link will just be
redirected to the original URL.
The ideal usage for this is to set up a programmatic integration--either wrap all commerce links on your site or all of the ones you want Howl to monetize. Our system will make sure that your readers get to the appropriate destination while finding you all the best monetization opportunities. If the wrapping happens server side by your CMS, this will even work in no-javascript or ad-blocked environments like AMP.
Contact support to have clickmate enabled for your accounts.
Query Params
| URL Path Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| url | string(2048) | Required The URL of the target link (must be URL encoded!). Without this, users will see an error page |
| article_url | string(2048) | Required The canonical URL of the article your link is coming from (must be URL encoded!). |
| article_name | string(100) | Required The readable name or title of the article your link is coming from (not a numeric identifier). |
| publisher_slug | string(64) | Required The slug provided by your Howl account rep. Without this we will not know what account to monetize clicks for. |
| u1 | string(2048) | Optional Arbitrary tracking parameter that you may apply to links for your own tracking (will be passed to our stats). |
URL Encoding
All parameters must be URL encoded. See URL Encoder.
Example Code
In Javascript:
var url = 'https://merchant.example/product1234';
var slug = 'myacct';
var articleName = document.title;
var articleUrl = window.location.href;
var clickmateUrl = 'https://howl.link/link?url=' + encodeURIComponent(url) +
'&publisher_slug=' + slug +
'&article_name=' + encodeURIComponent(articleName) +
'&article_url=' + encodeURIComponent(articleUrl);