What Is a Click ID? Click ID Tracking Explained

What is a click ID?

A click ID is a unique value your platform generates for one click and passes on the tracking link, so the advertiser's MMP can hand it back when that click turns into an install or event.

Click ID: the partner's own identifier for a single click, carried on the click link and returned in the postback.

Postback: the server-to-server call the MMP sends to the partner when an attributed conversion happens.

Campaign names, sub-IDs and device IDs describe the traffic; the click ID identifies the exact event you will be paid for.

How a click ID travels

1. A user taps your ad. Your ad server or tracker creates a new ID, for example a1b2c3d4e5.
2. Your platform replaces its macro in the tracking link with that value and redirects the user.
3. The MMP records the click, sends the user to the store and later matches the install to the click.
4. When the install or a mapped event happens, the MMP fires your postback URL with the same ID filled in.
5. Your system looks the ID up and credits the right publisher, sub-publisher and payout.

Using AppsFlyer's ad network template as the example, this is the link with the network's macro in the click ID slot, then the same link after the platform fills it in:

https://app.appsflyer.com/com.yourapp?pid=mediaName_int&c=summer_push&clickid={clickid}
https://app.appsflyer.com/com.yourapp?pid=mediaName_int&c=summer_push&clickid=a1b2c3d4e5

When the attributed install happens, the MMP fills a1b2c3d4e5 into the click ID slot of the network's postback template (the macro name varies by MMP):

https://postback.example-network.com/conv?click={click_id}&event={event_name}

Why must a click ID be unique per click?

Because the click ID is how you match a conversion to one click: if two clicks share an ID, you cannot tell which one converted, and deduplication on your side will merge or drop real conversions.

Things that break uniqueness:

• A static value. Typing clickid=test or a publisher name into the click ID slot gives every click the same ID.
• A per-publisher or per-campaign ID. Those belong in sub-ID slots, not the click ID. See sub-IDs and sub-publishers.
• A reused session ID. Each click by the same user needs its own value.
• An unreplaced macro. If your platform does not fill the macro, every click arrives carrying the literal text {click_id}. The tracking link macros guide covers the fix.

AppMetrica's tracking specification describes click_id as the macro for a unique click ID used for deduplication, which is the job a click ID does at every MMP.

Click ID parameter by MMP

Same idea, different spellings. Each name below comes from the vendor's own documentation, checked 25 Oct 2026.

The wrong name is as bad as no click ID: an MMP ignores a parameter it does not use, so the value never comes back. The Branch link format page shows a full parameter set, and the generator has one for each MMP.

Where the click ID goes, and where it does not

• On the click link: the click ID, campaign, sub-IDs and, where the MMP documents them, device IDs.
• In the postback: the click ID comes back, with the event name, revenue and timestamps that only exist after the conversion.
• Never on the click link: revenue, event names, currency or your postback secret. More in tracking link vs postback.

Deduplicating on the click ID

Postbacks can arrive more than once; Linkrunner, for example, documents at-least-once delivery and recommends deduplicating on the click ID plus the event name. A simple rule for your receiver:

• Store the click ID and event name for each paid conversion.
• If the pair already exists, acknowledge the postback and do not pay again.
• Treat an empty click ID as an error to investigate, not a conversion to pay.

If you are new to how the advertiser's side matches clicks to installs, this explainer on what an MMP does covers the basics. For a full list of the parameters one MMP accepts on a partner link, see this partner tracking link documentation.