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Tracked Links and Delivery Proof

Two questions matter after your money leaves escrow: did the ad actually run as promised, and did it work? This page covers the machinery that answers both — first-party tracked links (clicks and CTR), the signed delivery-proof archive on every delivered order, and Placement Proof Certificates you can hand to a client.

First-party click tracking​

When your ad contains a link, Onflow Ads rewrites it through a tracked redirect at checkout, before the post goes out. That's what lets your campaign report clicks and CTR alongside views — without you instrumenting anything yourself.

  • Each distinct link in your caption is swapped for a short tracked address; a campaign tracks up to 10 distinct links.
  • Standard UTM parameters are appended (source onflowads, medium telegram, plus a campaign tag) — without overwriting any UTM values you already set, so your own analytics keep working.
  • Telegram-internal links (t.me) are left untouched. Rewriting them would break Telegram's in-app navigation — they'd bounce the reader out to a browser and back.
  • The redirect itself is instant for the reader: one lookup and a straight redirect to your destination.

What's measured — and what's never stored​

  • Clicks are counted, and deduplicated to unique visitors using a salted, non-reversible hash. No IP address is ever stored — the system recognises a repeat visitor without identifying anyone.
  • Click totals and unique clicks roll up onto the order, the campaign's CTR, and your analytics.

You can see all of this coming before you book: the composer's pre-flight confirms "Link found — it will be wrapped with first-party click tracking", and the live Telegram preview shows the tracked-link card — "onflow.link · tracked — clicks measured first-party, deduped, no IP stored".

Tracking never blocks a booking

If a link can't be tracked for any reason, your post goes out with the original link — a booking never fails because of tracking.

Proving the ad ran: three layers​

From weakest to strongest:

1. The live post link​

Every published order carries a "🔗 View live post ↗" chip that opens the actual Telegram post. Good for a quick look — but a live link can't prove what the post looked like last week.

2. The delivery-proof archive​

Once a placement is delivered, its expanded details on the Campaigns page grow a "🛡️ Delivery proof" panel — the frozen, signature-verified proof trail, and the artefact a dispute is argued over:

  • Creative as booked — your caption and media manifest, frozen at delivery and cryptographically signed. This is why your ad can't be edited after paying: the archive verifies the post against exactly what you booked.
  • Monitor captures — each live check our bot made during the run: timestamp, view/forward/reaction counts, links to the post and any screenshot, and a "✓ signature valid" stamp recomputed from the row's own contents on every view — a tampered copy fails on itself.
  • "edited since booking" — a capture is flagged this way if the live content drifted from what you booked. "The content was altered" is one of the standard dispute reasons, and this flag is its evidence.
  • 🤖 What does this prove? — an optional plain-language AI explanation of the trail (uses your daily AI actions).

3. Placement Proof Certificates​

On plans that include them (see the plan comparison — a monthly allowance on Elite and Master, unlimited on Ultimate), a Placement Proof Certificate turns a delivered placement's evidence into a document a third party can verify without trusting you or Onflow Ads' word for it.

A certificate is issued for one placement that has actually run, and freezes what the platform itself witnessed:

  • the channel, format, post link, publish time, and how long the ad stayed in the feed;
  • how many times the monitoring bot checked the post, and whether any check ever found it missing or unpinned;
  • the measured delivery: views, forwards, reactions, first-party clicks, CTR, delivered-versus-promised percentage, and the real CPM of your spend.

Three properties make it worth showing to a client:

  1. Frozen at the moment of issue. The numbers never change afterwards — a proof document that showed today's numbers under yesterday's date would be worthless.
  2. One per placement, forever. Requesting a certificate again returns the original document (and never spends a second unit of your monthly allowance) — there can never be two contradicting certificates for the same booking.
  3. Publicly verifiable. Every certificate has a public verification page at https://onflowads.com/verify/placement/... (the exact link comes with the certificate). Anyone can open it — no Onflow Ads account needed. The page recomputes the cryptographic signature from the stored document on every load and shows "✓ Signature valid — issued by Onflow Ads", or a clear failure if the document has been altered. A machine-readable version is linked from the same page for programmatic checks. Nothing on the page identifies you — it describes the placement, not the buyer.

Practical rules:

  • A certificate can only be issued once the ad has actually run — never for pending or declined orders.
  • Counted allowances reset on the 1st of each month; if you've used all of this month's certificates, you're told exactly that.
  • The certificate deliberately does not claim the views were human, unique, or that clicks converted. It proves the post existed, stayed up (or was flagged), was seen N times by Telegram's own counter, and drove N clicks through Onflow Ads's first-party redirect — which is precisely what a screenshot cannot prove.

FAQ​

My destination page shows odd utm_ parameters​

Those are the standard tags the tracker appends (utm_source=onflowads, utm_medium=telegram, and a campaign tag) so your own analytics can attribute the traffic. Any UTM values you set yourself are preserved untouched.

By design — rewriting a Telegram-internal link would break in-app navigation for the reader. Clicks are only tracked on external (http/https) destinations.

Clicks show but CTR is blank​

CTR needs both clicks and measured views. While the placement still says "Measuring…", the views side isn't final — blank means "not measured yet", never zero.

Can I get a certificate for a screenshot I took myself?​

No. Certificates are minted only from what the platform's own monitor witnessed — that independence is exactly what makes the public verification page persuasive to your client.

Next: Analytics and reporting — turn those measured views and clicks into a campaign rollup you can act on.