Refund Tracking & Net Revenue

Tracking & Analytics

ClickerVolt automatically tracks refunds alongside your conversions, giving you accurate Net Revenue and Refund Rate metrics. This helps you understand the true profitability of your traffic sources and campaigns.

How Refund Tracking Works

Refunds are tracked through your affiliate network's IPN (Instant Payment Notification) system, the same way conversions are tracked. When a refund occurs, ClickerVolt:

Records the refund amount against the original click
Updates your Visitor Profile with refund history
Recalculates Net Revenue and Refund Rate in real-time
Adjusts Cohort LTV analysis to reflect the refund
Optionally triggers webhooks for external integrations

Refund Metrics

The Stats Table includes several refund-related columns that you can toggle on:

Refunds: Count of refund events
Refund Amount: Total refunded revenue
Refund Rate: Percentage of conversions that resulted in refunds
Gross Revenue: Revenue before refunds

Tip: Profit and ROI are calculated from Net Revenue, so your profitability metrics automatically account for refunds.

Impact on Cohort LTV

Refunds are reflected in the Cohort LTV chart, reducing the lifetime value of visitors who requested refunds. This gives you accurate long-term value projections based on actual net revenue.

Triggering Refunds

Refunds can be triggered via a postback URL, similar to how conversions are tracked. You can configure your affiliate network or payment processor to call this endpoint when a refund occurs.

Postback Endpoint

URL: https://[your-tracking-domain]/api/conversion/refund

Methods: GET or POST

Parameters

cid (required): The Click ID from the original conversion
amount (required): Refund amount as a positive number (e.g., 49.99)
txid (optional): Transaction ID for the refund itself
type (optional): "chargeback" (or "cb") for chargebacks, or "customer_request" (or "refund", "request") for refunds. Defaults to customer_request if not specified.
ref (optional): Original transaction ID that is being refunded

Example

/api/conversion/refund?cid=[CLICK_ID]&amount=49.99&type=chargeback&txid=REF123

Replace [your-tracking-domain] with your ClickerVolt tracking domain and [CLICK_ID] with the click ID token from your network. The endpoint returns { ok: true } immediately and processes the refund in the background.

Webhook Integration

You can configure webhooks to trigger on refund events. This is useful for:

Updating your CRM when a customer refunds
Triggering win-back email sequences
Syncing refund data with external analytics platforms
Flagging high-refund traffic sources for review

To enable refund webhooks, go to Settings → Webhooks and check the "Refund" event checkbox.

Best Practices

Monitor Refund Rate by traffic source to identify problematic campaigns
Use Net Revenue (not Gross Revenue) for accurate ROI calculations
Set up refund webhooks to keep external systems in sync
Check Cohort LTV to understand long-term impact of refunds on visitor value