Integration recommendations
While API integration in an advertising platform, you must remember that accessing to an external API can be failed. There are many reasons for this - instability of the network infrastructure, errors on the server side, or just a human factor. Therefore, we recommend you to take into account the possibility of receiving a non-standard response, and work it out in terms of the layout of the website or mobile application. This is especially important for the main page - if the promo-material takes up most of the screen, then you should probably consider filling this space with default content.
It's important to set reasonable timeout for all external requests, to keep interface responsive.
Also it's necessary to remember that receiving an empty promo-material (response 204) - is a standard and frequent situation, which can occur if there are no launched campaigns for requested user segment.
It is worth considering the possibility that the request result can have an unexpected format. Campaigns can provide different variants of content in different formats. There can be banners, product shelves, branded product shelves, etc. Each variant of content has its own logic for rendering and tracking the fact that it’s been viewed. Variants of a content are always indicated by the acceptContent parameter, to make sure that the result of the request is predictable, but it is common practice to anticipate and process an unknown content format.
Creating of implementation instruction (integration map)
It is necessary to make a list of pages/screens with locations of promo placements. For each location, get the type of page, get identifier and type of content.
You should get a table (integration map):
| Location | Identifier of block | Type of page | Type of algorithm |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product page before comments block | 608d286f30e9b69fee2be370 | Product page | Product shelf |
| Product page after comments block | 608d28c10f3b6f6091ae818c | Product page | Product shelf, banner |
| Search page | 608d2887b50326449cb41224 | Search result page | Banner |
| Main page after banner | 608d28f9b0a04d23b9aea5e5 | Other | Banner |
The integration map is created by a Retail Rocket employee with the participation of the online store.
Integration
Integration consists of two stages: integration of sponsored blocks, and tracking of user behaviour.
Integration of sponsored blocks
With an integration map, online store developers, using the API documentation to receive sponsored placements in a web store / mobile application, request content every time the page is displayed, depending on the type of content processes it, and insert content into the online store page / mobile application screen.
Tracking of user behaviour
For Retail Rocket sponsored placements system, user behaviour is necessary in two aspects: accounting for user interaction with blocks - calculating the effectiveness of impressions, and receiving user events to provide content targeting functionality baset on a user profile - targeting by user interests in categories and products.
Transmitting data of interactions with sponsored placements
Methods for tracking of user behaviour are described in "API tracking of user behaviour"