Awin CAPI: The solution for a high-performance affiliate program

Awin launches the Conversion Protection Initiative (CPI)

Awin’s Conversion Protection Initiative  came into effect on April 7, 2025.

It requires Awin advertisers to switch to server-to-server (S2S) tracking via the Awin Conversion API. If you don’t implement the server-side Conversion API, Awin will use a probabilistic model to determine the sales that could not be tracked (which may increase the sales attributed to your publishers by 32.6% to compensate for tracking losses).

To ensure reliable tracking and commissions in line with actual sales, it is therefore essential to configure Awin CAPI. This is what we’ll be looking at together in this documentation.

Awin CAPI to complement Master Tag and Conversion Tag

Even though Awin is pushing for the use of S2S, it’s important to understand why classic client-side tracking is no longer enough.

In fact, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to obtain reliable affiliate tracking. Ad blockers filter part of the requests, browsers reduce the lifetime of cookies, and some systems - such as Safari with ITP - make client-side tracking less and less reliable. The quality and quantity of data transmitted via the Master Tag  or the Conversion Tag  are then altered.

The Awin Conversion API  (Awin CAPI) provides a direct response to these limitations. Unlike MasterTag/ConversionTag, which are subject to browser restrictions, a configuration with GTM Server-Side will enable you to bypass ad-blockers, have longer-lasting cookies and therefore optimal data quantity and quality.

Advantages of hybrid Awin tracking integration

According to Awin, hybrid tracking is the best solution for ensuring both accurate data and a rewarding experience for your publishers. If you’d like to find out more about the benefits of hybrid tracking, check out Awin’s documentation on the subject .

Here’s a table summarizing the benefits of each tracking system offered by Awin:

In this documentation, you’ll discover how to implement Awin CAPI with the GTM Server-Side tag Awin Conversion API by Addingwell.

How do I configure Awin CAPI?

Now we’re going to get a little more technical. Let’s take a look at how to send your data to the Awin Conversion API using Google Tag Manager Server (sGTM).

Download and import the Awin CAPI tag

The Awin Conversion API by Addingwell tag is not yet available in the sGTM gallery, so you’ll need to download it from our Github and then import it into Google Tag Manager Server.

Download Awin CAPI tag

Download the Awin Conversion API tag  and click on the download icon to retrieve the file.

Import the tag into Google Tag Manager Server-Side

Then go to the Templates tab of the server container, then, in the Tag templates section, click New.

Then click on the three small dots in the top right-hand corner, and select Import.

Save imported tag

Then select the newly uploaded template.tpl file, and click Save.

You have now finished importing the tag into sGTM. You can now move on to configuration.

Awin CAPI tag configuration

Create a new tag in Google Tag Manager Server-Side and select the newly created Awin CAPI tag.

This tag includes two types of events:

1. Page View
2. conversions (Conversion)

Page views (Event Type: Page View)

With the Page View event type, configuring the tag is relatively straightforward, simply triggering it on all page_view events.

When configured on pageviews, the tag doesn’t send a request to Awin but simply drops cookies that will be used for conversion attribution later on.

Conversions (Event Type : Conversion)

To configure the tag with event type Conversion, two pieces of information are required:

• Advertiser ID which represents your advertiser account ID in Awin.
• The OAuth2 Token enabling communication with Awin’s conversion API.

Once you’ve retrieved the access token and conversion ID, configure the Awin CAPI tag.

This tag must trigger on the event or events corresponding to your conversions.

In this example, the tag is triggered on the purchase event.

🎉 You’ve finished configuring Addingwell’s Awin CAPI tag, now it’s time to check the data feedback.

Data check and event tracking

Once you’ve configured your Awin CAPI tag, it’s crucial to ensure that your server container is correctly transmitting conversions to Awin.

Check sent events

Preview GTM Server-Side

The first step is to ensure that the Awin CAPI tag fires correctly for the page_view event and on your conversion events.

In the server container preview, make sure your Awin CAPI tag fires on the page_view event (Event Type: Page View) and then on the purchase event (Event Type: Conversion).

Confirm that the tag appears in the Tags fired section and that the tag status is Succeeded.

Event Type : Page View

In the preview, click on the Awin CAPI tag.

Note here that the tag sends no request. This is quite normal as on the page_view event the tag is only there to drop cookies.

Event Type : Conversion

In the preview, click on the Awin CAPI tag.

In the preview, click on the Awin CAPI tag.

Awin CAPI returns code 200, your request has been successfully processed by Awin.

Congratulations

You’ve finished configuring Awin CAPI, and you’ve verified that your data is being transmitted to Awin.

If you encounter any problems during these steps, please contact our support team.