Best practices
Domains and hosting
- Use a clean domain you control. Avoid recycled spam domains.
- Install Cloakerly on the same host that serves the landing page when you use PHP or WordPress.
- If you use Cloudflare or another CDN, do not hide the visitor IP. The connecting-IP header must reach PHP.
- TLS (HTTPS) on the landing domain is expected by ad networks and by most snippets.
Campaign setup
- One campaign per traffic source and offer combination. Mixing Google and Facebook on one campaign makes GCLID/FBCLID and reports harder to read.
- Start In Review, confirm Click Log, then Active.
- Keep Allow All for local tests only.
- Match include countries to the ad set. Broad ALL plus a tight offer geo is a common reason for “wrong page”.
- Require GCLID or FBCLID only when ads actually append those parameters.
Filtering
- Default new campaigns hide the referrer. Turn that off if the offer needs the original source.
- Leave Allow VPN / Allow Datacenters off for paid social and search unless you know you need them.
- Frequency cap is useful on native and pop traffic; it can block power users on brand search if the count is too low.
- Change one major filter at a time and re-check the Click Log Reason column.
Integration
- Prefer PHP or WordPress over JavaScript.
- Put the snippet on the first page the click loads, not three redirects later.
- After you toggle Hide Referral, copy SCRIPT again.
- Do not commit snippets with tokens to public repositories.
Pages
- Safe page and affiliate page should both load quickly and look like real sites (working CSS, no mixed-content errors).
- If you use PHP cURL (no redirect), the offer must allow iframes.
- Avoid redirect chains: ad → tracker → shortener → Cloakerly → offer. Each hop can drop click IDs.
Monitoring
- Check Click Log on the first day a campaign spends money.
- Watch the ratio of money clicks to blocked hits after large budget changes.
- Export CSV if you need to share a slice with a media buyer (remove columns you do not want them to see).