Handle lead returns

This article explains what happens when a buyer returns a lead, and how to process a batch of returns yourself from a file the buyer sent you.

A return reverses the sale. The money comes off both sides of the ledger, and the lead becomes unsold again.

The two ways a return arrives

As a postback. This is the common one and needs no action from you. A buyer sends a rejected postback for a lead it had already bought, and Datahubb reverses the sale automatically.

Through the Returns page. You upload the file the buyer sent you, map its columns, and submit. This is how you handle a buyer that reconciles by spreadsheet rather than by API.

Both reach the same end state.

What a return changes

When a sale is returned:

• The sale is marked returned.
• The buyer's revenue is reversed in the financial ledger.
• The source payout is reduced by that sale's share, never below zero.
• Once no confirmed sale survives, the lead's status becomes Returned.
• If a postback to the traffic source or supplier is configured, the return event fires.

A return does not give the buyer its cap slot back. Nothing decrements a buyer's accepted count on a return.

Partial returns

A lead sold to more than one buyer only becomes Returned when the last surviving sale is returned. While any sale still stands, the lead is still sold and stays Accepted.

A partial return therefore sends nothing to the source. The lead's own lifecycle did not move, and the events a still-accepted lead maps to would tell the source a return was a sale.

Returns versus CPA declines

These look similar and are not the same thing.

Both mark the sale as returned in the underlying record, but only a true return reverses money. When you build a report, filter on the sale's own status rather than that flag, or CPA declines will inflate your returns.

Process a batch of returns

1. Open Returns from the sidebar and start a new return.
2. Basic information. Pick the campaign, the buyer, and the time period the file covers.
3. Upload buyer file. Attach the file the buyer sent you.
4. Mapping. Choose the column that uniquely identifies each lead, the column carrying the reason or status, and the price column if the file has one.
5. Settings. Set the notification address and anything else the step asks for.
6. Confirmation. Review the summary, then submit.

Rows the file marks as accepted on a lead still awaiting a CPA decision confirm that sale instead of returning it, which is how you backfill conversions on a buyer's behalf. Rows marked rejected or returned on a pending sale decline it, with no ledger reversal because nothing was booked.

If a real postback from the buyer arrives while your upload is processing, exactly one of them wins and the other is skipped with a note on the timeline. There is no way to double up the ledger.

Retry a returned lead

Once a lead is fully returned it is unsold, so you can put it back through distribution with Redistribute a lead.

The buyer that returned it is not offered again. It appears in the drawer disabled and labelled Already returned, because that buyer has said the lead was no good and re-selling would consume a second cap slot for one net purchase.

Expected result

The lead's status reads Returned, its buyer's revenue and the source payout are both adjusted, and the lead is available to redistribute.

Troubleshooting

• A return is not processing. If it came through the Returns page it may still be awaiting approval. Approve it.
• Money did not move. Check that the sale was a confirmed sale rather than a CPA lead still pending. A pending sale that gets declined never booked anything to reverse.
• No postback reached the source. The return was partial, so nothing is sent by design, or the lead resolves neither a traffic source nor an external supplier.
• A returned lead reads Rejected. Older leads predate buyer returns being recorded as returns. The sale record is correct either way, and that is what the leads list and the buyer-scoped status read.
• Buyer returns are missing from a Returned figure. The same history applies, or the report is filtering the lead's status rather than the sale's.
• A re-accepted lead shows an unexpected payout. Source payout accumulates across accepts and returns. Review the lead's full sale history.