A publisher is a partner that is responsible for sending calls your campaigns. This may be a website owner, advertising network, affiliate marketer, call center, or anyone else that has calls to sell.

Ringba lets you assign publishers their own unique tracking phone numbers for each campaign you want to work with them on, and credit their account a payout based on various criteria for every successful call.

This article contains the following sections:

• Publishers List Screen
• Adding a Publisher
• Assigning a Campaign to a Publisher
• Pausing a Publisher
• Inviting a Publisher User
• Exporting a Spreadsheet of Publishers
• Publisher Management FAQ

Publishers List Screen

You navigate to the Manage Publishers screen by clicking Publishers in the left navigation bar. You can use the search bar at the top of the screen to search for publishers by name or ID. 

A table appears with a row for each publisher in your account. You can controls which columns appear in the table by clicking the gear icon to the right of the search. The table can contain the following columns:

• Name: The name of the publisher.
• ID: The publisher's unique identifier. This value never changes for the publisher even if you change the name or other configuration. 
• Create Numbers: A Yes/No value that indicates whether the publisher is allowed to create numbers in your account.
• Live: The number of calls from this publisher in progress right now.
• Hour: The number of calls from this publisher in the last hour.
• Day: The number of calls from this publisher in the last day.
• Month: The number of calls from this publisher so far this month.
• Total: The total number of calls so far from this publisher. 
• Status: The status of the publisher. Valid values are green (open) and red (paused). 
• Actions: Icons you use to perform actions on a publisher. See the next section for details. 

You can click most of the column headers to sort the publishers by the value in that field. Click the header again to reverse the sort, and click it a third time to remove the sort. You can use the icons in the Actions column to perform other operations on publishers from the list screen.

• Expand the publisher record to edit it
• Manage invitations you sent to publisher users
• View reports
• Pause the publisher: If a pause icon appears, the publisher is Open. If a play icon appears, the publisher is Paused.
  
• Delete the publisher
• Show references, which presents a list of campaigns, numbers, number pools, and users associated with this publisher
• View activity

Adding a Publisher

Adding a publisher lets you track calls and payouts for a specific publisher, partner, or marketing channel. If you invite a user from your publisher to your account, that users gets access to their statistics, campaigns, and (if allowed) the ability to create numbers and number pools.

Important: If the publisher is part of an offer, the number creation settings on the offer can let a publisher create numbers even if the number creation settings here do not.

Use the following steps to add a publisher:

1. Click Publishers in the left navigation panel to open the list of publishers in your account.

2. Click the Add Publisher button to open the form where you configure your publisher.
   

3. Enter the publisher Name, optional Sub ID, and indicate whether the publisher can create their own numbers and number pools. If you toggle on the Number Creation switch, your account is billed when the publisher performs these activities.

4. Set the Block Calls After Payout Cap Is Reached to indicate how Ringba should respond once the payout cap is reached.

5. Indicate whether the publisher has Access To Recordings

6. Click Create to create and save the publisher.

Now that you have created the publisher, you can add it to campaigns, assign tracking numbers, and invite publisher users to manage their account and view reporting.

Assigning a Publisher to a Campaign

Adding a publisher to a campaign assigns a unique tracking number that attributes and reports on all the calls routed to the specific publisher.

To add a publisher to a campaign:

1. Navigate Campaigns and open the campaign where you want to add the publisher.
2. Scroll to the Publishers section and click the Add Publisher button. Select the publisher from the Publisher drop-down list.
3. Configure the publisher's campaign-level settings.
4. Click Add to assign the publisher to the campaign.

Ringba assigns a unique tracking number to the publisher for promoting the campaign and sending call traffic to targets in the routing plan.

Pausing a Publisher

You can pause a publisher to temporarily stop accepting call traffic from that publisher. A pause icon appears on the Publisher list screen, in the Actions column. You can click it to pause the publisher and click it again when you want to unpause.

When you use the pause button on the Publisher list screen, Ringba pauses the publisher across all campaigns. If you want to pause the publisher for just one campaign, you must follow different steps.

If the campaign is a standard campaign (not real-time bidding), you can pause the publisher's numbers associated with that campaign. Use these steps:

1. Navigate to Numbers > Manage Numbers.
2. Find the number you want to pause. You can use the Search field at the top of the screen to help.
3. Click the pause icon in the Actions column for the number you want to pause.

If the campaign uses real-time bidding, you can override the RTB settings for that publisher on the campaign. Use these steps:

1. Go to the Campaigns screen an open the RTB campaign. 
2. Scroll to the Publishers section and find the publisher you want to pause.
3. Click the Override Campaign Configuration Settings icon (it looks like an edit icon) in the Actions column.
4. Scroll to the Set Real Time Bidding Settings for <Publisher> section and toggle on the Override Real Time Bidding Settings switch.
5. Toggle off the Enabled switch and save your changes.

When Ringba blocks a call due to a publisher or publisher number being paused, it captures that blocked call in the Blocked column on the Summary report. You can use the Tags - Call Info - Blocked Reason filter to limit the information on the Reporting screen to only calls blocked for this reason.

Inviting a Publisher User

Inviting a publisher to your account gives your partner access to their reporting, campaigns, and (if configured) the ability to create numbers and number pools.

Important: If the publisher is part of an offer, the number creation settings on the offer can let a publisher create numbers even if the number creation settings here do not.

To invite a publisher user:

1. Navigate to Publishers.
2. Find the publisher you want to invite and click the Manage Invites icon in the Actions column.
   
3. Click the Invite User button on the panel that appears.
4. Enter the publisher user's contact information.
5. Click Invite to invite the publisher to create their publisher user in your Ringba account.

Ringba sends the publisher an email to complete their registration and receive access to their campaigns, numbers, and detailed reporting about the calls they send.

From the publisher interface, publishers can view reports and campaigns, access tracking numbers and number pools, and update their account settings.

Exporting a Spreadsheet of Publishers

You can export a CSV file that contains a row for each publisher in your account. The CSV contains the same rows you see on the Manage Publishers screen.

To export a spreadsheet of publishers:

1. Navigate to Publishers.
2. Click the Export CSV button in the upper-right corner.

A CSV file downloads to your browser's downloads folder. 

Publisher Management FAQ

What features are available to publisher users?

Publisher users can view reports and campaigns and access their tracking numbers and number pools.

Note: Your publisher users can see reporting data as of the day you add the user to the account. Publisher users cannot see reporting data from before you added them.

Publisher users can also update their own profile settings.

What should I do if I need help with managing publishers?

If you have any questions or need additional help with your publisher configuration, please reach out to our support team via chat or email at support@ringba.com.