Task vs Offer Campaigns: Which Should You Choose?

Task or offer campaign: which one do you need?

Choose a task campaign when a person can show the result, such as a sign-up, a follow, or a review, and you are happy to check each one yourself before you pay. Choose an offer campaign when your own server or tracker can see the result, such as an install, a level reached, or a first purchase, and can report it to us with a postback. Task campaigns are self-serve for every advertiser, while offer campaigns are currently set up by arrangement with the Sharklio team.

Both types run on the same offerwall, use the same countries, budgets and caps, and charge only for results. The difference is who confirms the result and when you are charged. How it works gives the wider picture of how campaigns reach users.

How each type confirms a result

Task campaigns: proof plus your review

A user opens your task on a publisher’s offerwall, follows your instructions, and submits proof: a screenshot, a text answer, or both, depending on the proof type you chose. The completion lands under Completions in your dashboard with the proof, the user’s country and device, and the time left to decide. You approve it or reject it with a reason within the approval window you picked, from 30 minutes to 3 days. If you do nothing before the window ends, the completion is approved automatically and charged.

A rejection is not final straight away. The user can dispute it within 72 hours, you can accept or keep the rejection, and if you keep it, Sharklio staff make the final decision.

Offer campaigns: your server’s postback

A user starts your offer through your tracking link, which carries a {click_id} that we fill in for every user. When the user reaches a step, for example installing the app or reaching level 10, your server calls our postback URL with that click ID and the step’s event ID. The step is charged when the postback arrives. There is no proof to look at and no approval window, because your own system already confirmed the step.

Task vs offer campaigns at a glance

How much setup each type takes

A task campaign needs no code. You write numbered instructions, describe exactly what the proof must show, add a starting link if the task begins on a specific page, and upload a thumbnail. Most of the effort goes into wording: clear instructions and a precise proof requirement are what keep rejections and disputes rare. Proof requirements for every task type has wording you can adapt.

An offer campaign needs a tracker or a server that knows when a user reached each step. You add {click_id} to your tracking link, and you can also pass {country}, {device} and {source}. Each step gets an event ID that your server sends as goal= in the postback, so one postback URL covers every step. An offer can have up to 15 steps. Before and after approval, the offer page lets you create a test click under Test your integration and send test postbacks; nothing is charged and no user is credited. Multi-step offer campaigns walks through the setup in detail, and the offer postbacks guide in the docs has the exact postback format for your developer.

Pricing: one bid or a price per step

In a task campaign, each country gets one bid, and every approved completion from that country costs that bid. In an offer campaign, each step has a price that applies in every country, and you can type a different price for a step in any country where it should cost more or less. A user who stops after the first step costs you only the first step.

For task campaigns, the cost of completions that are still waiting for review, rejected but open to a dispute, or in a dispute is put on hold from your available balance. An offer is shown only while your balance covers every step of it, and steps confirmed while your balance is too low are charged as soon as it covers them.

Rejections, disputes and reversals

With a task, your control comes before payment. You reject completions that clearly fail your stated requirements, and every rejection needs a reason the user can see. Once a completion is approved, by you or automatically, it is not refunded, unless our team later reverses it, for example for fraud. Then its cost returns to your balance.

With an offer, your control comes after the postback. If a credited step turns out to be invalid, for example because a purchase was refunded or the user was a duplicate, you can reverse it within 30 days, with a postback that sends status=reversed or from your dashboard, and the amount returns to your balance. Reversing valid conversions to avoid paying breaks the campaign rules. Reversals and refunds covers how refunds appear in your balance.

What each campaign type fits best

Task campaigns fit results a person can show on screen:

• Creating an account and confirming the email.
• Following a social page, joining a community, or subscribing to a newsletter.
• Trying a feature and answering a question about it.
• Installing an app and reaching an early goal that is visible in a screenshot.

Offer campaigns fit results your systems record:

• App installs and in-app events already tracked by your attribution tool.
• Game progress, such as levels or a finished tutorial.
• Registrations, trials, subscriptions, and purchases on your site.
• Funnels where you want to pay a little for an early step and more for a deep one.

Decision checklist

1. Can your server or tracker see the result? If not, choose a task.
2. Can it send a postback with our click ID? If not yet, start with a task and switch later.
3. Do you want to pay differently for early and deep steps? That points to an offer.
4. Do you want to look at every result before paying? That points to a task.
5. Can you review on time? If you choose a task, pick an approval window you can keep, because late completions are approved automatically.
6. Should people be able to repeat it? Only tasks offer frequency options beyond once per user.
7. Do you need it live today without talking to us? Start with a task. For an offer, contact our team.

Frequently asked questions