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Overview

Explore two different integration paths: SDK and API.

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The Cardlytics platform provides Publishers with two primary yet different integration paths:

Each path has its own specific requirements, as described in this document. In each case, the goal is to provide Publishers with the best possible outcome during the integration process.

Typically, Publishers who need greater control of how their ads are displayed, i.e., which customers see your ads, for example, will take advantage of the API integration path.

Options

If you want the Cardlytics team to drive the integration process, you can choose to work with the SDK. That means, Cardlytics will help you specify how and where your ads are displayed and presented to your customers. The path may require less technical involvement for Publishers and accelerate the time for complete integration.

If, on the other hand, you require greater control of how your ads are displayed, you should choose the API integration path.

In either case, the Cardlytics team will provide you with a suite of APIs and developer tools that cover transaction ingestion, notifications, redemptions, servicing and marketing. Using these APIs and tools, you can build a complete rewards experience for your customers, with a suite of supporting products that enable program operations.

At a Glance

To perform publisher integrations with the Cardlytics platform, you need to follow several key steps:

  1. Prerequisites: Ensure you have established connectivity for ongoing data transfer and services. This involves setting up Amazon S3 buckets for file transfers and sharing customer transaction data with Cardlytics.

  2. Integration Path: Choose between the API-only or API + Web SDK integration paths. The API path offers greater control over ad display, while the SDK path involves less technical involvement and faster integration.

  3. Authentication: Obtain a session token for authentication, which is a JSON Web Token representing session metadata.

  4. Connectivity: Establish secure connectivity using HTTPS and sFTP over mTLS, with IP address whitelisting and two-way SSL.

  5. Testing: Conduct pre-production and production testing to verify connectivity and integration using endpoints like startSession, getAds, and clientEvent.

  6. Monitoring and Reporting: Utilize Cardlytics' reporting tools to track customer engagement and program performance, and monitor dashboards for ongoing operations.

Example: How to Start a Session

Here is a basic example of how you might start a session using curl:

curl -X POST https://pub-api-us.prod.cardlytics.com/startSession \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"institutionId": "your_institution_id", "customerId": "your_customer_id"}'

This command initiates a session by sending a POST request to the startSession endpoint with the necessary headers and data.

For more information, refer to these sections:

Updated 9 days ago

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