Integrations
Connect Outbrain Ads
Connect Outbrain with an Amplify API token. LeadJourney syncs spend, campaigns, promoted links and creatives, and sends conversions back server-to-server — including the 30-day token expiry that stops a sync without warning.
Connecting Outbrain Ads pulls your spend and performance into LeadJourney down to the promoted link, and sends your conversions back so Outbrain can optimise on real outcomes.
What the connection covers
- Spend and performance for campaigns and promoted links, plus your ad creatives.
- Conversions back to Outbrain, server-to-server.
- Optional auto-tagging of each campaign's suffix tracking code.
Before you start
- An Outbrain user with Amplify API access.
- Tracking is live on your site — see Install the tracking script.
- For conversions to arrive, a conversion event in Outbrain to map onto (see step 3).
Where to find it
Open Settings → Traffic Channels, find the Outbrain Ads card and click Connect.
Atlas can walk you through it
The panel at the top — Set up Outbrain with Atlas — checks what's already done, tells you where to click next and can map your events for you. Why no conversions? is the fastest way to diagnose a connection that syncs spend but sends nothing back.
Step by step
Connect with your Amplify API token
Two ways, under Step 1:
- Paste API token — in Outbrain, open your name (top right) → Amplify API Token, copy it and paste it here.
- Sign in with Outbrain login — LeadJourney fetches the token for you. Your password is used once for that and never stored.
Keep an eye on the token's expiry date
Amplify tokens last 30 days and cannot be renewed
This is the one thing to plan for. An Outbrain token expires after 30 days, and there's no renewal — you paste a new one before it runs out. LeadJourney shows the expiry date and the days remaining on the connection, and tells you when it has lapsed.
If it does expire, the sync simply stops. Paste a new token under Replace token and it resumes. Put a recurring reminder in your calendar; this is the most common reason an Outbrain connection goes quiet.
Choose your ad accounts
Under Step 2, the ad accounts the token can reach appear in a table. Switch on the ones this workspace should track and save. Spend and performance sync from that moment; data from before the connection is not imported.
Map events to Outbrain
Under Step 3, decide which Outbrain conversion each LeadJourney event is reported as. The event
name has to match a conversion that exists in Outbrain — otherwise the postback is ignored.
Conversions you leave unmapped are sent as <Type> by LeadJourney.
Step 3b — Send Timing controls when a mapped conversion is sent back.
Add the tracking parameter
Either switch on Auto-tag for the ad account, or paste this into each campaign's suffix tracking code in Outbrain Amplify:
lj_channel=outbrain_ads&lj_c_id={{campaign_id}}&lj_as_id={{campaign_id}}&lj_ad_id={{ad_id}}&lj_placement={{publisher_name}}&obclid={{ob_click_id}}Outbrain fills the macros in double braces.
No obclid, no conversions
Conversions go back to Outbrain keyed on the obclid click ID. Without it — no auto-tagging
and no suffix on the campaign — spend still syncs, but nothing reaches Outbrain.
Why campaign and ad set show the same ID
Outbrain has no ad-set level between campaign and promoted link, so lj_c_id and lj_as_id both
carry the campaign ID, and lj_ad_id carries the promoted link. Your reports group correctly; the
ad set level is simply a copy of the campaign.
Troubleshooting
The sync stopped on its own
Check the token first. Amplify tokens expire after 30 days and can't be renewed, so a connection that worked for a month and then went quiet almost always needs a new token pasted under Replace token.
Spend syncs but no conversions arrive in Outbrain
Check in this order: the campaign carries the suffix tracking code (or auto-tag is on), the clicks
actually carry an obclid, and the mapped event name matches a conversion that exists in
Outbrain. The API Postbacks log shows each attempt and its status.
The token is rejected
Your Outbrain user needs Amplify API access. If the token field won't take it, try Sign in with Outbrain login instead — LeadJourney then fetches a valid token for that user.
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