Discord ads tracking setup, step by step

Before you start

You need a Discord account that can manage the server (Manage Server permission) and a Tellmetric workspace. The server can be new or established; nothing changes for existing members. Why your own application rather than a shared one: the authorise screen then carries your name and icon, and nothing another customer does can affect your app.

Step 1: create the application

1. Open the Discord Developer Portal and press New Application. Name it after your brand: people see this name when they authorise.
2. Under OAuth2, copy the Client ID and press Reset Secret to get the client secret. Copy it right away; Discord shows it once.
3. Still under OAuth2, add the redirect URL shown on Tellmetric's Connections page under Redirects and save. It looks like https://tellmetric.com/discord/callback; copy it from the page rather than typing it.
4. Under Bot, press Reset Token and copy the token. Turn off Public Bot if only you should be able to add it to servers.

Step 2: paste the credentials

On Tellmetric, open Connections and the Discord card. Paste the Application ID, the client secret and the bot token into step 2 and press Save. Tellmetric asks Discord whether the token belongs to the application with that ID and whether the ID and secret work together; a value from a different app or a reset secret is refused on its field with what to do. The secret and the token are stored encrypted and never shown again.

Step 3: add the bot to your server

Press Add to Discord. Discord's dialog asks which server to add the bot to and shows one permission, Create Invite; leave it ticked. That is the only right the bot asks for: it cannot read messages, manage members or post. Back on Connections, the server appears under Servers the bot is in; press Use this server. Free tracks one community (a Telegram group or channel, or a Discord server); Pro and Agency track five.

Step 4: choose where people land

For each saved server, pick the text channel a new member should see first under Where people land, or leave it on the server's home. Tellmetric checks within a minute that the bot is in the server with Create Instant Invite and that the channel exists, and makes a fallback invite on that channel for visitors whose authorise step cannot complete. The still-a-member check uses the same number of days as Telegram, set under Bot settings on the Telegram card.

Step 5: make a link and test it

1. On Links, choose Your Discord server, name the link after the campaign and create it. With several servers, pick which one it opens.
2. Press Test it, or open Test your setup from Connections. Scan the QR code with your phone.
3. Discord shows the authorise screen for your app. Press Authorise. You land in the channel you chose, and the page ticks off the click, the join and the delivery to Meta as they arrive.

Test with an account that is not in the server yet: Discord reports nothing new for an existing member, and the page says so. If the authorise screen asks you to log in first, log in; the click is still watched.

What the visitor sees

One screen: "Your app name wants to access your Discord account: know your username; join servers for you", with Authorise and Cancel. After Authorise the Discord app or web client opens on your landing channel with them already a member. Someone who authorised your app before skips the screen. Someone who presses Cancel gets a page with a plain invite into the server, and that join is not matched to the ad.

If something is off

• "This bot token belongs to a different application." Copy the token from the Bot page of the same application whose Client ID you pasted.
• The server is not listed under Servers the bot is in. Press Add to Discord again and pick it in Discord's dialog; if the bot was removed from the server, add it again the same way.
• "The bot cannot create invites." In Discord, open Server Settings, Roles, the bot's role, and turn on Create Invite. Then press Check connection.
• "The landing channel was deleted." Pick another channel under Where people land.
• A notice says Discord joins are failing. Discord refused to add visitors several times in an hour. Check connection shows whether the bot is still in the server with its permission; visitors were sent in through the fallback invite meanwhile.

How the whole chain works, what ad platforms receive and what is not tracked yet: Discord conversion tracking.