Click-Trace
Click-trace follows an ad's click through every redirect to its final landing page, revealing the real advertiser and offer behind it.
Click-trace is the process of following an ad's click through every redirect hop until it reaches the final landing page, in order to reveal the real advertiser, the tracking stack, and the offer that the ad creative deliberately hides. It is how ad-transparency tools see what an ad actually leads to, not just what it shows.
How it works#
Starting from a captured ad, a click-trace replays the click and records the full Redirect Chain, every Click Tracking Domain, affiliate link, and cloaking gateway, then captures the resulting Landing Page. Because native networks like Taboola and Outbrain often display only a publisher widget, the click path is frequently the only reliable way to identify the true Advertiser and map the Ad Supply Chain behind a placement.
Why it matters#
Click-tracing turns an anonymous native ad into actionable intelligence. It exposes which offers an advertiser is running, which trackers and landing pages they reuse across campaigns, and whether a brand's name is being misused on copycat pages. OpenAdLibrary click-traces live native ads to attribute the real advertiser and surface the destination, the core of effective competitive intelligence.
Related terms: Redirect Chain, Landing Page, Ad Supply Chain, and Click Tracking Domain.
