How To Test and Go Live With A New Buyer In Lead Prosper

Before setting a new Buyer live in a Campaign, run tests to confirm that the integration is configured correctly and that there are no errors. This article walks through the full process — from setting up the Buyer to monitoring live traffic.

Step 1: Set Up the Buyer

You have two options for setting up a new Buyer:

1. Set them up yourself. If you have the technical skill, you can configure the Buyer on your own. Use the Lead Prosper Knowledge Base and YouTube resources to guide you through the setup, and reach out to support with any questions.
2. Let our team handle it. Take advantage of our free Buyer setups by filling out the support form. Include all information our team would need — API specs, API keys or tokens, caps and filters, pricing, and any other relevant details.

When setting up the Buyer, make sure you are using whatever test or staging parameters the Buyer has provided. These allow you to run as many tests as needed without affecting production data.

Step 2: Test the Buyer

Before setting any Buyer live, use the Test Buyer Tool to verify that your configuration is correct.

The tool automatically generates dummy data based on your Campaign field settings and lets you send test requests to the Buyer's server without risking real leads.

Before running your first test, check your API specs for any test parameters the Buyer may require — such as staging URLs, test API keys, or specific field values — and configure your Buyer accordingly.

Review the generated dummy data and adjust any field values that might cause the Buyer to reject the test. For example, set qualifying answers to values the Buyer would accept. Alternatively, use the Search & Fill feature to grab a real lead from within your Campaign — copy and paste the lp_lead_id  , and the system will populate that lead's details into the test Buyer fields so you can test with real data.

As issues come up, go back to the payload builder, fix them, and retest. Repeat this cycle until you get an accepted/successful response.

For a detailed walkthrough, see our full guide on How to Best Use the Test Buyer Tool When Setting Up New Buyers.

Step 3: Send the Test File to the Buyer

After running a test, review the response for errors related to payload issues, response mapping mismatches, real-time price extraction, or invalid shortcodes. Fix any issues in the Buyer configuration and test again — repeat this cycle until you consistently get accepted responses.

Once you are satisfied with the results, download the last successful test result using the Download as File button and send it to your Buyer for final approval.

The purpose of this step is to have the Buyer confirm on their end that everything looks correct and is ready for live traffic. If the Buyer comes back with feedback, return to the Buyer setup, make the necessary changes, and run additional tests.

Step 4: Review Buyer Settings

When the Buyer gives you the OK to go live, review the following settings before turning them on:

1. Filters — Confirm that all Buyer filters are in place per their criteria.
2. Caps — Verify whether the Buyer made any cap requests and ensure they are configured correctly.
3. Price Rules — Review the pricing rules for the Buyer. If they are set up for Static or Conditional pricing, give the settings a once-over to ensure all rules are in place. If the Buyer is set up for real-time pricing, you should have resolved any real-time price mapping issues while using the Test Buyer Tool. If you are unsure, run another test to confirm.

Step 5: Remove Test Parameters

If your Buyer was set up with test or staging parameters, now is the time to swap them out. Since test and staging values can be set in multiple places in the Buyer configuration, check each of the following areas:

1. Posting URL — If the Buyer provided staging URLs, check the PING and POST URLs and confirm they are set to the production URLs.
2. Buyer Payload — Buyers often include a field and value in the payload to indicate that a lead is a test. The Test Buyer Tool usually highlights these for removal, but if you are not sure, look for any field names that include "test" and remove them. Examples include lp_action=test  , lp_test=1  , Test_Lead=1  , Test=true  , etc.
3. API Keys / Tokens — Buyers often provide staging credentials, tokens, or API keys to use during testing. If this is the case, confirm that you have swapped over to the proper production credentials. Note that the API key could be in the URL, Header, or Payload Body.

Once you have confirmed that all test parameters are removed and all staging credentials have been replaced with production values, you are ready to go live.

Step 6: Go Live

Once tests are confirmed, test parameters are removed, and production values are in place, it is time to go live. Go to the Buyer settings and click the Resume button. Once done, the Buyer is live and ready to start receiving leads.

Step 7: Monitor Live Traffic

After you set the Buyer live, continue monitoring the traffic for that Buyer over the course of a few days to ensure there are no issues.

Accepted Leads

Check whether the Buyer is receiving accepted leads. If so, the integration is working as expected.

Rejections

If leads are being rejected, determine whether the cause is a misconfiguration issue or a normal rejection — such as a filter, cap, or being outbid in a highest bidder Campaign. There is a difference between the two, so identify the root cause before taking action. If there are signs of a misconfiguration, check the Buyer payload to see if you can fix the issue, then retest with the rejected lead if needed to confirm it passes.

Response Changes After Go-Live

Buyers sometimes have responses that change after you go live. Keep an eye out for misconfigurations that may occur for this reason. This is more common on systems where you were given a staging URL to send tests to versus the production URL you are now sending live traffic to.

Missing or Empty Field Values

Review the Buyer response to confirm that the payloads include all of the correct data and that there are no missing required fields coming in as empty values. If a Campaign field is coming in empty and causing problems with this Buyer, consider adding a ||fallback   transformer to supply a default value.

Duplicate and Validation Flags

It is not uncommon for Buyers to flag phone or email as duplicate, or for data to fail validation. If it becomes a frequent occurrence, review your traffic source and discuss the issue with the Buyer.

Timeouts

Buyer requests are set to timeout at 30 seconds by default. If you go live and find that your Buyer is failing due to timeouts, you can temporarily increase the timeout to 45–60 seconds to see if that helps. In the meantime, raise this issue with your Buyer — response times over 30 seconds should be considered rare. Ask them to review on their end and optimize to get response times below 10 seconds if possible.

It should be standard practice to review traffic a few times a week regardless of whether the Buyer is new or established. Keeping an extra close eye on new Buyer traffic helps catch issues that surface after testing when you move to production. Staying on top of monitoring will find these issues quickly and keep things running smoothly.