Getting Started with Mobile App Measurement and Attribution

GETTING STARTED WITH APP MARKETING ATTRIBUTION AND MEASUREMENT

By Matt OrbanTechnical Sales Engineer

INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................1EVENT TYPES YOU NEED TO TRACK............................................................................2AUTHENTICATION EVENTS ..........................................................................................2ENGAGEMENT EVENTS ...............................................................................................3INTENT EVENTS..........................................................................................................5PURCHASE EVENTS....................................................................................................5CONCLUSIONS ...........................................................................................................6ABOUT THE AUTHOR ..................................................................................................6ABOUT APSALAR ........................................................................................................7VISIT US ONLINE FOR MORE GREAT CONTENT ................................................................. 7

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INTRODUCTIONMost of us understand that getting customer action data from our apps is important and will help drive improved marketing effectiveness. But what are you actually going to measure? How do we turn the good idea of measuring marketing activity into something that is both clear, focused and actionable?

PEOPLE CONSIDERING APP ATTRIBUTION

PEOPLE READY TO SET UP THEIR PLATFORM

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What I hope to do with this paper is explain the kinds of con-sumer actions or events that brands in different categories should track in order to get actionable data from their mobile app attribution platforms. This is relevant information whether you are about to pull the trigger on a platform, or have made your choice and are now ready to implement.

AN EGUIDE WRITTEN FOR TWO AUDIENCES

As a leading player in the marketing attribution arena, Apsalar has worked with hundreds of companies to set up their marketing attribution instances. Our very low account churn rate attests to our success at helping clients create measurement plans that meet real business needs and drive significant improvement in ROI.

If you’re still deciding on which platform to use for your apps, please get in touch with us. Our team can help explain the right things to mea-sure and how to make implementation easier. As part of that process we can explain the mea-surement options available to you as an Apsalar client and how choosing another platform affects your choices.

If you are already an Apsalar client, this docu-ment is just one of the tools we have available to get you started right. Your implementation team and account manager can help you move from the general recommendations you will find in this document into conclusively defining the specific set of data points that warrant tracking for your unique app business.

Sitting down and defining what you will measure can feel like the hardest part of using a tool like Apsalar Attribution. But trust me, that “difficulty” is more psychological than real. My goal with this paper is to get rid of some of that discomfi-ture, so you can get up and running much faster.

RECOMMENDATIONS BASED UPON HUNDREDS

OF IMPLEMENTATIONS

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When you are just getting started with a measurement and attribution platform like Apsalar Attribution, the most important things you need to decide are which consumer actions you want to track. In this industry, we call consumer actions events. By tracking events, we gather the data necessary to understand the effectiveness of your marketing pro-grams and gain a genuine view into what consumers are doing in your apps. That’s mission-critical knowledge!

Different platforms allow their customers to track different numbers of events. Some allow only a handful of trackable event types, while oth-ers allow dozens – or more. Apsalar allows advertisers to track up to 400 unique events per app version – an extremely large number for the category and one that makes us the choice of the most sophis-ticated mcommerce companies globally. These are businesses that understand the importance of complete and granular data.

Additionally, since Apsalar doesn’t charge for the number of events tracked, an advertiser has an incredible amount of flexibility in deter-mining both how many and what kind of events to track in their applica-tion. Other vendors do charge for many kinds of events so you need to balance those costs with the concomitant benefits of comprehensive tracking – if you have chosen a platform other than Apsalar.

It’s actually quite simple to identify the kinds of events you need to track. This paper is designed to provide some recommended event types and accompanying attributes to track for a variety of different in-dustries. By using the list provided for the category that is most similar to your business, you can make quick and easy work of 90% - or more – of the challenge here.

This paper advocates for tracking as many germane events as possi-ble in order to facilitate richer understanding of your business and its key drivers. We recognize that some people who download this paper may have chosen a different mobile app attribution provider. Again, if you are using a platform other than Apsalar, you will have to consider the event limits in your platform and costs as you determine which event types you should track.

ACTIONS AND EVENTS


The first step in choosing the events to track is to identify the different types of events that every marketer should be tracking. Apsalar categorizes important marketing events into four categories.

EVENT TYPES YOU NEED TO TRACK

Events that help identify the user (anonymously, of course)

Actions that a consumer takes that indicate involvement in the app and presage long-term usage.

Actions that indicate that the user is considering and preparing for a purchase.

Actions and information that are communicated after a purchase takes place. These include char-acteristics of what was purchased - specifics that help us get a richer and more comprehensive under-standing of each individual ano-nymized customer.

Authentication Events

Engagement Events

Intent Events

Purchase Events

Let’s examine each of these in turn.

http://support.apsalar.com/customer/portal/articles/1999913-authentication-events


http://support.apsalar.com/customer/portal/articles/2000045-engagement-events


http://support.apsalar.com/customer/portal/articles/1999935-intent-events


http://support.apsalar.com/customer/portal/articles/2000031-purchase-events



Authentication events allow the marketer to gather user-level information that can be used for a variety of actions. Our primary goal with authentication events is to better understand the characteristics of the person that is using that specific instance of an app. These data points also help us – and other third party solutions providers – connect the actions that the customer takes in an app with actions that they perform in other digital environments. These connec-tions build a more complete view of the customer and enable us to understand the interplay between different consumer touchpoints.

The following grid lists the type of authentication metrics than can be tracked and how they help us better understand users and link in-app activity to other ways that the customer inter-acts with the brand.

AUTHENTICATION EVENTS



Email Address (Hashed) A hashed email can be used to link purchases and other customer actions in one environment to those that take place in other environments. For example, a hashed email can be used to link in-app purchases to estore purchases and CRM activity, so that we have a more holistic understanding of the customer

Device Advertising ID Many media and marketing partners will pass the Device Advertising ID (IDFA, Android Advertising ID) to advertisers. This helps us identify the device on which an app is installed, which can be very useful when the time comes to retarget that individual to drive additional marketing actions. Device Advertising IDs are also helpful in associating a customer’s activity across devices, because Device IDs are far more persistent and mobile-friendly than other tracking tools like third-party cookies.

Social IDs Social IDs help to ensure that an app was installed by a real person, since the social networks have sophisticated algorithms to spot fraudulent activity in their pages. In addition, social IDs can be the foundation for retargeting and other re-engagement efforts on social networks, particularly those that do not pass a Device ID to an advertiser.

Custom Advertiser ID Some advertisers use their own IDs to identify users who log in, make purchases etc. A Custom ID is a great way to link behaviors across devices and platforms.

Age and Gender These are useful, non-personally-identifiable attributes that help with basic segmentation.

Latitude and Longitude Most people expect location-based marketing to become extremely important in the future. For that reason we suggest that advertisers consider recording longitude and latitude of the phone when users take important actions.

While your app may be well served by collecting more or fewer authentication events, this list should provide a strong foundation on which you can build your authentication event tracking inventory.


Engagement events provide the marketer insight into the level of engagement of a user in the application. These provide initial signals that a person is using the app. These events are helpful in identifying the quality users, both before and after a KPI takes place.

In certain application verticals, a purchase might not happen for six to eight weeks after an install. In this case, tracking a user’s engagement lets the marketer accurately optimize a network’s performance within days, instead of waiting weeks.

Engagement events vary by the category in which you compete. Below you’ll find a simple chart that identifies key engagement events to consider tracking, by mcommerce vertical:

ENGAGEMENT EVENTS

Gaming

Entertainment

Travel

Personal Finance

Retail

On-Demand Services


Gaming Entertainment Travel Personal Finance Retail On-Demand Services

Tutorial Viewed? Tutorial Viewed? Tutorial Viewed? Tutorial Viewed? Tutorial Viewed? Tutorial Viewed?

Load Load Input of Travel Rewards Numbers

Filling Out Financial Profile/Planner Filling Out Shopping Profile Filling Out Profile

Time Spent Time Spent

Input of Travel Preferences (Airlines, Hotels, Car Rentals, Time of Day, Class of Service)

Input of Financial Preferences (Risk Tolerance, Types of Investments Preferred, etc.)

Input of Financial Preferences (Risk Tolerance, Types of Investments Preferred, etc.)

Product Searches

Levels Attained Content Searches Destination Searches Product Searches Product Searches Rating Something in the App

Points Attained Sections Viewed Wish Listing Consume Product Content Wish Listing Reviewing Something in the App

Goals Achieved Page Views Rating Something in the App Rating Something in the App Consume Product Content/Page Rating the App

Character Customiza-tion Save Content Reviewing Something in the

AppReviewing Something in the App Watch Video Send Content to a

Friend/Recommend App

Character Development App Reviews Rating the App Rating the App Rating Something in the App App Update Installs

Review of Virtual Goods for Purchase

Content Ratings/Thumbs Up/Down

Send Content to a Friend/Recommend App

Send Content to a Friend/Recommend App Reviewing Something in the App

Game Update InstallsVideos/Interactivities Viewed

App Update Installs App Update Installs Rating the App

Experience Customization Contact Personal Shopper

Shopping Page/Item Views

Send Content to a Friend/Recommend App

Shopping Searches App Update Installs

These lists are by no means the last word on these issues. Your app may have a different set of features that would be relevant here. The point is to think about these lists as a starting point upon which you can build a custom list of engagement metrics to measure.


Intent events are useful in identifying users who are planning on making purchases (or taking other end actions) in the application. Like engage-ment events, the intent events can be used to identify quality users before a KPI occurs.

Perhaps more importantly, intent events can be used to re-market to users who have performed intent events but have yet to complete a purchase event. Including these events in your measure-ment plan will greatly increase the effectiveness of using re-marketing ad network specialist services. Apsalar’s ability to send data to both re-marketing networks (via postbacks) and mar-keting automation tools through our DataSync offering gives the marketer complete discretion on how to use the data for re-marketing.

Again, to simplify identifying the particular Intent events that are relevant in your industry, we have broken out “typical” or example events in each of six categories: gaming, entertainment, travel, personal finance, retail and on-demand services

INTENT EVENTS

Gaming Entertainment Travel Personal Finance Retail On-Demand

Services

Check Availability

Check Size or Color Availability

Check Availability

Add Virtual Good to Cart

Add Virtual or Real World Items to Cart

Add ticket to cart

Begin Process of Buying an Asset

Add Virtual or Real World Items to Cart

Search for Specific Services in Specific Locations and Times

Begin Check Out

Begin Check Out

Begin Check Out

Begin Check Out

Begin Check Out

Begin Check Out

Input CC Info Input CC Info Input CC Info Input CC Info Input CC Info Input CC Info

Input Shipping Info

Input Shipping Info

Input Shipping Info

Again, this isn’t an all- inclusive list but should help you go a long way toward recording most of the intent Information that is important to track.








Purchase or conversion events are obvious events to track but capturing key attributes of the purchase events can be a challenge. Tracking revenue at a user level allows the marketer to determine key metrics like Average Revenue Per Paying User (ARPPU) or Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) for a specific marketing campaign.

I’m going to make some slight changes to the columns of the grid this time to reflect a better breakdown of service types for purchase events.

PURCHASE EVENTS



Virtual Goods Real Goods Air/Car Travel Services Hotel Travel Services On-Demand Services

Total Revenue Total Revenue Total Revenue Total Revenue Total Revenue

Category(s) of Items Category(s) of Items Destination/Location Hotel Location Location for Service

Quantity of Items Quantity of Items Quantity of Items Quantity of Items

Name of Items Name of Items Departure/Pickup Date Check-in Date Date and Time

Quantity of Each Item Quantity of Each Item Return Date Check Out Date

SKU or Other Item Numbers SKU or Other Item Numbers Carrier/Company Hotel Brand

Price Paid per Item Price Paid per Item Revenue per Night

Taxes Levied Taxes Levied Taxes Levied Taxes Levied Taxes Levied

Color/size of Item Color/Size of Item Class of Service Class of Room Class of Service

Bought on Discount? Bought on Discount? Bought on Discount? Bought on Discount? Bought on Discount?

Size of Discount Size of Discount Size of Discount Size of Discount Size of Discount

Gift?

Longitude/Latitude Longitude/Latitude Longitude/Latitude Longitude/Latitude Longitude/Latitude

Authentication Engagement


As I mentioned at the outset of this document, the key here is to take a methodical and strategic approach to identifying the types of data that will help drive better decision-making. As you can see, identifying events for tracking isn’t so difficult when you begin with a construct like:

CONCLUSIONS

With that in place, identifying the right events for your mobile instance attribution should be far easier.

That said, Apsalar clients can get additional assistance on defining the right set of events to track from their implementa-tion and account management teams. Our people are product experts who can help speed the implementation process and ensure that you gather the right data – right from the beginning.

Intent Purchase or Conversion

Matt Orban is Technical Sales Engineer for Apsalar. Matt is an expert in mobile and mo-bile apps, whose experience spans mobile display advertising, mobile ad operations, mobile app measurement, mobile app attribu-tion, and mobile audience development. Pri-or to Apsalar, Matt was Senior Ad Operations Manager for Endorse, a mobile-only rewards program that gave everyday shoppers cash back for making CPG purchases. There Matt helped define the company’s mobile market-ing experiences in the CPG category. Matt has a passion for helping clients establish robust and comprehensive data collection strategies. He holds a BS in Mechanical En-gineering from Bucknell University.

Apsalar is a leader in mobile and omni-channel data man-agement. The Apsalar Data Management Platform deliv-ers a true understanding of what their customers do in apps and across other marketing channels. Using the Apsalar DMP, marketers can conduct attribution and mea-surement of marketing effectiveness, manage profiles and perform analytics and segmentation, and connect and share their data and segments with other marketing partners and platforms. San Francisco-based Apsalar is privately held. For more Information, visit Apsalar.com.

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Getting Started with Mobile App Measurement and Attribution