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User tracking

In project analytics, it's essential not to miss the user for the device IDs, which would then make you miss out on your audience size and its behavior.

MyTracker will help you gather statistics on authorized users in the project (not only on devices), which means you get a number of advantages when analyzing the project:

  • Understand the exact number of your customers. The fact is that users are switching or upgrading their devices, many of them use several platforms at once, and some take turns on a single device.
  • Accumulate cross-platform statistics. Identify a user on multiple platforms or co-branded apps at once and link all their actions in the same data chain.
  • Save the user history, even if they decide to change the device.
  • Evaluate the true impact of ad campaigns. See the difference between new users and users who have moved between web and mobile app.

How it works

It works only for apps with registration and authorization mechanisms.

The app developer assigns each registered user a unique customUserId, that is not linked to a device or platform, and configures the data transfer to MyTracker. With the help of these user IDs, MyTracker gathers stats on the project: it can reconcile events across multiple devices and platforms, and different applications when there is a common user base.

For example, in the figure below, a user 123 has two devices. Each time the user makes a payment on either device, MyTracker records that action along with the 123 identifier. This enables MyTracker to aggregate both devices' data into a holistic view of user payments.

User attribution

User attribution performs by the same rules as device attribution. The only difference is the attributable event: for devices — the installation or the first site visit, for users — the registration or other event passed with the user ID first (launch, payment, etc.).

In general, attribution may be described as follows:

  1. The user click on or sees the advertisement. MyTracker The user interacts with the ad. MyTracker collects clicks and views through a tracking link embedded in the ad and retrieves data on the device using one of the attribution methods.
  2. The user registers in the app and receives a unique identifier that is not associated with the device. The SDK embedded in the app transmits this event with the user identifier to MyTracker’s server.
  3. The first event can be not only registration, but authorization, payment, etc. This is possible if the user registered in the app before the app developer connected the MyTracker SDK and configured the user ID transfer.

  4. MyTracker checks the data on the user's device and finds all ad interactions prior to registration.
  5. MyTracker attributes a new user to the last click or view according to the attribution settings. As a result, the user's appearance and all their following events will be attributed to a specific ad campaign.

The click or view, that led to a user's registration, will not always coincide with the click/view followed by the installation or first pageview. For example, a user might register a week after installation by clicking a different ad.

The user attribution scheme was updated on April 29, 2022. Until then, new users and devices were always attributed to the same sources.

After updating the scheme, the historical data remained unchanged, i.e. the sources to which users were attributed before April 29th remained the same.

User reattribution

Reattribution allows you to identify the campaign, that brought users back to your project.

In general, reattribution may be described as follows:

  1. The authorized user has been inactive for some time. Then MyTracker records the event with user ID. This can be an authorization, launch, website visit, in-app impression, or payment.
  2. MyTracker checks how long it's been since the user's last activity (see inactivity window). It will determine reattribution events.
  3. If the reattribution is valid, MyTracker determines the source, that brought users back.

For details, refer to the Reattribution section

Where to start

  1. Choose a user identification method and configure the transfer of identifiers to MyTracker. See our recommendation in the User identifying section.
  2. Build user reports. For MyTracker tools and user metrics, see the User analysis section.
  3. Configure partner postbacks, if required.

User postbacks

MyTracker allows you to notify partners of the results of user campaigns: report new users and re-engagements.

  • Postback «New usersu» is a notification when a new user is brought in by a partner campaign. If you enable postback, it will be sent after MyTracker receives the first event with user ID.
  • Postback «Re-engagementu» is a notification when a user is re-engaged by a partner campaign. If you enable postback, it will be sent after MyTracker receives an event with a user ID that has been inactive for 30 days (by default).

Use postbacks to optimize partner campaigns. For details, refer to Postbacks и Sending postbacks sections.

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