Tracking Your Mobile Apps in AppsFlyer With Voluum

AppsFlyer is a mobile attribution platform that helps you keep track of all app-related events that are generated by clients. Thanks to their lightweight SDK (Software Development Kit), you can recognize a sales channel a client has gone through and also record everything a client does inside an app that may be of value to you. Passing data that was generated by AppsFlyer to Voluum adds an additional layer of analysis and reporting options that you can use to maximize your profits. The following guide describes how to use the Voluum and AppsFlyer integration.

AppsFlyer requires you to submit your app and install their SDK in your app. This piece of code will ping AppsFlyer and send data. There are two types of events recognized by AppsFlyer: app install and in-app events. The first one occurs when a visitor downloads and installs an app. The second event type occurs on occasions defined in the SDK, such as reaching a certain level in a game or making an in-app purchase.

AppsFlyer supports various media sources, such as:

• Self-Reporting Networks (SRNs), for example, Google or Facebook
• Owned media
• Attribution links

Tracking with Voluum works when you use an attribution link as a media source and submit it to Voluum as an offer link. You will then be able to use this offer in your Voluum campaign funnel and generate a campaign URL.

When a visitor activates this campaign URL, he or she will be directed through Voluum to AppsFlyer attribution link. This will be counted as a visit. When a visitor triggers any pre-defined event (such as app install or in-app purchase), AppsFlyer will report this as a conversion. Reporting conversions is configured by simply submitting your Voluum tracking domain name to AppsFlyer.

To distinguish between different conversion types (that may have a different value to you), you need to set up custom conversions in Voluum that will correspond with those events from AppsFlyer. Custom conversions allow you to assign different names and payout values to conversions. For example, you will be able to see different events, such as app install and in-app purchase in separate columns with different payout values. Read the Custom Conversions article to learn more.

If you only track app installs, you don't need to set up custom conversions. Default postback is good enough. However, in the example below, we will use custom conversions to track various conversion types.

From Voluum's perspective, AppsFlyer will be treated as an affiliate network, with your apps in AppsFlyer being added as offers in Voluum. In this setup, you will be able to track visits (activations of a campaign URL) and various types of conversions. No clicks will be tracked, This is because clicks in Voluum are activations of a click URL on a landing page and there are no landing pages included in AppsFlyer campaign funnel.

Because of the recent changes that Apple has introduced in the iOS 14.5 update that block access to IDFA by default, conversions are now handled by Apple, and not AppsFlyer. This causes that AppsFlyer does not have access to user identifying data. So, conversion tracking will work but you will lose some conversion details in the process. More information about this topic can be found in the Registering Conversions Without Click IDs article.

This guide focuses on the integration and Voluum setup parts. Adding an app to AppsFlyer and installing their SDK will not be covered in this article. So make sure you have the following:

• An active AppsFlyer account, with at least one app submitted and accepted and the SDK installed.
• An active Voluum account, with a tracking domain that has an SSL certificate enabled. The SSL certificate is crucial, as AppsFlyer does not accept non-secure communication.

Once you have everything ready, proceed to the next step of this guide.

In the first step, you need to set up an integration with Voluum by submitting your Voluum tracking domain name to AppsFlyer. First, you have to get your domain name from Voluum. Follow the steps below to do that:

1. Get a domain name from Voluum

1. In Voluum, click the button to go to the Settings page.

2. Go to the Tracking URLs tab.

   

3. Select a tracking domain from the Main domain drop-down menu and copy the domain name to the clipboard.

2. Configure AppsFlyer

The domain name has to be submitted to AppsFlyer. To do so, follow the steps:

1. In AppsFlyer, select your app from the Available apps section.

   

2. Go to the Integrated partners view.
3. Search for Voluum.

4. In the search results, click the Voluum platform.

   

5. Paste the secure domain name that you have copied from Voluum in both Domain name text fields.
6. Select an SDK Event Name from the drop-down menu and provide a custom value, which will be shown as a custom conversion in Voluum, in the Partner Event Identifier text field. Please note that af_app_opened event from a screenshot is just an example of a custom event that can be tracked. You still need to create a custom conversion event in Voluum, otherwise you will get conversions of 'unknown' type.
7. Additionally, you may add more events in the same way.

8. Click the Save Integration button.

   

9. Go to the Attribution link tab.

10. In the Attribution Link Parameters section, you have the option to pass additional pieces of information from Voluum to AppsFlyer, such as campaign name or ad name. These pieces of information can be either static text, numerical values or Voluum dynamic tokens. The list of Voluum tokens that you can pass in this attribution link (which will be your offer link) is available in the offers form in Voluum.

    To pass information, select a parameter name from the Parameter Name drop-down menu, and provide a value (text or token) in the Value text field.

    You can add additional parameter by clicking the Add Parameter button.

    The parameter dedicated for passing the click ID value has already been configured automatically and is included in the link.

11. Click the button to copy the attribution link to the clipboard.

    

Because AppsFlyer sends conversion-type events, you need to distinguish them somehow in Voluum. To do this, you need to set up custom conversions. To do so, perform the following steps:

1. In Voluum, go to the Settings page.
2. Go to the Custom conversions tab.

3. In the AVAILABLE CUSTOM CONVERSIONS section, click the Add new button.

   

4. In the Custom conversion event name text field, provide the same SDK Event Name that you have selected in AppsFlyer.
5. In the Values of the et parameter text field, provide the same Partner Event Identifier that you have used in AppsFlyer.

6. Click the Save button.

   

A custom conversion has been added to Voluum.

Add as many custom conversions as you have set SDK Event Names.

For the last step, you need to add an offer element that will direct visitors via the attribution link to AppsFlyer. In order to do so, perform the following steps:

1. In Voluum, go to Offers.

2. Click the Create button and select the Offer option from a drop-down menu.

   

3. In the new offer form, provide a name for the offer in the Offer name text field.
4. Paste the attribution link that you have copied from AppsFlyer in the Offer URL text field.

5. Click the Save button.

   

You have added an offer element with an AppsFlyer attribution link to Voluum. You can use this element in your campaign funnels.

The last thing to do is to make sure that Advanced privacy is turned Off in Active integrations / Voluum / Integration.