Apple has removed access to unique device identifiers for iOS devices, so tracking acquisition for iOS applications can be tricky. In addition, no referral information is passed from the app store to your app, so you must partner with a third party ad network or attribution service to get ROI data for iOS. The possible options are outlined below.

Option 1: Use MobileAppTracking

Swrve has partnered with MobileAppTracking, from HasOffers, to make tracking as simple as changing one line of code in your app and setting up a postback with Hasoffers. The integration procedure is outlined on the Mobile App Tracking tab.

Option 2: Integrate with a third party network that uses the same IDs as Swrve

Your ad network must support postbacks, which means they send a request to a particular URL after each install. Set up a postback with your ad network that includes your API key, the Swrve user ID, referrer information, and optionally, referrer cost. The URL should be similar to the following:

US data center

https://<app_id>.api.swrve.com/1/user?api_key=[api_key]&user=[swrve_user_id]&user_initiated=false&swrve.referrer_id=PublisherName.CampaignName&swrve.referrer_cost=1

EU data center

https://<app_id>.eu-api.swrve.com/1/user?api_key=[api_key]&user=[swrve_user_id]&user_initiated=false&swrve.referrer_id=PublisherName.CampaignName&swrve.referrer_cost=1

Note that this only works if your ad network is using the exact same ID as your Swrve ID. Swrve recommends using ID for Vendors and discourages the use of ID for Advertisers as users can opt-out of this or reset their ID, causing inaccuracies in tracking data.

Option 3: Integrate with a third party network that uses IDs different to Swrve

Your ad network must support postbacks and custom user parameters. In your app, send your user’s Swrve ID to the ad network as a custom user parameter, and then set up a postback with your ad network that includes your API key, the Swrve user ID, referrer information, and optionally, referrer cost. The URL should look like the following:

US data center

https://<app_id>.api.swrve.com/1/user?api_key=[api_key]&user=[swrve_user_id]&user_initiated=false&swrve.referrer_id=PublisherName.CampaignName&swrve.referrer_cost=1

EU data center

https://<app_id>.eu-api.swrve.com/1/user?api_key=[api_key]&user=[swrve_user_id]&user_initiated=false&swrve.referrer_id=PublisherName.CampaignName&swrve.referrer_cost=1

Option 4: Manually upload data exported from ad network

You can upload a CSV file with user acquisition data to populate the User Acquisition Report. This is only supported for apps with less than two million users.

To upload user acquisition data:

Step 1: On the Analytics menu, select User Acquisition.

Step 2: On the User Acquisition Report screen, select Upload Acquisition Costs.

Step 3: Create a CSV file of up to 1,000 lines formatted as user id, acquisition cost. The first column of the CSV file must contain the Swrve user IDs, while the second must contain the acquisition cost (in dollar cents) for these users. For example, a CSV file with the line 12345, 7.5 indicates that the acquisition cost for the user with ID 12345 was $0.075.

Step 4: Select Choose File and select the CSV file you want to upload.

Step 5: Ensure the ID selected in the Referrer channel and Referrer campaign list is the same as that used in your CSV.

Step 6: Select Submit.

As of Swrve Android SDK v4.6, by default the SDK does not catch the com.android.vending.INSTALL_REFERRER broadcast from the Google Play store containing the referrer details.

To get the referrer details, add the following snippet to your AndroidManifest.xml:

<receiver 
  android:name="com.swrve.sdk.SwrveInstallReferrerReceiver" 
  android:exported="true"> 
    <intent-filter>
      <action android:name="com.android.vending.INSTALL_REFERRER" /> 
    </intent-filter> 
 </receiver>

How to disable Referrer ID on SDK v4.5 and lower

If you want to disable the collection of the referrer ID by the Swrve Android SDK, you must stop Swrve’s BroadcastReceiver from receiving the com.android.vending.INSTALL_REFERRER broadcast. To do so, add the following to your manifest:

First, add a tools namespace:

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 
 xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
 package="com.yourawesomeapp">

Then, add following line to remove the SwrveInstallReferrerReceiver:

<receiver android:name="com.swrve.sdk.SwrveInstallReferrerReceiver" tools:node="remove"/>

For more information on the Android Manifest Merger, see the Android Gradle Plugin User Guide.

Assigning a referral source to a particular user is straightforward. You simply need to send a message to <app_id>.api.swrve.com (or <app_id>.eu-api.swrve.com for EU-configured apps), with the following information:

• Swrve User ID
• Referral source
• (Optional) referral campaign
• (Optional) cost of acquired user

When a user installs your app, send a GET or POST request to:

US data center

https://<app_id>.api.swrve.com/1/user?api_key=[api_key]&user=[swrve_user_id]&user_initiated=false&swrve.referrer_id=PublisherName.CampaignName&swrve.referrer_cost=1

EU data center

https://<app_id>.eu-api.swrve.com/1/user?api_key=[api_key]&user=[swrve_user_id]&user_initiated=false&swrve.referrer_id=PublisherName.CampaignName&swrve.referrer_cost=1

The parameters in the URL are as follows:

• api_key – the api key for your app.
• user_initiated=false – this specifies that the user did not trigger this call to the API, so it does not affect DAU metrics.
• swrve.referrer_id – this includes the publisher name (or publisher name and campaign name) of the user acquisition source. For example, this might be swrve.referrer_id=TapJoy.HolidayCampaign.
• swrve.referrer_cost – this optional parameter indicates the cost of acquiring this user.

This request can be sent from either the server or the client. All Swrve requires is to see a request for that URL with the appropriate parameters. For more information on the user property message to the Swrve API, see the Swrve Events API guide.

You can track ROI for Facebook Canvas apps using the Swrve REST API.

To do this, perform the following steps:

Step 1: Include the necessary referral information in the URL directing users to your application on Facebook. For example:

https://apps.facebook.com/swrvetester/?swrve.referrer_string=Publisher.Campaign

Step 2: Pull these parameters from the HTTP request headers using the following code:

if 'swrve.referrer_string' in request.GET:
    swrve_referrer_string = request.GET['swrve.referrer_string']

Step 3: Send an HTTP request to the Swrve API including these parameters in addition to the Swrve user ID and API key. For example, with swrve ID abc123 and referrer string Facebook.HolidayCampaign.

US data center

urllib2.urlopen("https://<app_id>.api.swrve.com/1/user?api_key=[api_key]&user=abc123&swrve.referrer_id=Facebook.HolidayCampaign")

EU data center

urllib2.urlopen("https://<app_id>.eu-api.swrve.com/1/user?api_key=[api_key]&user=abc123&swrve.referrer_id=Facebook.HolidayCampaign")

MobileAppTracking (MAT) from HasOffers integrates with the Swrve User Acquisition report to make it possible to easily measure the return on investment from acquisition campaigns. To get this to work, you need to change to a single line of code and add a postback in your MAT dashboard. This single line of code informs MAT of the Swrve user identifer for the acquired users.

MAT sends user acquisition data to the Swrve User Acquisition report in order to link acquisition data with users’ post-install actions and revenue.

For iOS, the flow of data in MAT is as follows:

1. The user taps an ad for your app (in some external app); a request is sent to MAT with IDFA (Identifier For Advertising) and campaign info.
2. MAT stores the IDFA for the user and transparently redirects the user to the Apple app store to install your app.
3. On first launch, your app sends the IDFA and Swrve ID to MAT, correlating the IDFA with the swrve ID and making it possible to see which installs came from which traffic sources.

Android apps go through a similar data flow, but with the Play store instead of the Apple app store.

To integrate with MAT, do the following:

Step 1: Add the following line to your app below where you initialize the MAT SDK:

For iOS

 // swrveUserId is the Swrve User ID. We recommend using identifierForVendor
  [MobileAppTracker sharedManager] setUserId:swrveUserId;

For Android

// swrveUserId is the same as the user id used for Swrve.
  mobileAppTracker.setUserId(swrveUserId);

Step 2: Navigate to your MAT dashboard and set the postback URL to the following:

US data center

https://<app_id>.api.swrve.com/1/user?api_key=YOUR_SWRVE_API_KEY&user={user_id}&user_initiated=false&swrve.referrer_id={publisher_name}.{campaign_name}&swrve.referrer_cost={payout}

EU data center

https://<app_id>.eu-api.swrve.com/1/user?api_key=YOUR_SWRVE_API_KEY&user={user_id}&user_initiated=false&swrve.referrer_id={publisher_name}.{campaign_name}&swrve.referrer_cost={payout}

Prefacing additional parameters with UA makes it easy to see these are populated by user acquisition data sources.

Step 3: Select the All radio button in the Data section on the MAT dashboard.

If you are using AppsFlyer in your app, you can set up a postback that allows Swrve to track LTV and user behavior for different acquisition sources.

To integrate with AppsFlyer, do the following:

Step 1: After initializing Swrve, set the Partner Data via the Appslflyer SDK passing the Swrve user ID as the identifier:

Android

Map<String, Object> swrveData = new HashMap();
partnerData.put("puid", SwrveSDK.getUserId());
AppsFlyerLib.getInstance().setPartnerData("swrve_int", partnerData);

iOS

NSString* swrve_user_id = [[Swrve sharedInstanceWithAppID:appId apiKey:apiKey] userID];
NSDictionary *partnerInfo = @{ @"puid": swrve_user_id };
[[AppsFlyerLib shared] setPartnerDataWithPartnerId: @"swrve_int" partnerInfo:partnerInfo];

Unity

Unity doesn’t support setting the Partner Data so you need to set the Customer User Id instead:

Appsflyer.setCustomerUserID(SwrveComponent.Instance.SDK.UserId);

Step 2: Set a postback in your AppsFlyer dashboard by performing the following actions:

1. Select your app in the AppsFlyer dashboard.
2. On the left navigation panel, select Integrated Partners.
3. In the search box, enter Swrve and select the Swrve icon to view the configuration window.
4. On the Integration tab, under General Settings, there are two possible ways to authenticate depending on the identifier you are sending to Swrve.
   Note: To view your App ID and API keys in Swrve, on the Settings menu, select Integration Settings. Ensure you use the App ID and API key for the correct app instance (normally, this is the production instance of your app).
   Enter the App ID and API key for your Swrve app.
   
5. If your Swrve app uses EU data storage and URL endpoints (that is, you log into the Swrve dashboard at https://eu-dashboard.swrve.com), select EU.
6. Select Advanced Data Sharing to send the following additional information to Swrve: cost_value, channel, keywords, siteID and c (campaign).
7. AppsFlyer can send automatic postbacks to Swrve following user installs. To send postbacks for any user that downloads the app to Swrve, under Default Postbacks, select Sending Option, and then select Events attributed to any partner or organic.
   
8. To complete the integration, select Save.

Once saved, AppsFlyer begins sending the following data to Swrve for every organic and non-organic install:

• api_key
• customer_user_id as set in the SDK
• Media Source
• Campaign Name

Adjust has an excellent way of handling attribution on the device, without requiring a post back URL being setup in the dashboard. Attribution handling is not synchronous, and time to fire these attribution callbacks can vary depending on attribution partner.

Implement the below Adjust callback methods, with Swrve integrated to send a Swrve user update event directly from the client device.

iOS

- (void)adjustAttributionChanged:(ADJAttribution *)attribution {
    NSString *referrer = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@.%@", attribution.network, attribution.campaign];
    [[Swrve sharedInstance] userUpdate:@{ @"swrve.referrer_id" : referrer }];
}

For more information on using the Adjust callback method above, see the Adjust iOS SDK Developer’s Guide.

Android

AdjustConfig config = new AdjustConfig(this, appToken, environment);

config.setOnAttributionChangedListener(new OnAttributionChangedListener() {
    @Override
    public void onAttributionChanged(AdjustAttribution attribution) {
        Map<String, String> referrer = new HashMap<String, String>();
        referrer.put("swrve.referrer_id", attribution.network + "." + attribution.campaign);
        SwrveSDK.userUpdate(attributes);
    }
});

Adjust.onCreate(config);

For more information on using the Adjust callback method above, see the Adjust Android SDK Developer’s Guide.

We recommend initializing the Swrve SDK before attempting to use the userUpdate() method.

Replace the @“publisher_name.campaign_name” with the actual publisher and campaign from the attribution object.

Unity

// Initialize Adjust with a new config
AdjustConfig adjustConfig = new AdjustConfig ("{Your App Token}", AdjustEnvironment.Sandbox);
adjustConfig.setLogLevel (AdjustLogLevel.Verbose);
adjustConfig.setAttributionChangedDelegate (this.attributionChangedDelegate);Adjust.start (adjustConfig);

void attributionChangedDelegate (AdjustAttribution attribution)
{
    Dictionary<string, string> referrer = new Dictionary<string, string>();
    referrer.Add("swrve.referrer_id", attribution.network + "." + attribution.campaign);
    SwrveComponent.Instance.SDK.UserUpdate(referrer); 
}

The Swrve SDK must be initialized before attempting to user the UserUpdate() method. Beyond putting Swrve initialization earlier in your code, changing the execution order of the Swrve SDK may be needed if you see null reference errors in your console. In Unity, select Edit > Project Settings > Script Execution Order to select Swrve and put it higher in the execution order.

Kochava has an excellent way of handling attribution on the device, without requiring a post back URL being setup in the dashboard. Attribution handling is not synchronous, and time to fire these attribution callbacks can vary depending on attribution partner.

The Swrve SDK and Kochava SDK are required to use the below method.

Implement the below Kochava callback methods, with Swrve integrated to send a Swrve user update event directly from the client device.

iOS

- (void)Kochava_attributionResult:(NSDictionary *)attributionResult {
    NSString *referrer = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@.%@", attributionResult.network, attributionResult.campaign];
    [[Swrve sharedInstance] userUpdate:@{@"swrve.referrer_id": referrer}];
}

For more information on using the Kochava callback method above, see the Kochava iOS SDK Integration Guide.

Android

@Override
public void handleMessage(Message msg) 
{
    String attributionDataString = msg.getData().getString(Feature.ATTRIBUTION_DATA);
    JSONObject attData = new JSONObject(attributionDataString);

    Map<String, String> attributes = new HashMap<String, String>();
    attributes.put("swrve.referrer_id", attData.getString("network") + "." + attData.getString("campaign"));
    SwrveSDK.userUpdate(attributes);
}

For more information on using the Kochava callback method above, see the Kochava Android SDK Integration Guide.

The Swrve SDK must be initialized before attempting to use the userUpdate() method.

Unity

static void AttributionCallback(string data)
{
    // depending on your choice of JSON parsing library...
    JSONObject attribution = new JSONObject(data);
    String referrer = attribution["network"] + "." + attribution["campaign"];
    
    Dictionary<string, string> attributes = new Dictionary<string, string>();
    attributes.Add("swrve.referrer_id", referrer);
    SwrveComponent.Instance.SDK.UserUpdate(attributes);
}

For more information on using the Kochava callback method above, see the Kochava Unity SDK Integration Guide.

The Swrve SDK must be initialized before attempting to use the UserUpdate() method. Beyond putting Swrve initialization earlier in your code, changing the execution order of the Swrve SDK may be needed if you see null reference errors in your console. In Unity, select Edit > Project Settings > Script Execution Order to select Swrve and put it higher in the execution order.