Last modified April 27, 2021 by Shelly Wolfe

User acquisition tracking

From the Swrve perspective, attribution is treated like a normal user update event, and we populate our User Acquisition report with data from specific user attributes: Swrve.referrer_id and Swrve.referrer_cost.

user acquisition report

The User Acquisition report shows important details on your attribution networks. The report is enabled on a per-dashboard basis. If enabled, it displays under the Analytics menu on the Swrve dashboard. If you would like this feature enabled, contact support@swrve.com.

Campaign ROI

The User Acquisition report contains per campaign details on how much money users from any given campaign are spending and supplies calculations to easily identify how successful each campaign has been.

Beyond the User Acquisition report, you can use the campaign ID and referrer cost as an audience targeting filter or a condition for a segment. This means you can track the real behavior of users from a given ad campaign or referral source.

User acquisition data is displayed on the User Acquisition report in the Swrve service. For more information, see User Acquisition report.

Follow the instructions detailed in the tabs below according to the required implementation for your app type:

  • iOS
  • Android
  • REST
  • Facebook Canvas
  • Mobile App Tracking
  • AppsFlyer
  • Adjust
  • Kochava
This article references Swrve’s URLs for all data and content stored in both our US and EU data centers. Use the relevant example based on your app configuration. For more information, see How do I configure the Swrve SDK for EU data storage?

iOS

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

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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
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
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

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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
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
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

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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
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
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

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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
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
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.

Android

REST

FB Canvas apps

Mobile App Tracking

AppsFlyer

Adjust

Kochava


QA of user acquisition data

There are two recommended ways to review data coming from your attribution partners: by reviewing the User Acquisition Report and by creating referrer-specific segments.

User Acquisition report

This report is updated every 24 hours. If the attribution data has been sent correctly to Swrve more than 24 hours ago, it appears here. To view the User Acquisition report, on the Analytics menu, select User acquisition.

The information provided in the UserDB Downloads is also updated every 24 hours, and contains referrer attribution data that was sent to Swrve more than 24 hours ago. To view this information, on the Analytics menu, select User DB Downloads, and then download the Swrve User Properties CSV file (for more information, see Manually downloading user DBs). This table includes a column for the swrve_referrer_id property, which contains any referrer information that has been properly sent to Swrve.

Referrer-specific segments

If you need to confirm that data that has been sent to Swrve within the last 24 hours, you can confirm this with the Swrve segment tool. You will need to know the name of the network or campaign being sent to Swrve.

First, create a new segment:

  1. On the Manage menu, select Segments.
  2. On the Segments screen, select Create Segment.
  3. Enter the segment Name, and in the Add Filters to Your Segment section, select the Properties tab.
  4. In the Select Filter Type list, select Referrer ID, contains, and then enter the expected network in the Enter Value field.
  5. Select Add to save the filter.
  6. Select Save Segment to save the segment.

After you create the segment, install and launch your app after installing from the referrer network. The Segments screen updates with user information within 15 minutes, so if the attribution data has been received by Swrve with the referrer name you used in the segment filter, DAU for this segment will increase.


Troubleshooting

Swrve treats referrer data like any other user attribute. If it is received, it appears on the User Acquisition report and in the User DB downloads. If it does not appear, either:

  • The referrer attribute is being rejected by Swrve due to an incorrect API key, user ID, or app ID.
  • The referrer attribute is not being sent to Swrve.
    • If you are using a postback URL setup in another tool’s dashboard, check the API key and endpoint where data is being sent. Ensure that this third party tool is collecting the Swrve User ID, to apply this referrer to the user’s profile. In many cases postback URLs will need to be setup in this attribution tool’s dashboard for any new app title your company has.
    • Ensure that you are using the name swrve.referrer_id for sending the referrer to Swrve. If the name is misspelled, the referrer details do not appear on the User Acquisition report, and are not included in the available Referrer ID filters on the Engagement tab of the audience builder. To check if the name was misspelled, on the Manage menu, select Segments. Then check for any misspellings under the Properties list.
    • Confirm with your third party attribution tool to see if the Terms of Service of your ad network allows re-attribution. In the case of some social networks or ad partners, this transfer of data to another tool is not allowed, and attribution data will appear as “Organic”, “Unknown”, or simply not sent to a third party like Swrve.
    • Most partners do not include synchronous user attribution. In other words there is no guarantee that when a user launches the app for the first time, that this user is attributed at this time. This can pose issues when testing whether user acquisition is working or not, as you won’t be able to see the user acquisition details when launching the app on the QA logging page like all other events.
    • If all else fails, confirm that the install is being correctly attributed in your third party tool first before being sent to Swrve. You can request logs of the requests being sent to Swrve from your partner to see if this data is being rejected for a reason other than mentioned above, and then contact support@swrve.com for assistance.