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mobile app tracking

hasoers

Best Practices
for Tracking App-to-App Installs

Prepared by the Mobile App Tracking Engineering Team 2012 HasOers, Inc. | All rights reserved

Best Practices for Tracking App-to-App Installs Page 2

mobile app tracking


hasoers

Best Practices for Tracking App-to-App Installs


Table of Contents
1. Unique Identiers 2. How Unique Identier Attribution Works 3. Including Device ID in Tracking Links 4. Including OS ID (Android ID) in Tracking Links

5. Including MAC Address in Tracking Links 6. Including ODIN in Tracking Links 7. Including OpenUDID in Tracking Links 8. Including User IDs in Tracking Links (cross-promotion) 9. Including Trustes TPid in Tracking Links 10. Conclusion

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mobile app tracking


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1. Unique Identiers In an app-to-app scenario, the app displaying the advertisement generally has access to unique identiers that are not available in a mobile web environment. We recommend including all available unique identiers in the tracking link to increase attribution accuracy. Currently, Mobile App Tracking supports the following unique identiers: Device ID The UDID of the iOS device or DEVICE ID of the Android device (IMEI for GSM phones, MEID or ESN for CDMA phones, or SerialID for tablets without a cell radio). iOS UDID:
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/UIKit/Reference/UIDevice_Class/Deprecation Appendix/AppendixADeprecatedAPI.html#//apple_ref/occ/instp/UIDevice/uniqueIdentier

Android DEVICE ID:


http://developer.android.com/reference/android/telephony/TelephonyManager.html#getDeviceId%28%29

OS ID The ANDROID_ID for Android devices only. It is 64-bit number (as a hex string) that is randomly generated on the device's rst boot and should remain constant for the lifetime of the device.
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/provider/Settings.Secure.html#ANDROID_ID

Mac Address The MAC address of the phones wi adapter. ODIN The ODIN of the device. To be generated or retrieved using the ocial implementation according to: http://code.google.com/p/odinmobile/wiki/ODIN1 OpenUDID The OpenUDID of the device. To be generated or retrieved using the ocial implementation according to: http://OpenUDID.org

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mobile app tracking


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User ID ID generated by app developer (advertiser) that is the same ID of the user in their system. This ID will be the same as long as the same user is using the app. TPid The TPid is a persistent cross-application unique device identier that TRUSTe has created as a privacy-safe alternative to the deprecated UDID on the iPhone. The TPid is deletable, expirable and revocable. 2. How Unique Identier Attribution Works The purpose of including any available unique identiers in the click link is to match those identiers upon install. While device ngerprinting is ~96% accurate, unique identier matching is 100% accurate making implementation of all available unique identiers a recommended best practice when available. Unique identier attribution works by specifying a unique identier such as MAC Address in the click link. MAC Address would be appended onto a tracking link like this:
http://hastrk3.com/pub_c?adgroup_id=553&mac_address=E0:F8:47:AC:D5:6C

Mobile App Tracking associates the additional unique identier of the users MAC Address and starts a tracking session. After the user downloads and installs the mobile app, the MAT SDK collects the users MAC Address again (E0:F8:47:AC:D5:6C). The tracking servers search for any tracking sessions associated with this MAC Address. In this example, there would be a tracking session started with ad group 553 which is associated with: mac_address=E0:F8:47:AC:D5:6C publisher_id=365 site_id=533 *site_id is the ID of the mobile app campaign_id=232757 The tracking server attributes the install to publisher ID 365 and campaign ID 232757 by matching the MAC Address from the click to the subsequent install.

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Unique Identier attribution only works when a unique identier passed in on click is collected from the SDK upon install. If the unique identier passed in on click cannot be collected upon install, then unique identier attribution cannot be used. In these cases where unique identier attribution cannot be used, tracking servers rely on our device ngerprinting methodology. For this reason, it is important for app-to-app tracking to be conscientious of what unique identiers your developers have the SDK setup to collect and which unique identiers you can pass in from a publisher into tracking links. 3. Including Device ID in Tracking Links Device ID - the UDID of the iOS device or DEVICE ID of the Android device - is the original unique identier. Device ID matching is a form of unique identier attribution in which a Device ID on click is matched to an install with the same Device ID. With Apple deprecating this parameter, many other unique identiers are being used as well. Several ad networks still rely on UDID as the basis for tracking installs. Since Mobile App Tracking is an agnostic platform, it is at your discretion to decide whether you want your SDKs to collect the device ID for the purpose of Device ID matching. If you intend to use Device ID, it is recommended to use at least one additional unique identier as well, in preparation for UDID deprecation on iOS. You can pass the raw value of Device ID into a tracking link using the device_id parameter:
http://hastrk3.com/pub_c?adgroup_id=553&device_id=a815bb11d06381aa1b8fc7d451af7b08d29eec3

You can pass an MD5 encrypted value of Device ID by using the device_id_md5 parameter:
http://hastrk3.com/pub_c?adgroup_id=553&device_id_md5=78C5D0F91B5F6AA187BE0ABC1F56C97C

You can pass an Sha1 encrypted value of Device ID by using the device_id_sha15 parameter:
http://hastrk3.com/pub_c?adgroup_id=553&device_id_sha1=0F23610B6AD8DBE2E2FC6A02CBFA7789 C76FAAD3

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mobile app tracking


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4. Including OS ID (Android ID) in Tracking Links The OS ID is our parameter for Googles Android ID. OS ID stands for operating system identier. Only Android devices should be using the OS ID parameter to store the Android ID. The current version of the SDK collects the Android ID and stores it as the OS ID. The OS ID value can be included in tracking links, allowing for unique identier attribution based on this value. You can pass the raw value of Android ID into a tracking link using the os_id parameter:
http://hastrk3.com/pub_c?adgroup_id=553&os_id=9774d56d682e549c

5. Including MAC Address in Tracking Links A growing number of publishers and ad networks are using MAC Address as the unique device identier. The MAC address is the unique number identifying the devices wi adapter. The MAT SDK collects the device MAC Address by default. The raw value is encrypted and sent to our tracking servers. Our tracking servers take the raw value of the MAC Address and store MD5 and Sha1 versions as well. This allows the raw value, MD5, or Sha1 version of MAC Address to be included in tracking links, allowing unique identier matching to be done based on any of these versions. You can pass the raw value of MAC Address into a tracking link using the mac_address parameter:
http://hastrk3.com/pub_c?adgroup_id=553&mac_address=E0:F8:47:AC:D5:6C

You can pass an MD5 encrypted value of Mac Address by using the mac_address_md5 parameter:
http://hastrk3.com/pub_c?adgroup_id=553&mac_address_md5=78C5D0F91B5F6AA187BE0ABC 1F56C97C

You can pass an Sha1 encrypted value of Mac Address by using the mac_address_sha15 parameter:
http://hastrk3.com/pub_c?adgroup_id=553&mac_address_sha1=0F23610B6AD8DBE2E2FC6A02CBFA7 789C76FAAD3

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mobile app tracking


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The MAT SDK collects the device MAC Address by default. The raw value is encrypted and sent to our tracking servers. Our tracking servers take the raw value of the MAC Address and store MD5 and Sha1 versions as well. This allows the raw value, MD5, or Sha1 version of MAC Address to be included in tracking links, allowing unique identier matching to be done based on any of these versions. 6. Including ODIN in Tracking Links ODIN is a standard way of creating a Sha1 hash of the devices MAC Address. ODIN should be generated or retrieved using the ocial implementation according to: http://code.google.com/p/odinmobile/wiki/ODIN1 If the SDK is setup to collect MAC Address, then ODIN can be specied in tracking links and matched on install since the tracking servers can take the collected MAC Address and generate then ODIN value for matching. If the SDK is setup only to collect ODIN, then only ODIN can be specied in tracking links with publishers and no other form of unique identier attribution matching can be used. You can pass the ODIN value into a tracking link using the odin parameter:
http://hastrk3.com/pub_c?adgroup_id=553&odin=82a53f1222f8781a5063a773231d4a7ee41bdd6f

7. Including OpenUDID in Tracking Links The OpenUDID of the device is a unique value generated by additional code provided by the OpenUDID organization. OpenUDID should be generated or retrieved using the ocial implementation according to: http://OpenUDID.org To use OpenUDID as part of unique identier attribution, you will need pass this additional value into the SDK. Once the SDK is congured to collect the OpenUDID value, you can have publishers (specically ad networks) include the OpenUDID value in tracking links. After this value is congured for tracking by the ad network, any tracking session started and associated with OpenUDID on click can be attributed to the install associated with the same OpenUDID. You can pass the OpenUDID value into a tracking link using the open_udid parameter:
http://hastrk3.com/pub_c?adgroup_id=553&open_udid=ea3cd8b5c6f3701a4bce288be656ac1647 0f4d06

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mobile app tracking


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8. Including User IDs in Tracking Links (cross-promotion) If you have multiple mobile apps and you have your own unique identier for a user that is the same cross the multiple apps, you can use the user_id parameter to do User ID matching for unique identier attribution. For User ID matching to work as part of unique identier attribution, the same user ID will be need to passed into the tracking link from the app publishing the advertisement and the app being installed. User IDs generated by the developer specically for a single mobile app can not be used for User ID matching, since the user ID would be dierent from click and install. You can pass your own user ID into a tracking link using the user_id parameter:
http://hastrk3.com/pub_c?adgroup_id=553&user_id=tom123

9. Including Trustes TPid in Tracking Linkst TRUSTe has developed their own unique identier called TPid. The TPid is a persistent cross-application unique device identier that TRUSTe has created as a privacy-safe alternative to the deprecated UDID on the iPhone. The TPid is deletable, expirable and revocable. Generating the TPid requires an SDK provided by TRUSTe. Unique identier attribution can be done based on the TPid if both the publisher and the advertiser have the TRUSTe SDK installed. You can pass the TRUSTe TPid into a tracking link using the tpid parameter:
http://hastrk3.com/pub_c?adgroup_id=553&tpid=x123456789

The Mobile App Tracking SDK will need to be setup to collect the TPid as well.

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10. Conclusion While tracking and attributing installs on Android is stable, the methods and unique identier used are changing on iOS. To adapt to these changes multiple unique identiers should be used for iOS. This allows you to use unique identier matching with your publishers without requiring your publishers to install another SDK as well. Working with Mobile App Trackings integrated networks already takes into account which unique identiers can be collected and passed into tracking links. Meanwhile, working with your own publishers or ad networks not currently integrated with MAT, requires you to be conscious of which unique identiers are supported for install attribution.

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