Advanced Privacy guide & postback macros for ad networks

In many cases, an Advertiser ID may not be available in the publisher app, the advertiser app, or both. In these instances, attribution is performed using the Aggregated Advanced Privacy framework or other privacy-preserving campaign measurement methods.

[Best practice] To maximize your attributions, send all parameters listed.

1. Append the following parameters to click URLs:

   Identifier	Click parameter	Example
   Campaign	c	US_20_30
   Campaign ID	af_c_id	12345
   Adset	af_adset	ADSET_1
   Adset ID	af_adset_id	56789
   Ad	af_ad	creative_name
   Ad ID	af_ad_id	34567
   Site ID	af_siteid	abcdefgh12345678
   Subsite ID	af_sub_siteid	abcdefgh12345678
   Channel	af_channel	channel_name
   Ad type	af_ad_type	video
   iOS device model*	af_model	The device model. Values permitted: iphone (all lower case) ipad (all lower case)
   Operating system*	af_os	The operating system version
   * Some information may also be provided via the user agent. In this case, the value sent using the specific identifier takes precedence.

   
   Append campaign details to the click URL

   The example that follows shows how to add your campaign details to the click URL:

   https://app.appsflyer.com/id123456789?pid=YOUR_NETWORK_ID&c={CampaignName}&af_c_id={CampaignID}&af_adset={adset name}&af_adset_id={adset ID}&af_ad={ad name}&af_ad_id={ad ID}&af_ad_type={Ad type}&af_siteid={PublisherId}

2. Add the following mandatory parameters to click URLs*:

   Caution

   If your click URL does not pass the mandatory parameters, you will not be credited with the majority of installs you drive.

   • IP 
   • User-agent 

   * No action is required when sending a click using a simple HTTP referrer that redirects to AppsFlyer. 

   Use the extraction method described to append the parameters to the click URL when using either of the following methods: 

   • Redirect via in-app 
   • Server-to-server clicks (aka, S2S) 

   Parameters for Advanced Privacy attribution

   Parameter	Mandatory	Extraction method
   Device language and locale af_lang	No	NSString *language = [[NSLocale preferredLanguages] objectAtIndex:0]; [Recommended] Provide the language and locale; for example, en-US.
   User-agent af_ua	Yes	Extract the user-agent with the format: Mozilla%2F5.0+%28iPhone%3B+CPU+iPhone+OS+13_3_1 +like+Mac+OS+X%29 AppleWebKit%2F605.1.15+%28KHTML%2C +like+Gecko%29+Mobile%2F15E148 Do not extract the CFNetwork user-agent, extract the other one.  The user-agent should be URL encoded.
   Device IP address af_ip	Yes	Best option: If available, provide the device IP under the af_ip parameter. Next option: If available, AppsFlyer will use the IP in X-Forwarded-For.

   
   Append parameters to the click URL

   To pass these mandatory parameters on the click attribution link, use this reference: 

   https://app.appsflyer.com/id123456789?pid=YOUR_NETWORK_ID&c={CampaignName}&af_c_id={CampaignID}&af_adset={adset name}&af_adset_id={adset ID}&af_ad={ad name}&af_ad_id={ad ID}&af_ad_type={Ad-type}&af_siteid={PublisherId}&af_ua={USER-AGENT}&af_lang={LANGUAGE}&af_ip={IP}

   Example

   GET https://app.appsflyer.com/id123456789?pid=YOUR_NETWORK_ID&c={CampaignName}&af_c_id={CampaignID}&af_adset={adset name}&af_adset_id={adset ID}&af_ad={ad name}&af_ad_id={ad ID} &af_ad_type={Ad type}&af_siteid={PublisherId} &af_ua=Mozilla%2F5.0%20%28iPhone%3B%20CPU%20iPhone%20OS%2012_1_4%20 like%20Mac%20OS%20X%29%20AppleWebKit% 2F605.1.15%20%28KHTML%2C%20like%20Gecko%29%20Mobile%2F16D57&af_lang=en-US&af_ip=11.11.1.11

   * Query parameters must be URL-encoded.

   Pass data on click URL headers

   To pass the fields on the click URL header, use this reference:

   GET https://app.appsflyer.com/id123456789?pid=YOUR_NETWORK_ID&c={CampaignName}&af_c_id={CampaignID}&af_adset={adset name}&af_adset_id={adset ID}&af_ad={ad name}&af_ad_id={ad ID}&af_ad_type={Ad type}&af_siteid={PublisherId}   accept-language: en-US,en;q=0. User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 13_5_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/15E148 X-Forwarded-For: 11.11.1.11, 222.222.2.222

To receive Advanced Privacy postbacks, you must set up an Advanced Privacy integration in addition to the regular postback integration. You can configure the Advanced Privacy postback yourself in the AppsFlyer dashboard.

Differences between the regular template and Advanced Privacy template

• Postback time does not correlate with actual event times.
• Timestamp macros:
  • For installs and in-app events, timestamps are rounded down to the hour in which they occurred. For example, 22:55:30 is reported as 22:00:00.
  • Are reported using the UTC time zone. Example timestamp: (2020-07-20 20:00:00)
• The following parameters are unavailable in Advanced Privacy postbacks: Click ID, Customer User ID, AppsFlyer ID, IDFA, IDFV, device model, OS version, and carrier.

Action required by the ad network to integrate:

1. Set up your Advanced Privacy postback in the AppsFlyer dashboard. 
2. Test Advanced Privacy integration.

Advanced Privacy postback endpoint [complete as required]

Advanced Privacy attribution macros available

Set up your AP postback using the Postback management option in the AppsFlyer dashboard.

Prerequisites:

• You must have an active integration with AppsFlyer to manage your Advanced Privacy postback. Contact us using the partner assistant widget to create an integration.
• Postback management is performed by the account admin; team members do not have access.

To set up the postback:

1. From the top bar, open the account menu (email address dropdown) > Postback management.
2. Select the postback type: Advanced Privacy. 

3. Activate the builder.

   

4. Enter the endpoint address: The endpoint URL to which AppsFlyer sends postbacks. Enter the relevant URLs for installs and/or in-app events.

5. Enter the parameters to be included in the postbacks:

   • Parameter name: AppsFlyer parameter screen name
   • Your receiving parameter: the respective receiving parameter on your side
   • Parameter value (available for some parameters): choose the value format. For example, for Boolean values, choose whether to receive them as "true"/"false", or 1/0.
   • Install: check the box to include the parameter in the install postback.
   • In-app event: check the box to include the parameter in the in-app event postback.

   

   Complete list of Advanced Privacy postback macros.

6. [Optional] Add custom parameters that are not provided by AppsFlyer:

   

7. Check the final postback template preview to make sure everything is correct.

   

8. Click Save. Note that when you save the postback, the changes take effect immediately.

In the case of any issues, reach out to us using the partner assistant widget.

Postbacks are sent to analytics partners as follows:

• AP off: The customer may make user-level postback data available without restriction.
• AP on: Postback type depends on user source and Advertiser ID availability, as detailed in the following table.

Analytics partner postback type according to ATT status and user source

SKAdNetwork is an Apple-provided attribution technology for iOS devices. Advanced Privacy is part of the AppsFlyer Aggregated Advanced Privacy (AAP) framework and pertains to AppsFlyer's attribution. AAP enables advertisers to control which attribution data they make available via the AppsFlyer platform. Typically, ad networks support both AP and SKAdNetwork integration.