Audiences

Introduction

AppsFlyer's Audiences tool is designed to enable advertisers to easily segment and create groups of mobile users, organic and non-organic, directly from within the AppsFlyer platform. Audiences can be shared with integrated partners (or uploaded to a 3rd party such as Amazon S3 or Slack), primarily for the purpose of running personalized retargeting campaigns and to power lookalike targeting campaigns and exclusion lists.

AppsFlyer’s Audiences tool allows you to build complex user segments across multiple time ranges, event values, and dimensions while getting accurate size estimations almost instantly.

Every day, your configured Audiences are updated with the latest user data and uploaded to your selected partners. This allows you to create an Audience only once while having its data constantly updated to fit the previously chosen filters.

Audiences can be found under Integration in the AppsFlyer dashboard left-hand toolbar:

Creating Audiences

Click Add Audience from the Audiences window.

The Audience Builder is displayed where you can configure and connect the Audience:
Set a unique Audience Name.
Select whether this audience is an Android or iOS-based audience.
Select New Ruleset, Select from my Audiences, or Import Audience.

Create a New Ruleset

Select an app for the new ruleset user base.
The dropdown box contains either the Android or iOS apps in your AppsFlyer account, depending on your earlier selection.
Set the first filter (mandatory) according to users, who engaged with your ad, installed or launched the app.
Set the date range filter:
- In the last X days: filter data of the last X days, going backward from the present day
- Between: filter according to a fixed date range
- At any time: include all available dates, starting at the first date of available Audiences data
Click to add a secondary filter (optional).
Secondary filters have a lot more options for filtering the users base, besides installs, app launches or views and clicks. You can filter according to performed or unperformed in-app events, uninstalls, total revenue generated, countries, metro codes, app version, OS version, device brand, device model or carrier:
If a filtered event contains attributes, click Add Event Attribute. You can add multiple attributes filters for the same event.
Connect other rulesets (optional) - You can use multiple rulesets, new or previously defined, to define your audiences. The rulesets can be connected with OR, AND or EXCLUDE logical connections.

Notes

The event values and attributes are extracted from your existing AppsFlyer data, so you can choose custom events as well as native AppsFlyer events.
Did Event and Did Not Do Event allows you to select an in-app event and criteria of "at least", "exactly" or "at most" number of in the last X days (e.g., performed af_purchase at least 3 times in the last 30 days).
Event Attributes allows you to select in-app event values conditions Is, Greater Than or Lower Than.
Total Revenue is the sum of all purchases per device, which are reported to AppsFlyer under af_revenue (revenue generating events).
Total Revenue is calculated based on the Audience’s selected date range (1-120 days back).
Country criteria options are Is or Is Not applied to countries from a predefined list.
Metros are regions larger than cities, that may cross state lines.
App version and OS version options are Is or Is Not applied to the values from the list of app data.

Example

Using your own event attributes can create amazing laser-sharp audiences for your campaigns. This ruleset above defines an audience of users that have made at least 1 purchase of 1 item, that cost over $10, in the last 120 days.

Select an Existing Audience

You can save time by creating new audiences by selecting existing audiences, or combining existing audiences with new rulesets.

Note

It's not possible to select an audience that includes another audience.

Click Select from my Audience
Select an audience
Click on any logical operators AND, EXCLUDE, OR
Select another audience or create a new ruleset
Click on Save Audience and Proceed

Import Audience

AppsFlyer provides you with a robust dataset that you can use to create versatile audiences. Yet, as an advertiser, your BI systems gather and manage large datasets that can also be used to create audiences.

Use the data in your BI systems to segment users into lists of device advertising IDs. Then import this list to AppsFlyer to create an audience.

Examples

Promotional Retargeting

You want to target users who have their birthday this month with promotional offers.

You can do the following:

Segment these users into an audience and export it as a list of device IDs
Import this list to AppsFlyer and upload it to your audience partner of choice
On the partner's end, set up your campaigns to target the audience accordingly

Acquiring Additional Users

Your app development studio acquires another studio. This studio has a list of users that installed their apps and you want these users to install your apps.

You can do the following:

Take the list of device advertising IDs that belong to the users of the studio that you acquired
Import this list to AppsFlyer and upload it to your audience partner of choice
Target these users to install your apps

Creating an Audience by Import

Select Import Audience
Choose the API Action:
- Add - Add additional device advertising IDs to an existing audience.
- Remove - Remove a list of device advertising IDs from an existing audience
Choosing an API Action only changes the path in the URL endpoint that you copy in step 3. It doesn't persist after you save the audience. When you want to add or remove devices from an audience, you can specify the action in the audience endpoint URL as /add or /remove.
Copy the API Request URL - the API token is already included in the URL
Copy the API Request Body
Click on Save Audience and Proceed
Connect your audience to partners - you can also do this later
You can now import the list of device IDs to the newly created audience

Notes

The API doesn't create audiences - you must create and save the audience before you can use the API
The API is for updating the audience - adding or removing devices

Importing Device IDs into The Audience

The next step is to send a POST request to the API endpoint with a body that contains the device IDs.

Important!

Each imported audience that you create has its own import key. The import key identifies a specific audience for adding or removing device IDs from the audience.
When you make the request, make sure that the import key belongs to the audience that you want to add devices to or remove devices from.
When you make the request, make sure that the platform (Android or iOS) is the same as the platform that you choose when you create the audience.

Sample Request

HTTP POST 
https://hq1.appsflyer.com/audience-import-api?api_token=
Accept: application/json
Content-Type: application/json
body: {
         "import_key": "EKFH2UMC5PPCU8J7M5QQCBPKIH89E6NCOB7XQFWMC",
         "platform": "android",  
         "devices": [
            "a23416b8-a21a-4051-a62f-5d3cb85e16ed",
            "09a14a6b-cce8-44f3-8f77-62eff8b5aa4f",
            "289da41f-0473-4977-89ae-8fc92234a921"
         ]
}

Responses

Code	Message	Description
200	The request was successful	Audience successfully imported
400	Device list cannot be empty	The request body contains an empty list of devices. You must provide at least 1 device ID per request.
400	Cannot process more than 10,000 devices per request (x devices counted in this request)	The request body contains a list of more than 10,000 device IDs
400	Invalid devices format	Some device IDs are not valid IDFA / GAID
400	Invalid audience platform, this audience is already configured for Android/IOS. To use a different platform, please create a new audience in the UI	The platform specified in the request body doesn't match the platform specified when creating the audience
403	Forbidden	Incorrect or missing import key
500	Could not parse request	Invalid request body format. See the request sample above.

API Limitations

You can only add devices to one audience per request
You can only remove devices from one audience per request
Batch requests (multiple audiences) are not supported
You can send up to 10,000 device IDs per request

Overlapped Audiences

Users are likely to belong to more than a single audience ruleset. When you define more than one ruleset the Overlap widget appears, which shows the different audience groups created by your rulesets, and how they relate among themselves.

Tip

Use the Overlap widget to engage your clients with the most suitable marketing message. Choose the best ads to show to users, who belong to more than one audience ruleset.

Connecting and Uploading Audiences To Partners

To upload audiences to integrated partners automatically, you have to establish a connection with each partner only once. Then the audience's device list gets updated daily.

Click the Connect tab on the top of the Audience builder:
Click the partner that you want to connect with:

For details of how to configure each partners, click here.
Follow the specific instructions (Log in / Enter credentials) for each of the partners in the promoted configuration screen.
Once the connection with a partner is established, select all the audiences you want to connect with the partner and click Save Connections:
Click Close to exit the Audience builder.

Once saved, AppsFlyer automatically uploads your Audiences to their designated partner once a day.

Note

With some partners, AppsFlyer uploads only the new generated devices and deletes the expired devices on the partner's side automatically. With the rest of the partners, AppsFlyer uploads the full list. Either way, the relevant partners are fully updated once the audience lists are generated.

Important!

If you don't select any network, the audience is not uploaded anywhere, but it is still updated on a daily basis. You can download it in the CSV format.

Split Audiences

The Split Audience feature enables advertisers to run A/B tests on an audience across different partners.

Once Split Audience is enabled in the Connect to Partners tab of the dashboard, it uploads a relative and unique chunk of the audience's data to each of the connected partners.

Creating a Split Audience

Create your audience in the Audiences Build Tab
Connect your audience to selected partners in the Audiences Connect tab
Toggle Split Audience to On
Click Close to save the configuration.

Once saved, AppsFlyer uploads your split audience to its designated partners once a day.

Split Audiences are represented in the main Audiences page.

The Split Audience icon appears to the left of the Audience Partner icons under the Upload To column.

Known Limitations

Split Audience is only available when connecting to more than one partner
A Split Audience can be used with up to ten partners
The audience is split evenly between the selected partners
Changes such as adding, removing or replacing a partner to an existing Split Audience configuration may alter the results. This is due to changes in existing audience populations.

How To Connect Audiences To Each Partner

Aarki

Obtain your app's API Key from your Aarki account manager.
Create a new Aarki integration. The following window opens:
Paste your API Key in the input bar.
Click Add Connection.

AdColony

Obtain your app's API Key from your AdColony Account Manager
Create a new AdColony integration. The following screen is displayed:
Past your API Key in the input bar.
Click Add Connection.

Adobe Marketing Cloud

AppsFlyer creates and syncs Traits with your selected DataSource.

Log into your Adobe Maketing Cloud dashboard
On the left-hand menu, select Manage Data >> Data Sources
On the Data Sources page, create a new Data Source.
Set the ID Type to Device Advertising ID, and the Inbound settings to Customer ID.
Once saved, you are redirected to the Data Sources selection menu. Find your newly created Data Source, and save its ID for later.
In the left-hand menu, select Administration >> Groups.
Create a new group, and in the permissions settings tab, select the Data Source you previously created:
Save the group and go to Administration >> Users.
Create a new user for AppsFlyer’s Audiences:
Select the group you previously created in the Assigned Groups selection menu.
Copy the Data Source ID, and the Email and Password of the user you previously created.
Go to AppsFlyer’s Audiences page, and select Adobe Marketing Cloud. The following window opens:
Paste the values you copied in their corresponding locations
Save the connection.

About 24 hours after uploading your audience to Adobe, you can see the data in your Adobe Marketing Cloud dashboard, under Analytics >> Onboarding Status.

Affle

Obtain your app’s API Key from your Affle account manager.
Create a new Affle integration. The following window opens:
Paste your API Key in the input bar.
Click Add connection.

Amazon S3

Creating an S3 integration allows AppsFlyer to send the audience Device IDs directly to your S3 bucket.

Create a new Amazon S3 integration. The following window opens:
Before going through the integration process, you must first create a Policy dedicated to AppsFlyer’s Audience feature.
In your AWS console, go to IAM >> Policies tab.
Click Create Policy and then Create your own policy.

Enter the following policy document (this is a suggestion):


										{
										"Version": "2012-10-17",
										"Statement": [
										{
										"Effect": "Allow",
										"Action": "s3:*",
										"Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::BUCKET-NAME/*"
										}
										]
										}

Replace BUCKET-NAME with the name of the bucket to which you want AppsFlyer to upload your audience.

Note

The policy must contain only the root bucket and not additional directories in the path. For example, the resource arn:aws:s3:::BUCKET-NAME/Directory/* is not supported. If you need the files to be transferred to a specific directory, see step 14.

The actions PutObject, DeleteObject and ListBucket are MANDATORY for AppsFlyer to perform minimal actions on your bucket.
After creating your policy, proceed to the next steps:
In your AWS Dashboard, go to IAM and click Create a new role:
Under Role, for cross-account access, select the option Another AWS account to provide access between your AWS account and a 3rd party AWS account.
Select Require external ID.

Copy the AccountID and ExternalID provided in AppsFlyer's S3 integration screen. Paste them into the appropriate input boxes in the role's creation screen.
You are prompted to select a policy from the existing policies in your AWS account. Choose the policy previously created.
Once the new role is created, click the name of the role to open its properties window.
Copy the Role ERN.
Paste the ARN, with your bucket name, into the appropriate box in the AppsFlyer integration window.

If you want to transfer the files into a specific folder within a bucket, provide the bucket name with the subsequent folders inside it, separated by "/" for example (bucketname/foldername/foldername).

If you provided a folder name that does not already exist, AppsFlyer creates it during the upload process.

Once the integration process is complete and an audience is uploaded, you can see a CSV file with the Device IDs in the bucket specified.

Applift

Obtain your API Key from your Applift account manager.
Create a new Applift integration. The following window opens:
Enter your DataLift 360 Advertiser email (your login email to DataLift 360’s dashboard) the API Key you've just copied.
Click Add Connection to complete the connection.
After uploading an Audience to AppLift, you will see it in your DataLift 360’s Audiences dashboard (https://applift.datalift360.com/audiences).

Applovin

Obtain your Custom Audience Key from your Applovin advertiser’s account page.
Create a new Applovin integration. The following window opens:
Paste your Custom Audience Key in the input bar.
Click Add Connection.

Beeswax

Obtain your Buzzkey from Beeswax
Obtain your Account ID from Beeswax
Create a new Beeswax integration. The following window opens:
Complete all the necessary fields - email, password, Buzzkey and Account ID.
Click Add Connection

Beintoo

Obtain your app’s API Key from your Beintoo account manager.
Create a new Beintoo integration. The following window opens:
Paste your API Key in the input bar.
Click Add connection.

Chartboost

Obtain your Chartboost User ID and User Signature from your Chartboost account dashboard.
Create a new Chartboost integration. The following window opens:
Paste your User ID and User Signature in the input bar.
Click Add connection.

Criteo

Obtain your Criteo Advertiser ID.
Create an API User in your Criteo dashboard -

Criteo Marketing API
Copy the API User’s Client ID and Secret, provided to you after its creation.
Create a new Criteo integration. The following window opens:
Paste your API User’s Client ID and Client Secret, along with your Advertiser ID in the input bar.
Click Add Connection.

Downstream

Obtain your API Key from your Downstream.ai account manager.
Create a new Downstream.ai integration. The following window opens:
Paste your API Key in the input bar.
Click Add connection.

Facebook

Create an Ad Account on Facebook
Select Facebook in AppsFlyer’s Audiences integrations page. The following window opens:
Login to your Facebook account and select the required Ad Account.

After uploading an Audience to Facebook, it appears in your Facebook’s Custom Audiences dashboard.

GetLoyal

Obtain your app's API Key from your GetLoyal account manager.
Create a new GetLoyal integration. The following window opens:
Enter your API Key in the input bar.
Click Add Connection.

InMobi

Obtain your app's Property ID from InMobi's dashboard.
Under the Monetize tab, select your app and copy the Property ID displayed at the top of the screen:
Create a new InMobi integration. The following window opens:
Paste your Property ID in the input bar.
Select the DST LIST Type you want and click Add.

IronSource

Obtain your API Key from IronSource's dashboard.
On the top right-hand side, click your account email.
From the dropdown menu select My Account.
In the Account window, under Reporting API tab, copy the Secret Key:
Create a new ironSource integration. The following window opens:
Enter your IronSource User ID (your email address, specified on the top right-hand side of the IronSource dashboard), and the API Key you just copied.
Click Add to complete the connection.

Lemmonet

Obtain your app’s API Key from your Lemmonet Account Manager.
Create a new Lemmonet integration. The following window opens:
Paste your API Key in the input bar.
Click Add connection.

Liftoff

Obtain your app’s API Key from your Liftoff Account Manager.
Create a new Liftoff integration. The following window opens:
Paste your API Key in the input bar.
Click Add connection.

Manage

Obtain your app's API Key from your Manage Account Manager.
Create a new Manage integration. The following screen opens:
Paste your API Key in the input bar.
Click Add Connection.

Mobusi

Obtain your app’s API Key from your Mobusi account manager.
Create a new Mobusi integration. The following window opens:
Paste your API Key in the input bar.
Click Add connection.

Mobvista

Obtain your app’s API Key and Advertiser ID from your Mobvista account manager.
Create a new Mobvista integration. The following window opens:
Paste your API Key and Advertiser ID in the input bar.
Click Add connection.

MyTarget

Select MyTarget in AppsFlyer’s Audiences integrations page. The following window opens:
Login to your MyTarget account, and select your ad account.
Click Add Connection.

After uploading an Audience to MyTarget, it appears in your MyTarget’s Users Lists dashboard.

Oracle Data Cloud

Create a new Oracle Data Cloud connection, as in the screenshot below:
Copy AppsFlyer’s Seat ID, and request your Oracle Data Cloud account manager to whitelist it for you. This enables AppsFlyer to create categories on your behalf.
Insert your Seat ID and Site ID (you can receive them from your Oracle Data Cloud account manager).
After verifying your Seat ID, a dropdown list displays all of your Parent Categories:
Select the Parent Category under which your sub-categories should be created.
Click Add Connection.

PushSpring

Select PushSpring in AppsFlyer’s Audiences integrations page. The following window opens:
Click Login with PushSpring and complete the login process. Once you've logged in, a new timestamp is displayed.
Click Add Connection.

After uploading an Audience to PushSpring, it appears in your PushSpring’s Imported Audiences dashboard.

SFTP

Create SFTP access credentials which include Server IP, Username, and Password.
Create a new SFTP connection. The following window opens:
Enter the SFTP credentials.
If you want the files to be transferred to a specific folder path in the server, enter the path with “/” delimiters (for example, “appsflyer/audiences”).

Note

Each file will be added to a folder named after the Audience name itself. The file name will contain the audience name and relevant date (eg. “appsflyer/audiences/MyAudience/MyAudience_2017-10-02”).

If you leave this blank, the files will be added to the root folder of your SFTP server.
If you want the files to be compressed with GZIP, enable the GZIP files option.
Click Add Connection.

Slack

AppsFlyer uploads a CSV file of Device IDs to your public Slack channel.

Create a new Slack integration. The following window opens:
Click Add to Slack button. You are redirected to an authentication screen, where you pick your relevant Slack Team.
Once the Slack Team is selected, select your public Channel.
Click Add.

Once the integration process is complete, and an audience has been uploaded, you can see a CSV file with the Device IDs sent to the selected channel.

Smadex

Create a new Smadex integration. The following window opens:
Login to your Smadex account and authorize AppsFlyer to access your account.
Click Add Connection.

Snapchat

Select Snapchatin AppsFlyer’s Audiences integrations page. The following window opens:
Login to your SnapChat account.
Select your Organization and Ad Account.
Click Add Connection.

24 hours after uploading an Audience to Snapchat, it can be seen in the dashboard.

Note

Snapchat deducts unfamiliar Device IDs, which potentially results in smaller audience size.

Startapp

Obtain your app's API Token from your StartApp account manager.
Create a new StartApp integration. The following window opens:
Paste your API Token in the input bar.
Click Add Connection.

Tapjoy

Obtain your Partner ID from your Tapjoy Account Manager.
Obtain your Publisher Reporting API Key from your Tapjoy App Settings page.
Create a new Tapjoy integration. The following window opens:
Paste your Tapjoy Partner ID and Publisher Reporting API Key in the input bar.
Click Add.

Taptica

Obtain your app’s API Key from your Taptica Account Manager.
Create a new Taptica integration. The following window opens:
Paste your API Key in the input bar.
Click Add connection.

Oath: Ad Platforms (Yahoo Gemini)

Create an Ad Account on Yahoo Gemini
Select Oath: Ad Platforms in AppsFlyer’s Audiences Integrations page. The following window opens:
Login to your Yahoo account, and select your desired Ad Account.

After uploading an Audience to Yahoo Gemini, you can view it in your Oath: Ad Platforms dashboard.

Audiences Panel

After creating your first Audience and connecting it to a partner, go to the Audiences window to view and manage all of your Audiences:

From this screen, you are able to perform multiple actions on your Audiences, as well as view additional information about them:

Search for existing audiences:
Add new audiences:
Perform Bulk Actions on multiple audiences after selecting them:
Under the Actions column, you can perform multiple actions on your Audience, such as View History, Upload to a Partner, Download as CSV, Duplicate and Delete:
- View History allows you to view the upload history of that audience. As your Audiences update daily, you can view the size differences of the user list throughout its lifecycle:
- Duplicate Audience allows you to make a copy of the selected Audience, with the exact same filters as the original. In addition, you can also choose which partner connections to inherit from the original Audience.
The Audience Panel also allows you to view information such as:
- Current Audience Size
- Partner Upload Status
- Last Upload Time

Note

The Audience user base updates on a daily basis and so only contains devices data from the previous day and backwards.

Audience Examples

Set out below are several examples for user segments we can find, estimate and target in just a few seconds, using the Audience builder.

Users who installed the app in the last week, and spent $1 in it:
Users from New York who uninstalled the app in the last month:
Users who installed the app in the last week and logged in with Facebook onboarding:

Using Clicks and Views for Effective Remarketing with Audiences

Remarketing is an advanced method of advertising to audiences who have already watched or even clicked ads for your apps but have not converted yet. Sometimes for these users to convert you need just some extra convincing or a gentle reminder. Since these users have a high chance of converting, every dollar you spend on remarketing to them can produce significantly better results than advertising to new audiences.

You can create very precise audiences for remarketing based on clicks and impressions data collected by AppsFlyer.

Remarketing Example

Consider building an audience of users that clicked on an ad, but didn't install in the last 2 days.

These are users that very recently were interested enough in your mobile app to click on your ad, but for some reason didn't install (or installed the app without launching it). Some of these users just need a reminder of your app to install it. Others may need to see more screens or features of your app to finally convert. Therefore, if you have a primary creative you use on new audiences, it is advisable to use a different creative for audiences that clicked but haven't installed yet.

Known Limitations

At least one positive condition is required to create the base audience, which can be reduced by further negative conditions (eg. installed the app AND did not do af_purchase event).
Windows Phone is not supported.
Audience names cannot be changed on the connected partners’ side.
Nested event values are not supported.
When creating an audience, at times, not all the events appear. Only the top 100 are displayed, however, when you begin entering an event name, all the events are shown.
The clicks and impressions data only contains devices which have advertising_id / idfa on their original click URL. Therefore devices of users from SRNs, which don't use external tracking links, are not included in the clicks data for audiences.
When using the Total Revenue filter within the query builder, the Estimated Audience Size is not available. This does not affect the Audience creation and the Audience list.
You cannot combine audiences creates by import with other audiences or rulesets.

Introduction

Creating Audiences

Create a New Ruleset

Notes

Example

Select an Existing Audience

Note

Import Audience

Examples

Promotional Retargeting

Acquiring Additional Users

Creating an Audience by Import

Notes

Importing Device IDs into The Audience

Important!

Sample Request

Responses

API Limitations

Overlapped Audiences

Tip

Connecting and Uploading Audiences To Partners

Note

Important!

Split Audiences

Creating a Split Audience

Known Limitations

How To Connect Audiences To Each Partner

Aarki

AdColony

Adobe Marketing Cloud

Affle

Amazon S3

Note

Applift

Applovin

Beeswax

Beintoo

Chartboost

Criteo

Downstream

Facebook

GetLoyal

InMobi

IronSource

Lemmonet

Liftoff

Manage

Mobusi

Mobvista

MyTarget

Oracle Data Cloud

PushSpring

SFTP

Note

Slack

Smadex

Snapchat

Note

Startapp

Tapjoy

Taptica

Oath: Ad Platforms (Yahoo Gemini)

Audiences Panel

Note

Audience Examples

Using Clicks and Views for Effective Remarketing with Audiences

Remarketing Example

Known Limitations

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