Creative Optimization ETL reporting

Creative Optimization ETL equips your data analysts with the information they need for creative performance analysis. It does this by automatically streaming Creative Optimization reporting data to cloud storage for programmatic loading into your BI systems.

Full asset-level performance reporting is provided, including all key performance indicators (KPIs), upper- and lower-funnel KPIs, attribution data, and creative asset data.

Standard Creative ETL uses Data Locker to send your reporting data to cloud storage. You can choose from a range of storage destinations, including an AppsFlyer-owned bucket in Amazon Web Services (AWS), or your own storage in AWS, Google Cloud Storage (GCS), Yandex, BigQuery, Snowflake, and more. Data Locker supports multiple destinations, you can send all data to one or more locations, route specific data to certain destinations, and customize delivery to your needs.

Get started

This section describes how to set up Data Locker for Creative Optimization reporting.

Prerequisite

• A Creative Optimization Premium subscription (contact your AppsFlyer customer success manager)

To set up Data Locker:

1. Follow the Data Locker setup instructions.
2. When setting up Data Locker, select Creative Optimization under Select reports on the Data Locker configuration page.

Edit Data Locker configuration

This section describes how to add Creative Optimization reporting to an existing Data Locker setup.

To add Creative Optimization reporting to Data Locker:

1. In AppsFlyer, go to Export > Data Locker.
2. On the Data Locker configuration page, under Select reports, select Creative Optimization.

Data freshness

Once configured, the Creative Optimization report streams to Data Locker once per day. Each delivery includes data for the last 30 days, streamed daily at UTC+12. The exact local time depends on your time zone:

• New York: UTC+12 − 5 = 7:00 AM
• Berlin: UTC+12 + 1 = 1:00 PM
• Shanghai: UTC+12 + 8 = 8:00 PM

Available data

The following Creative data is available in Data Locker.

See definitions for standard metrics and metrics unique to Creative Optimization.

The following data is not available in Standard Creative ETL:

• Custom dimensions
• Custom metrics
• In-app events
• AI data (elements and scenes)
• Retargeting data

Custom Creative ETL gives you full control over your report schema. You configure reports directly in the Creative ETL UI, choosing dimensions, metrics, AI dimensions, attribution type breakdowns, and in-app events. Data is delivered daily to your Data Locker destination.

Unlike Standard Creative ETL's fixed schema, Custom Creative ETL lets you build reports exactly the way you need them:

• Full in-app event data, include up to 30 in-app events per report, with sub-metrics for event count, unique users, revenue, and cost per action (CPA).
• Attribution type breakdowns, report on User Acquisition, Retargeting, or a Unified view combining both.
• AI dimensions, include AI-generated creative tags (auto-tags and custom dimensions) alongside standard performance data.
• Self-serve setup, create, edit, and manage reports directly in the Creative ETL UI, with no backend configuration or customer success manager involvement required.

Before you begin

Before setting up Custom Creative ETL, make sure the following are in place:

• Creative Optimization Premium subscription. Custom Creative ETL is available exclusively on the Premium plan. Contact your AppsFlyer representative to confirm your subscription.
• Admin permissions. Only admin users can create, edit, or delete ETL report configurations.
• Data Locker destination. Custom Creative ETL delivers data to a Data Locker connection. You must have at least one connection already configured, or create one as part of the report setup (see Step 1 below). Supported destinations include AWS S3, GCS, BigQuery, Snowflake, Azure Blob [beta], and Yandex [beta]. See Set up a Data Locker connection.

Set up Custom Creative ETL

Custom Creative ETL setup is a three-step process: configure your data destination, define report details, and select the schema (the columns that appear in your report output).

To set up Custom Creative ETL:

1. In AppsFlyer, go to Export > Creative ETL.
2. Click Create report.

Step 1 - Destination

Select or configure the Data Locker connection where your report will be delivered.

3. In the Data Locker connections dropdown, select an existing connection.
   • If you don't have a connection yet, click + New connection in Data Locker. This opens the Data Locker setup page. Once you've created a connection, return to Creative ETL and select it from the dropdown.
   • You can select multiple connections if you want the same report delivered to more than one destination.
4. Click Next.

Step 2 - Details

Define the report name and report type.

5. Enter a Report name. This name identifies the report in the report list and can't be changed after saving.

   Note

   Use letters, numbers, and underscores only. The name must be between 2 and 80 characters.

6. Select a Report type:

   Report type	Description
   User Acquisition	New user installs attributed to paid media
   Retargeting	Re-engagement and re-attribution activity
   Unified	Combined view of User Acquisition and Retargeting in a single report

    

7. Click Next.

Step 3 - Schema

Select the dimensions, metrics, AI dimensions, and in-app events to include in your report output.

9. Under Dimensions, select the creative and campaign dimensions to include.

   Note

   The Event date (event attribution date), App ID, Creative, and Asset link fields are mandatory and can't be removed. Two additional fields, dt (partition date) and version (run version for backfill scenarios), are always included in every report but are hidden in the UI.

10. Under AI Dimensions, select any auto-tag or custom dimension fields to include. These fields are generated by AppsFlyer's AI creative analysis pipeline.

    Note

    AI dimensions are populated only for creatives that have been processed by the AI tagging pipeline. There may be a delay before AI tags are available for recently uploaded creatives.

11. Under Metrics, select the performance KPIs to include.

12. Under In-app events, select the events to include. Each selected event automatically includes four sub-metrics in the report output: event count, unique users, revenue, and CPA.

    Important!

    You can include a maximum of 30 in-app events per report.

13. Click Save to activate the report.

The report is now configured. The first delivery will occur on the next daily run.

Edit an existing report

You can modify an existing Custom Creative ETL report, including its schema, report type, and data connection. The report name can't be changed after the report is saved.

To edit a report:

1. In AppsFlyer, go to Export > Creative ETL.
2. In the report list, click the Edit (pencil) icon on the report you want to modify.
3. Make your changes across the three setup steps.
4. Click Save changes.

You can also duplicate or delete a report using the action icons on each row.

Report management

The Creative ETL page lists all Custom Creative ETL reports configured for your account. For each report, you can see the report name, report type, and the timestamp of the last successful delivery.

The following actions are available from the action icons on each report row:

• View (eye icon), opens a read-only view of the full report configuration.
• Edit (pencil icon), opens the report in edit mode.
• Duplicate (copy icon), creates a copy of the report configuration.
• Delete (trash icon), permanently removes the report and its run history.

If you have a Standard Creative ETL report configured via Data Locker, a notification banner appears at the top of the Creative ETL page. Clicking it takes you to Data Locker, where the standard report is configured.

Data delivery

Delivery schedule

Custom Creative ETL reports are delivered once per day. To monitor delivery status, check the Last successful run timestamp in the Creative ETL report list.

Lookback window

Each daily delivery includes data for a 30-day lookback window. Each file reflects the complete rolling window, not just the most recent day. When loading data into your BI system, replace data for all dates in the delivery window rather than appending only the latest day's rows.

Folder structure

Data files are organized within your delivery folder based on the setting you choose in your Data Locker connection configuration:

• Unified (default): All apps are included in unified data files. Use the row-level app_id field to distinguish between apps when consuming the data.
• By app: Data is organized into subfolders, one per app.

See app segregation in Data Locker to learn more.

Schema reference

Mandatory fields

The following fields are always included in every Custom Creative ETL report and can't be removed.

Dimensions

You can select any combination of the following dimensions to include in your report.

AI dimensions

AI dimensions are generated by AppsFlyer's AI creative analysis engine and include auto-tags, smart tags, and custom dimensions.

Metrics

In-app events

In-app events appear in the report as metric columns using the format {event_name}.{sub_metric}. When you select an event, all four sub-metrics are automatically included. For example, selecting af_purchase generates the following columns: af_purchase.event_count, af_purchase.unique_users, af_purchase.revenue, and af_purchase.cpa.

Limits:

• Maximum of 30 in-app events per report.
• Available events are account-specific and reflect the events your apps actively send to AppsFlyer.

Limitations

Standard Creative ETL is configured via Data Locker's Select reports page and delivers a fixed set of fields (schema) once per day. It doesn't support in-app events, retargeting or unified breakdowns, or AI dimensions.

Custom Creative ETL is configured directly in the AppsFlyer UI with a fully customizable set of fields. You can include up to 30 in-app events, AI dimensions, and User Acquisition/Retargeting/Unified breakdowns, with no backend configuration or customer success manager involvement required.

Yes. Both can run in parallel. If you have a Standard Creative ETL report active, a notification banner appears on the Creative ETL page with a link to your Data Locker configuration.

Yes. Each report is configured with a single report type (User Acquisition, Retargeting, or Unified), and you can create up to 5 reports per account.

Go to Export > Creative ETL, click the Edit icon on the report, go to Step 3 (Schema), and add the new events. Changes take effect on the next daily delivery.

If a report is re-run (typically during a backfill), each run receives an incremented version value. Always use the highest version available for a given dt partition.