Google Analytics integration

Setting up Google Analytics

Go to the dashboard of your app and click on Integrated Partners on the left menu.

Enter "Google Analytics" in the search field and click on its logo to open the Google Analytics configuration window.

The Google Analytics configuration window only makes use of the Integration tab.

For a detailed description of the Partner Configuration Window Header, click here.

Viewing AppsFlyer data in GA reports

AppsFlyer sends installs and in-app events as events to GA. You can view the data that AppsFlyer sends in the events page in GA.

In your GA dashboard:

1. Click on Behavior in the left-hand side menu
2. Click on Events
3. Click on Overview

The screenshot above shows the event categories that AppsFlyer sends to GA. There are three types of events:

• Organic - installs, sessions and in-app events of a user whose install is organic
• Regular - installs, sessions and in-app events of a user whose install is attributed to a media source
• Re-Attribution - installs, sessions and in-app events of a user whose install is attributed to a media source and a retargeting campaign

Currently, app open and events from reengagement are reported but not under a reengagement category. App open and events following reengagement are reported to Google Analytics according to the install type that precedes the reengagement. 

For example, a user installs the app after engaging an ad. A non-organic install is reported to Google Analytics. Some time later, the user engages with a reengagment campaign and performs a few in-app events. The app open and subsequent events are reported under a the regular (non-organic) install category. So the events appear under the regular-in-app event category. 

Viewing install data

1. In the overview page, click on regular-install
2. In the next view, click on Secondary dimension
3. Type the name of the dimension you want to view i.e. campaign or source / medium
   
   

   

4. Choose the secondary dimension

The table shows the name of the campaign for each install:

Viewing in-app event data

1. In the overview page, click on regular-in-app-event
2. Click on the event
   
   

   

3. In the next view, click on Secondary dimension
4. Type the name of the dimension you want to view i.e. campaign or source / medium
   
   

   

5. Choose the secondary dimension

The table shows the name of the campaign (the selected secondary dimension) for each in-app event:

Viewing session data

Whenever a user opens the app, AppsFlyer sends an event to GA. The event is af_app_opened. This event is the equivalent of AppsFlyer session.

GA shows session data in two places:

1. The Audience overview page:
   
   
   

    Note

   The data here conforms to Google's definition of a session.

2. The event overview page:
   • In your GA dashboard click on Behavior in the left-hand side menu
   • Click on Events
   • Click on Overview
   • Click on regular-in-app-event or organic-in-app-event
   • Click on af_app_opened
     
     
     

    Note

   The data here conforms to AppsFlyer's definition of a session.

Custom dimensions on Google Analytics

There is another method for sending AppsFlyer's attribution data to Google analytics, that is set up on GA and not on AppsFlyer's dashboard.

Advertisers that use the new integration with Google Analytics don't need to use the custom dimensions method.

Setting media source as a custom dimension on Google Analytics

Google Analytics has a powerful tool to create user-level segmentation called custom dimensions. The custom dimension values are sent from mobile devices and your reports are generated, based on these dimensions from your Google Analytics dashboard.

Step 1: Define it on Google Analytics

1. Select your app from the GA menu
2. Select Admin at the top bar on GA dashboard
3. On the PROPERTY column select Custom Definition
4. Select Custom Dimensions
   
   
5. Create a new dimension. Call it AppsFlyer Media Source and make sure you select User scope. This ensures the data is saved over multiple sessions.

Each dimension is created with an index which you must remember so you can later use it in the GA API from your app. In this example, the index of the new dimension is 10.

Repeat this step and create another dimension and call it AppsFlyer Campaign

Step 2: Setting and sending the data from the app

First, you need to get the media source value from AppsFlyer SDK. You can do this using the method onConversionDataSuccess.

Note: Starting SDK V5, onConversionDataSuccess is the name of the method for getting conversion data. If you are using an SDK version lower than 5.0.0, the name of the method is onInstallConversionDataLoaded in Android and onConversionDataReceived in iOS. We recommend that you upgrade to SDK 5.0.0. To learn more, click here.

Then, you can set the media source as custom dimension using Google Analytics SDK. See the following code samples to learn how to do it:

private static Tracker sTracker;
@Override
public void onConversionDataSuccess(Map<String, String> conversionData)
{
  if (conversionData.get("af_status") == "Non-organic")
  {
    String mediaSource = conversionData.get("media_source");
    String campaign = conversionData.get("campaign");
    sTracker.set(Fields.customDimension(10), mediaSource);
    sTracker.set(Fields.customDimension(1), campaign);
  }
  else if (conversionData.get("af_status") == "Organic")
  {
    sTracker.set(Fields.customDimension(10), "Organic");
  }
}

-(void)onConversionDataSuccess:(NSDictionary*) installData {
  id status = [installData objectForKey:@"af_status"];
  if([status isEqualToString:@"Non-organic"]) {
		id mediaSource = [installData objectForKey:@"media_source"];
		id campaign = [installData objectForKey:@"campaign"];
		[[[GAI sharedInstance] defaultTracker] set:[
				GAIFields customDimensionForIndex:10
			] value: mediaSource];
    [[[GAI sharedInstance] defaultTracker] set:[
				GAIFields customDimensionForIndex:1
			]
			value: campaign];
   } 
	 else if([status isEqualToString:@"Organic"]) {
    [[[GAI sharedInstance] defaultTracker] set:[
				GAIFields customDimensionForIndex:10
			]
			value: "Organic"];
   } 
}

Step 3: See the results in Google Analytics

Most GA reports have a drill-down option called Custom Dimensions. You can select the dimensions AppsFlyer Media Source or AppsFlyer Campaign (set in step 1) to see which media sources and campaigns bring users that install your app.

Discrepancies in data between AppsFlyer and Google Analytics

Discrepancies between AppsFlyer and Google Analytics are highly unlikely. This is because AppsFlyer is the only source of data and the one that reports to Google Analytics.

However, discrepancies might still occur (especially due to re-installs) when comparing AppsFlyer and Google Analytics. Below we list several reasons why that might happen.