In-app events postback configuration

AppsFlyer’s In-App Event recording is a powerful feature that can benefit advertisers and ad networks alike.

By recording events Advertisers can measure the overall quality of users from different sources and build their user acquisition strategy accordingly.

Ad networks can use information about in-app events to optimize their own advertising capabilities and run cost-per-action/event campaigns.

Ad networks receive data about in-app events through Postbacks — URLs that AppsFlyer sends out to the network after every successful or failed conversion. In this article, we focus on In-app Event postbacks and how to configure them on AppsFlyer dashboard.

For further information about in-app events and the full list of available events, click here.

In-app event postback window

For example, if you're charged only for events that happen within 15 days after a user installs your app, the window is configured as follows:

Postbacks after this period are not sent, and the network is not notified, but the events are still recorded in AppsFlyer and attributed to the network.

The postbacks are always sent based on the current window setting. See the following example:

Default settings

If you started using in-app event postbacks with a specific partner before July 30, 2019, the default setting for the window is Lifetime. This means that in-app event postbacks are always sent.

If you just started to set up the postbacks, the default window is automatically set to 180 days.

Who can configure postback windows

The window can be configured by:

• Advertisers
• Agencies, if they are given the Allow to configure in-app event postbacks permission
  Note: an advertiser and an agency working with the same ad network can configure postback windows separately from each other, based on their contract with the network.
• Ad Networks, if they are given the Allow to configure in-app event postbacks permission

Event mapping

Different advertisers can give different names to the events of the same type in their code. The names of the events used by the advertisers may also differ from the names given to them by media sources. For example, when a user purchases something through an app, one advertiser can call it a purchase, another one purchase_event. The ad network can pick a less informative ID, e.g. event5.

Most ad networks want to make sure that purchase is the same event as event5. This is why the names must be mapped in the AppsFlyer dashboard for each media source you work with.

Mapping methods

There are three possible methods of mapping the events. Each ad network has its own preference and you should discuss this with them. You can also give permission to the network to map the events on its own. See the next section to learn how to do that.

For more details on in-app event mapping, click here.

Sending options

For each event, you can choose in which case to send the postbacks:

• This partner only: send postbacks only when the event is attributed to the partner.
• Send all events: send postbacks for events attributed to any partner, as well as organic events.

If you choose to send all events "as they are", the sending option you select here also applies to all events.

Sending event data

You can choose which kind of event data you can share with the ad network in the postback. Select one of the following options:

• No values & no revenue: sends only the event itself without the event value.
• Values & no revenue: sends all the parameters excluding the revenue value.
• Values & revenue: sends all the event parameters, including the revenue value (if exists in the event).

On postbacks, af_revenue and af_currency are written outside of event_value json file as monetary and currency, and therefore can be sent separately.

Note: When choosing the options with either no value or no revenue, the respective parameters are masked with N/A.

Custom events

The list of events available for mapping shows only the events already reported by the SDK to AppsFlyer. If the event you want to map doesn’t appear in the drop-down list, this can happen for the following reasons:

• No user has performed the event yet.
• The event has been performed for the last time more than 2 weeks ago.
• If you have a large list of active events.

In either of these cases, in order to map the event to the ad network ID, you can do the following:

1. Type in the SDK name of the event.
2. Click Create custom

   

3. Map the event to the partner identifier.
4. Click Save to make sure the mapping is recorded.

Note that when you add the event in this way under a certain partner, this event is also added to the list of events in all other partner integrations you have. Meaning, you can see this event in the drop-down list under any partner’s integration, and map it normally.

Agencies and ad networks cannot add custom events, and can only view and/or map such events if the advertiser added it and gave the agency or the ad network relevant permissions.

Event mapping by ad networks

Advertisers can also allow ad networks to map the events and disable postbacks on their own. To do so, an advertiser should give relevant permissions to the ad network:

1. On the Integrated Partners page find the partner you want to give the permission to.
2. Under the Permissions tab switch the Allow to configure in-app event postbacks toggle to ON.

Once the ad network has received the permissions, it can map the events following the instructions in the Type Event ID Into Text Field.

Event mapping by agencies

To give the agency permission to configure in-app postbacks:

1. Find the agency in the list of integrated partners.
2. Select whether the agency can share or all events or only those attributed to the specific ad network.
3. Select whether the agency is allowed to send events revenue.
4. Select the specific events the agency is allowed to share.