Onboarding guide to People-Based Attribution

At a glance: PBA setup checklist

Setting up PBA

Setting up PBA consists of several action items described here and listed in the table that follows. 

  • Contact your AppsFlyer CSM or sales rep to enable PBA.
  • Group brand digital properties into a brand bundle.
  • Integrate the web SDK into your website and the mobile SDK into your app.
  • AppsFlyer collects and attributes the data.
    • Data is collected from several different sources.
    • Recorded data is divided into touchpoints and events.
    • Events are attributed to the last non-direct web visit in the previous 30 days.
    • Advertisers can designate some events as conversion events. For example, purchases. Conversion events are analyzed in the dashboards.
    • Raw data is used to perform custom data analyses. 
  • Analyze customer journeys to optimize campaigns.

PBA set-up steps

Before beginning, contact your AppsFlyer CSM or sales rep to enable PBA. Then begin setup. Setup tasks are detailed in the table. Download this spreadsheet to record your progress.

Best practice: Implement CUID in the app and on your website. AppsFlyer will receive the CUID when a user registers or logs on.

  Responsibility Actions Remarks

 1

Advertiser 

  • Analyses and reports are aggregated within the brand.

 2

 Webmaster 
  • Install the Web SDK on the website defined by the web app. 
  • Configure the web SDK to: 
  • SDK records visits and events.
  • Integration is fully supported through Google Tag Manager (GTM), Adobe, or Tealium.
  • Mandatory: Call SetCustomerUserID() immediately after a user registers or logs on. If you don't have a CUID, discuss alternatives with your CSM. 

3

Advertiser

Ensure that the webmaster used the SDK test tool to verify that the website the SDK is configured to:

  • Record visits
  • Record events
  • Set the CUID

Advertiser! Don't proceed until this step is complete. 

Developer & Advertiser

[Optional] Web server-to-server API

Reports web-related events like automatic subscription renewal

5

Advertiser

  • Wait for daily* processing to complete before doing so.

 6

Advertiser

Begin to use the dashboards

 7

Advertiser Set up Data Locker

Provides access to PBA raw-data reports including touchpoints, standard and conversion events, and specialized reports for Web-Assisted Installs.

8

Advertiser

[Optional]
Begin to use raw data

Data is available after daily* processing.

* Due to processing, data is available 10 hours after midnight UTC on the day of the event. Meaning Monday's events are available Tuesday 10:00 UTC. 

PBA data-acquisition via SDK/API

  Web platform Mobile (app) platform
SDK 

Web

  • JavaScript tag SDK installed on the website
  • Reports website visits, and web events

Mobile

  • App SDK integrated into iOS, Android, Unity, etc. 
  • Reports app installs and user actions occurring in the app
Server-to-server API

Web server-to-server 

  • Reports events occurring in backend servers (not the web)
  • Example: subscription renewal

 Mobile server-to-server

  • Reports events occurring in backend servers (not the app)
  • Example: subscription renewal