Install attribution options for the AppBrain ad network

AppBrain only charges you for actual installs by actual users. There are multiple options how we can track whether a click on your ad actually leads to an install. This process is called install attribution.

1. AppBrain internal install attribution

AppBrain only works with in-app SDK traffic from our own AppBrain SDK. When a user sees your ad and clicks it, he will get sent to the Google Play app page about your app. Because our SDK code is running on the user’s device, we’re able to track whether this is followed by an actual install of your app. The SDK does this buy periodically monitoring the user’s device for the presence of your app after a click on an ad for your app. We charge for an install of your app if it happens within 24 hours of a click on an AppBrain ad for your app.

A great benefit of AppBrain native install attribution is that it doesn’t require any change to your app. Note that compared to external install attribution platforms, AppBrain’s install numbers may be slightly higher. This is because a small percentage of users may never open your app after installing it.

Clickthrough URL

If you keep the default setting “AppBrain” as install tracking type, we will send users to the Google Play store with a tag “appbrain_cpi” that’s recognized by Google Analytics.

If you want to customize the Google Play link, or use your own internal server to forward users to the Play store, you can choose “AppBrain (with clickthrough URL)”. The actual charging of installs will still happen based on the process mentioned above. If you use our clickthrough URLs there are a number of macros you can use:

Macro	Example	Description
$ADID	b38f2731-cdee-4c44-8af0-babcdbd32e6f7	Google’s Android advertiser ID (when available)
$ANDROIDID	9bcdf6f124423123	The device’s Android ID (when available, on the vast majority of devices only $ADID will be set, and not $ANDROIDID)
$PACKAGE	com.apptornado.dotmatch	The package name of the app of your promotion campaign
$CAMPAIGN_NAME	Blob Connect Tier 2	The name you gave the campaign on the dashboard
$COST	0.85	The CPI cost when this user will install the app, in dollars
$COST_CENTS	85	The CPI cost when this user will install the app, in cents
$SUBID	32151	An ID that identifies the traffic source (publisher app)

2. External install attribution platforms

AppBrain is integrated with a number of external install attribution frameworks:

• Adjust

• AppsFlyer

• Apsalar

• Kochava

• TUNE / MobileAppTracking

These platforms independently track installs and attribute them to various promotion channels you may be using. They typically require you to build an SDK into your app and may have various pricing models where you need to pay a fee to the attribution platform on top of the CPI price you pay to us.

In the promotion campaign setup screen, you can choose to use one of the external attribution frameworks to use for tracking. The attribution will provide you with a URL that you should copy into the AppBrain promotion setup. This URL is often called the “clickthrough URL” or “tracking link”.

When this is set up correctly, the SDK of the attribution platform becomes active the first time a user opens your app. It will then determine whether it attributes the install to AppBrain and send a message to one of our servers, which will lead to a charge to your account. In this way, the numbers that are reported by the external install attribution platform will very closely match the ones that you get charged for by AppBrain.

3. Other install attribution solutions

Are you using a different solution to attribute your installs and your want to use that with AppBrain? Then contact us at contact@appbrain.com and we’ll be glad to help.