Custom redirect URLs

If you'd prefer not to use an ad-tracking vendor or an ad network, then you can use Localytics-provided customer redirect URLs. These URLs can directly track the originating source and campaign.

Keep in mind, these URLs won’t be able to communicate with any third-party applications—any tracking data will live in Localytics.

In this topic:

How the integration works

Redirects are a common tool on the internet. They're designed to send a user to a secondary URL from its original source. They're commonly used to help users wind up where they should (when, for example, URLs get edited in updates) and for data tracking.

In the case of Localytics, we'll briefly send your users to a Localytics page to capture the device ID before the user is redirected to the intended app store destination. Localytics keeps a list of devices that have clicked on the URL and looks for matches every time a new device launches your app for the first time.

A note about device fingerprinting

One special type of custom redirect URL is based on a device fingerprint. These work almost identically to traditional redirect URLs, except that in the absence of an accessible unique device ID, Localytics collects a number of non-unique device IDs and combines them in a way that the resulting combination—the device fingerprint—is generally unique.

Localytics keeps a list of device fingerprints that have clicked on the URL and looks for matches every time a new device is observed first launching the app. For more on how fingerprinting works and when to use it, see Device fingerprinting.

Setting up custom redirect URLs

Depending on which app type you're building a URL for (Android or iOS), your setup will be a little different. On iOS, due to Apple's attribution model, customer redirect URLs only work under special circumstances.

The IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers) of the URL-clicking device must be known in advance (for example, via cross-app promotions) and must be inserted into the IDFA field in the redirect URL. If the IDFA is not known and not inserted into the URL, Localytics can’t know which device clicked the URL and therefore can’t match this to subsequent app activity.

To set up your custom redirect URL for attribution:

  1. Go to Marketing in the left pane and select Attribution.
  2. Check the app selection in the upper-left corner. If it does not match the app you're looking to integrate, select the app name and select the correct app from the drop-down list.
  3. Select + New Campaign.
  4. Enter a campaign name.

  1. In the Sources fields, select an integrated source from the drop-down list.

    The source name that you provide will be reported as the Acquisition Source within Localytics.

  2. If you’re working with an iOS app, enter your app’s download location as the Target URL.

    • If you’re working with an iOS app, enter your app’s download location as the Target URL.

      Note: This isn’t necessary for Android, since we can infer the download location from the app’s bundle ID.

    • If you’re working with an Android app, enter additional campaign-specific information, for example:
      • Campaign Medium
      • Campaign Term
      • Campaign Content

      • Redirect Behavior

      This data will be recorded as raw data that will be accessible on export but won’t be included in the Attribution dashboard for reporting.

  1. When you are done, select Save.

  2. Copy the resulting campaign URL from the Localytics dashboard and serve this to your users. Users who click will be briefly redirected to a Localytics endpoint, then to the target URL you specified.

    Note: Localytics will not send postbacks to any ad networks if you're using custom redirect URLs. We’ll be able to surface the information in Localytics, but we're unable to communicate any install or post-install information to any third parties.

Once you've collected some clicks, it’s a good idea to check on the reporting. For more information on reporting, see Attribution report.