Web attribution

With Adjust’s web attribution solution, you can accurately track and attribute your web users' activities in Adjust. This lets you analyze marketing campaign data from both mobile apps and websites in one place.

Here, you’ll find information about how to set up web attribution in Adjust, reporting, and FAQs. For instructions on how to set up tracking for web campaigns, use this article. 

Before you begin

Here’s what you need to know before getting started. 

Requirements

• Integration of the Adjust web SDK.
• Adjust trackers used in your campaigns.
• The Adjust Web Attribution package.

How it works

To identify unique web users in Adjust, our web SDK generates an ID known as  web_uuid whenever it tracks a session. The ID is created per subdomain and per browser: this means if a user switches from Chrome to Safari, there would be two web_uuid’s for the device. The identifier follows the Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) format.

• Example: web_uuid=4d1615ab-ee78-49aa-a10f-d57035322a42

To persist (or “carry”) this ID in the browser, Adjust uses IndexedDB or, if unavailable, falls back to localStorage. These respect a same-origin policy to safeguard privacy. As a result, Adjust does not support cross-subdomain tracking and does not use cookies. 

Browser support

Adjust’s web attribution solution requires a user’s browser to support IndexedDB or localStorage. Most modern browsers already have this functionality. Check different browsers’ support for localStorage here. Our minimum support level for Internet Explorer is IE 10.

If a browser does not support localStorage, our web SDK does not initialize. This helps to prevent the overcounting of web users. If a browser is running in incognito mode and IndexedDB or localStorage, our web SDK initializes but can only persist information (our web_uuid) until the incognito session is closed.

Set up in Adjust

To set up your web app, Adjust needs to add your web base URL to our internal interface. We also need to activate the Web Attribution package on your account. Both of these steps need to be done by Adjust. For more information, please contact support@adjust.com.

After Adjust has activated Web Attribution for your account, follow these instructions. 

1. Integrate the SDK

Use our Github developer guides to integrate the web SDK into your web app. Once complete, test the integration. 

Testing

There are 3 ways you can check the web SDK is functioning correctly.  

1. Check the web SDK logs
2. Use the Adjust Testing Console
3. Use the Adjust Developer API

• Find your web_uuid in your Javascript Console: select Application (or Storage if using Safari) > IndexedDB > adjust-sdk > as > u:[your web_uuid]

 2. Set up your app & update trackers

There are two options to set up an app for web attribution in Adjust. 

• Add a new app with web as its only platform. 
• Add web as a platform to an existing mobile app.

To set up a new app in the Adjust dashboard with web as its only platform:

1. Click on + NEW APP.
2. Enter your App ID (optional).
3. Enter your App Name.
4. Do not select any of the available platforms. Not selecting a platform will designate this app as a web app.
5. Choose your reporting currency.
6. Select CREATE APP.

Your web app is now created in the dashboard!

Tip:

After Adjust activates web attribution on your account, you can see the web icon on your dashboard apps. The dashboard highlights this icon for your apps using web attribution.

Depending upon your setup method, you can expect different behavior from both your new and existing trackers. Check the information below to see the applicable information for your setup.

Tracker behavior for single platform web apps

The web base URL is used as the default redirect. This sends all users to https://www.mywebsite.com

To override the default tracker behavior, append a general or OS-specific redirect parameter.

Tracker behavior for multiplatform apps

The web base URL is used as the default fallback. This means that if, for example, iOS and Web are set up for the app:

• An iOS user is sent to the App Store to download the app 
• A non-iOS user is sent to the web base URL and web events are attributed to the tracker

To determine which users should be sent where, append the following parameters to your tracker. 

Tracker behavior for cross-platform trackers

The web base URL is used as the default fallback. This means that if, for example, a tracker contains one token for an iOS mobile app and one token for web:

• An iOS user is sent to the App Store to download the app
• A non-iOS user is sent to the web base URL and web events are attributed to the web tracker

To send non-iOS users to a different page of your website, append a fallback parameter to the tracker. These users will still be attributed to the web tracker.

Important cross-platform tracker deeplink & redirect behavior

Tracker example: https://app.adjust.com/abc123_xyz456?deep_link=xxxxx&redirect=https://mywebsite.com

If an iOS user who does not have the app installed clicks a cross-platform tracker with both a deeplink and redirect parameter:

• The user is sent to the web base URL
• The click is attributed to the iOS mobile tracker
• The web install/session is attributed to Organic of the Web

If an iOS user who does have the app installed clicks a cross-platform tracker while eligible for reattribution:

• The reattribution is awarded to the iOS mobile tracker

Additional tracker customization

No matter how you have set up your app for web tracking, you can always change your users’ webpage destination. There are two options:

1. Append the full website URL to a redirect-related parameter, such as redirect, fallback, redirect_macos

• Tracker example: https://app.adjust.com/abc123?redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mywebsite.com%2Fxmas%3Fproduct%3Dshoes%26category%3Dboots

2. Use the placeholder {base_url} with a redirect-related parameter. The placeholder is automatically replaced by your web base URL - this makes it quick and easy to change the URL when you want. 

• Tracker example: https://app.adjust.com/abc123?redirect={base_url}%2Fxmas%3Fproduct%3Dshoes%26category%3Dboots

3. Set up dashboard reporting

With Adjust’s KPI Service, you can group your data by Platform. To do this, add grouping=platforms. 

You can also use the KPI service to pull platform-specific data. To do this, use the query parameter platforms. For example: platforms=web

• The available values are: mobile app, web, undefined

All post-install activities related KPIs are grouped into mobile app or web. All other activities, such as impressions or clicks, fall under undefined.

In the dashboard, you can use the Platform filter to view your installs and sessions according to web or mobile app. 

4. Set up callbacks

There are two placeholders available for post "install" activities. Add these to your callbacks to start receiving web attribution information in your raw data.

FAQs