Building AppsFlyer OneLinks in Claravine

Claravine can help AppsFlyer customers to standardize OneLink creation, and enrich these links with detailed campaign metadata. 

Below details an example approach to link creation. If you have any questions about this process and how to align it to your particular link needs, please contact your Claravine CSM.   

AppsFlyer Base Attribution Link

From AppsFlyer’s documentation

AppsFlyer base attribution link

The base attribution link contains the minimum information required to record the click and redirect the user to download the app. Additional parameters are added to the link after the ? character, to record extra information.

https://app.appsflyer.com/{app_id}?pid={media_source}

The base attribution link includes the {App_id}, which is the Application ID for Apple iTunes/App Store app, or the package name for Google Play, as well as the paid (media source). 

Getting Started In Claravine

In Claravine, the basic building blocks are:

• Patterns - A pattern is a configuration of Elements used to define and standardize the concatenation for your company's campaign parameters, URL, or other Key data.  The elements available for use in patterns are: Constants, Variables, Auto Numbers, Dates, Randoms and a delimiter.
  (see Patterns Overview)
• Pick Lists - Pick lists are a powerful way to standardize an organization’s metadata values which can be used  on a submission table. Users are able to select field values from a predetermined list which adds convenience in the submission process and provides consistent metadata values for accurate and cleaner reporting.  The various types of lists available are: Drop Down Lists, Dependent Lists, and Drill Down Lists.
  (see Pick Lists Overview)
• Fieldsets - Field Sets are where Administrators can create the fields to be used in the Submission Table, define the field's data type, and add governance, formatting, and restrictions. Field types available to use are: Text Fields, Pick Lists, Concatenations, Constants, Auto Fill fields, and Dates.
  (see Field Sets Overview)

Limitations:  For this example, the customer had a requirement to be able to use some of the concatenations that we would usually build as a Pattern in multiple areas of the OneLink, so for this, we had to use a Concatenation field instead of a Pattern, since patterns can only be used once on a submission row.

Example link with AppsFlyer Parameters

For building out this example, this is our OneLink base URL:

https://yourapp.onelink.me/Zz99

Below is full the structure of the link we’ll be building out:

*For this example the customer chose to use their Line of Business for the af_adset, and their Brand Abbreviation for the af_ad.

**The “af_sub1” is a custom variable.  We decided to do this so that they would have the stand-alone tracking code available to use separately as a key for pushing the classifications out to Adobe.  Click to view all available AppsFlyer parameters.

Important notes

• the AppsFlyer parameters are not case sensitive, but they must be consistent
  Example:  “mrkcomm” does not equal “MRKComm” or “MRKCOMM”
  In the URL below, the capitalized “MRKCOMM” is part of the customer’s Adobe Tracking Code, and the lowercase “mrkcomm” is the AppsFlyer component.
  

• the Fallback URL must be encoded
  https://yourapp.onelink.me/Zz99?pid=Display&c=digSurSound&af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.yourwebsite.com%2F%3Fcid%3DDIS-MRKCOMM-DIGSURSOUND-ABC123&af_adset=mrkcomm&af_ad=abc123&af_sub1=DDIS-MRKCOMM-DIGSURSOUND-ABC123
  

• Many of the AppsFlyer parameters have character limits. Please refer to the AppsFlyer Documentation for those field limits. Claravine Text fields can be configured to honor those character limits.
  

Additional requests from the customer when we were building out this example:

• Include the Claravine Tracking Code as a custom variable in the OneLink as “af_sub1”
• Append the Claravine Tracking Code to the Fallback URL
• In the Claravine submission output, include a field to show just the Fallback URL w/ Tracking Code
• Use the Claravine Tracking Code as the key to push classification data out to Adobe

For the AppsFlyer PID (media source), the customer shared with us the accepted values for PID that they see in the AppsFlyer interface.

• Email
• Display
• SMS
• QR_Code
• Social_facebook
• Social_twitter
• Custom media source

In Claravine, we created a Media Channel drill-down list.  The first column contains the user-friendly values to select from, the second column, containing the Media Channel Abbreviation, will be pushed to the customer’s corresponding Adobe classification, and the third column contains the AppsFlyer accepted Media Source values for the “pid” parameter.

Media Channel drill-down list built in Claravine

Claravine Field Set Choices

In this example, we’re not using patterns because the customer wanted to use the tracking code in several places*, so there were a few fields we needed to add as either constant or concatenation fields.

Constants

Concatenation

Tracking Code Concat
[Mktg Channel Abbr]-[LOB Abbr]-[Campaign Name]-[Brand Abbr]-[State Abbr]

*Note: For this customer, their tracking code didn’t use the random or auto-number pattern elements, so it was able to be used in multiple places.  If using either of these elements in a pattern, they can only be used once per row.

When building out the template, use the AppsFlyer OneLink Base URL to autofill to the Link field.

Link Parameters

To build out the URL we add the individual AppsFlyer OneLink parameters, and then specify which field to pull for that information.  

AppsFlyer Variables

pid
c
af_web_dp
af_adset
af_ad
af_sub1

Remember to check the boxes to select encoding for the URL.

Then you can go through the template and decide which fields you don’t need to show in the submission table, and save your template.  It’s ready to use.

Example of Filling out the Submission Table

Left-hand side of the submission table:

Right side of the submission table:

When you’ve filled out all the required information, the Submit button will turn blue and you can submit your campaign to generate your AppsFlyer OneLink.

Example URL generated with the above settings:

https://yourapp.onelink.me/Zz99?pid=Display&c=FALLFESTIVAL&af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.yourwebsite.com%2Flandingpage%3Fcid%3DDIS-OUTR-FALLFESTIVAL-BD-CA&af_adset=OUTR&af_ad=BD&af_sub1=DIS-OUTR-FALLFESTIVAL-BD-CA

Learn more:

• Read our blog article on "Going Deep On Deep Linking: Mobile, Deferred, Tips & Examples"
• Refer to the AppsFlyer Documentation
• Read about Claravine's partnership with AppsFlyer