Attribution - How to get started
Plot Projects already provides the possibility to analyze the location data of your users by using Geotrigger campaigns through the dashboard. Geotriggers are used for monitoring user behaviour in Geofence or Beacon regions e.g. time spent, number of visits, etc. With these campaigns we can effectively measure foot traffic at your locations.
In order to extend the possibilities provided by this type of campaigns and to further refine their usability, we have restructured the types of geotrigger campaigns we provide to Data campaigns which are distinguished in Listening campaigns and Attribution campaigns. Regular Notifications campaigns remain unchanged in terms of functionality.
Data Campaigns¶
Data campaigns is our new term to describe campaigns that are not used to show Notifications to the users' devices as opposed to Notification campaigns. They only gather insights concerning the user's location activity.
Data campaigns include two sub-types of campaigns. Those are Listening campaigns and Attribution campaigns.
Listening campaigns were called Geotrigger campaigns previously. Attribution campaigns are the new type of campaigns that will be described next in details.
Attribution campaigns in the Dashboard¶
Attribution campaigns can be used to measure the effectiveness of your online campaigns. This is done by linking actions done by the app's user to the actual user's location changes. For example, attributing a user's visit to a store to his action of seeing or opening a coupon in app.
In order to create an Attribution campaign in the dashboard, an attribution action need to be determined. This action can be the user reading a flyer or seeing a coupon inside the app, etc. This information is sent through our plugin so that it can be reported back to you. Please note that it is important to be consistent in naming the action in the dashboard and in your app so we advise you to do this in cooperation with your development team to make sure the correct user action is tracked.
In the "Create Attribution campaign" page in the dashboard, under "Attribution Campaign Options", you can set "Action name", "Item Identifier" and "Minimum dwell time to count as an Attribution". Action name and minimum dwell time are required fields while item identifier is optional. Item identifier refers to the exact item that is linked to the attribution, e.g. a flyer or coupon identifier.
An extra possibility offered by Attribution campaigns is that through these campaigns we can report based on the time the user spent in the geofence of interest. For instance, how long on average users stay in the store location.
Implementing Attribution Campaigns
We support attribution campaigns for geofences and beacons.
Both on iOS and on Android the Plot class has methods that allow sending attribution events. Below is an example snippet for each platform.
Example Android snippet:
Plot.sendAttributionEvent("read_flyer", "discounts_week_12");
In the dashboard, in order to be able to report on the discount_week_12 flyer, you will need to specify the same setting for action name and item identifier, as shown below.
Custom reporting¶
After creating Attribution campaigns, it is possible to set up the report deliveries in cooperation with your customer success manager. We deliver reports through the Custom Reports tab in the dashboard, a Google Storage bucket, an Amazon S3 bucket or a BigQuery dataset. Also, we deliver this data via the webhook. More information about reporting can be found in the Webhook and file reporting chapter.