Singular will deprecate the old tracking link management pages (Create Link, Create Custom Link, and View Links) on September 1, 2020. This means:

You will no longer be able to create new tracking links using the old (legacy) format. Instead, use the Manage Links page and take advantage of Singular's advanced new tracking link technology (see the Singular Links FAQ for help).
Any existing legacy links that are being used in campaigns will still function.
To view your existing legacy links, you can go to Attribution > Manage Links and toggle the Show Legacy Links switch in the top right corner.

Tracking links are used to attribute an app installation to an ad click. In addition to basic attribution data, the links can include other properties, which will eventually be displayed in your Singular reports. This data will help give you a ricker view of your marketing efforts and results.

Using Singular you can create two types of tracking links:

Regular Tracking Links - for integrated partners such as AdColony and Chartboost.
Smart Links - for custom marketing sources such as email or SMS campaigns.

Note: Self Attributing Networks, such as Facebook, do not require tracking links. To configure these sources, see Attribution Integrations: Special Instructions.

Understanding Tracking Links

When a potential user clicks on an ad, they are clicking on the tracking link, which sends them to the Singular server before redirecting them onward to the app store. Singular saves the data that was included in the tracking link. Later, if the user installs the app, the Singular attribution service can match the install to the appropriate click.

For more information, see Install Attribution.

Creating a Tracking Link

Link Format

The basic format of a tracking link to be used with the Singular attribution service is as follows:

https://c.singular.net/api/v1/ad?st=[link_id]&h=[link_hash]

Note:

"st" and "h" are tracking link parameters. The more parameters you include, the more data Singular will receive about the users. See below for the full list of parameters.
"[link_id]" and "[link_hash]" are examples of macros. When you include a macro in a tracking link, the ad network replaces it with relevant information in real time when the ad is displayed to the user. Each ad network provides its own macros and is responsible for replacing them with the right data.

For example, the following tracking link includes several macros such as [GOOGLE_AD_ID] and [OS_VERSION]. When a user clicks the ad that contains this tracking link, the ad network will replace the macros with data.

https://c.singular.net/api/v1/ad?st=82228468160&udid=[RAW_UDID]&and1=[SHA1_ANDROID_ID]&aifa=[GOOGLE_AD_ID]&s=[APP_ID]&idfa=[IDFA]&odin=[ODIN1]&udi1=[UDID]&api_key=d4636d565f59e217801b5721af716eac&product_id=[PRODUCT_ID]&ip=[IP_ADDRESS]&ve=[OS_VERSION]&cl=[CLICK_ID]&pc=[RAW_AD_CAMPAIGN_ID]&h=99ebf893909cc390843b2cabc6c4f7eccb567676

If you find that a tracking link is missing a macro known for a specific source, contact Singular Support.

Using the "Create Link" Page

The Singular app provides a page where you can enter the information you want to include in the tracking link, and have the link generated automatically with the appropriate parameters and macros.

Go to Attribution > Create Link.
Select the App, Site, and Destination URL (if you are missing a site or destination URL in the drop-down lists, refer to the Apps screen to update the missing data).
If you have selected a deep link (or Universal Link for iOS), you can optionally mark it to also be used as a deferred deep link. If your deep link value is "myapp://page?id=1", then the value received in the SDK callback will be "myapp://page?id=1".
Start typing the Source name and select it from the optional list of sources.
If the selected source is not configured yet, a warning message tells you to configure the source. Note that each source may have different configuration options.
For more information, see Partner Configuration, Lookback Window, and Events Postbacks.
Enter the Campaign Name and select Generate Link.
Your tracking link is ready. Copy the link using the Copy button.

Using the "Create Custom Link" Page (Create Smart Link)

With Smart Links, you can create a single tracking link that redirects the user to different destinations depending on their device. Smart Links are useful for tracking email/SMS campaigns or any campaign with a non-integrated source.

For example, if you have an email campaign, you may want to include a tracking link with the following redirect behavior:

iOS - take the user to the iTunes App Store
Android - take the user to the Google Play Store
Other - take the user to your web site.

To create a Smart Link:

Go to Attribution > Create Smart Link.
Select the App.
In Source, select one of the offered channels (social, SMS, email, cross-promo) or choose “Custom”.
Enter the Campaign Name.
Choose the destinations and deep links for each platform (iOS, Android, other). Select the Deferred checkbox to enable deferred deep links. If your deep link value is "myapp://page?id=1", then the value received in the SDK callback will be "myapp://page?id=1".
Select Generate Link.

Tracking Link Parameters

Reserved Parameters

Reserved parameters are the standard or common parameters used by the Singular attribution service to properly perform and report attribution with integrated channels and partners.

For a list of the reserved parameters recognized by Singular, see Tracking link parameters and report dimensions.

Non-Reserved Parameters (Passthroughs)

Occasionally you may see parameters in tracking links which are not a reserved parameter. These parameters are generally used with specific integrations with partners, in order to "pass-through" these values to the partner in the attributed postback. While they enable other more advanced use-cases for postbacks, they are not common.