Amazon SES Email Service Provider (ESP) Attribution Integration

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Travis Simpson
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Singular's integration with Amazon SES lets you measure app installs and re-engagements with Amazon SES emails that wrap your deep-link-enabled Singular Links.

While link wrapping usually breaks the deep link experience, this integration allows you to serve deep links as well as measure attributions to both installs and app opens from emails driving users into your mobile app.

The integration is based on a deep-link-enabled click tracking domain (CTD) configured in Amazon SES. When emails that include Singular Links are served to your users, Amazon SES automatically wraps any Singular Link used in your email. Users who don't have the app installed will be redirected to the fallback configured in your Singular Links. Users who install the app are measured as an app install attributed to the Singular Link.

Returning users will be deep-linked into the app, where deep link handling is handled through your Singular SDK implementation. These users are measured as Re-Engagements to the Singular Link.

Prerequisites

  • Singular Links for iOS and Android
  • Singular SDKs
    • iOS SDK 11.0.0+
    • Android SDK 11.0.0+

Setup Instructions

1

Set Up Custom Tracking Domain in Amazon SES

In order for universal links to work from the ESP link click, first you must configure a custom tracking domain to use in Amazon SES. If using your own domain, you can use a subdomain like this, for example: click.mydomain.com. 

Amazon SES Verification Guides:
2

Configure Custom Domain to handle Redirects

HTTPS domains must be configured to handle open and click link redirects.
3

Configure Amazon SES to handle clicks and opens

Set up Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) to send you notifications when:

  • A user opens an email
  • A user clicks a link in your email
  • Email bounces

Once this step is completed, all links in the email will be wrapped. 
4

Configure Custom Tracking Domains for Universal Links and App Links

  • Have your App Developer create an AASA file as described in Apple's documentation with the custom tracking domain configured in Step 1.
    • Once the AASA file is created, it should be hosted in your click recording domain server in the path click.yourdomain.com/.well-known/apple-app-site-association
5

Update Singular SDK Implementation

Register the custom tracking domain as an ESP domain, prior to initializing the Singular SDK. This allows the Singular SDK to recognize the custom tracking domain opening the app, allowing the Singular SDK to handle the deep link and attribution the re-engagement.

iOS:

SingularConfig* config = [[SingularConfig alloc] initWithApiKey:apiKey andSecret:secretKey];
config.espDomains = @[@"click.mydomain.com"];

Android:

SingularConfig config = new SingularConfig(apiKey, secretKey)
.withESPDomains(Arrays.asList("click.mydomain.com"));
6

Set Up Email

You can now put your Singular link into a chosen Amazon email template.

  • Verify that it has the proper deep link destination(s) enabled and it is configured for ReEngagement Tracking.
  • Be sure to append any reporting parameter you'd like to use for reporting via link parameters.  See all supported granularity parameters.

See Amazon's documentation for using templates to send personalized email with the Amazon SES API - Amazon Simple Email Service
7

Add Singular Link to Email and Test

After steps 1-6 are completed, send a test email from Amazon SES. 

Expected Behavior:

When users click on the link in the email, the partner will wrap the Singular Link with your click tracking domain. In the case of a returning user clicking the link, the user will deep link into the app, and the Singular SDK will measure the app open engagement since the click tracking domain is registered in the Singular SDK. If the user doesn’t have the app installed, they will be redirected to the “if app not installed” fallback url configured on the Singular link.

Notes and Tips:

  • Attributions for Amazon SES emails work just like any other attributions based on Singular Links. For more information, see Singular Links and Tracking Link Parameters.
  • If your deep link is not working:
    • Ensure your custom tracking domain and destination paths are properly configured in Amazon SES. This includes uploading the proper Apple App Site Association file for your app.
    • Ensure that the Singular Link embedded in your emails is also configured with deep linking. You can tell if a Singular Link has deep linking enabled if it has a _dl= parameter in the URL.