How to Get Started with Marketing Analytics

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Dora Kishinevsky
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Welcome to Singular! This guide will give you a general overview of the steps to set up your Singular account and start running analytics reports.

Inside you will find links to more specific guides and FAQ articles.

Guide for Project Managers
Prerequisites Have a Singular account created for your organization.

Step by Step

1

Add Data Connectors

The first step is to add data connectors for all the ad networks and other partners with which you run your marketing campaigns. Data connectors are Singular's integrations for pulling data from partners. 

Singular has developed over 1000 data connectors to get data from different partners, whether through the partner's API, dashboard, email reports, or other technologies.

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If you are using a third-party attribution tracker, you can add a data connector for it in the same way you did for ad networks. This way, Singular can pull the data from the tracker side and show it in your reports alongside the ad network data.

To start adding data connectors, log into your Singular account, go to Settings > Data Connectors, and click Add New Connector. 

For help and more details, see the Data Connectors FAQ.

To learn how often your data will be refreshed, see Data Freshness and Update Times.

Note: If you can’t find a partner's name to add a data connector for, reach out to the partner and ask them to become a Singular partner. The partner can use Singular's partner form. They can learn more in Integrating with Singular: A Guide for Partners. Once the partner gives Singular the necessary information, it typically takes us 2-4 weeks to build the integration.
2

Configure Your Apps

To provide you with accurate analytics reports, Singular keeps an updated list of all the apps you are marketing. This list lives under Settings > Apps.

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Apps are added to the page automatically in either of these cases:

  1. The same app name appears in data pulled from your ad networks and in data pulled from your attribution tracker, or
  2. You integrate the Singular SDK into your app, test it, and send an event to Singular. 

In many cases, all your apps will be added automatically. But if you've started pulling data from data connectors and the Apps page still doesn't include all your apps, you need to complete the list manually. To add a new app manually, select the Live tab or the Test tab, and click Add New App.

For help and more details, see the App Configuration FAQ. 

Note: The Live and Test tabs are provided to help you keep track of which apps are being marketed and which aren't live yet. You can move apps between the tabs freely.
3

Define Events

Events are any user activities within your app (post-install) or your website that you want Singular to track in order to help measure the success of your campaigns. 

The nature of the events you choose to track depends on your KPIs. Some commonly tracked events are purchases, level-ups, and registrations. 

To define events, go to Settings > Events.

Note: For mobile apps, Singular gets event data from your attribution tracker. 

If you are using Singular for attribution, you have to set up your app to send events to Singular when you are integrating the Singular SDK/S2S. Then you can use the Events page to define which events you want to track in your reports. See Defining In-App Events.

For help and more details, see the Events FAQ.

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Tips:

  • If an event is relevant to multiple apps, e.g., registration, define it under Global Events. Otherwise, define it under App-Specific Events.
  • A unique event counts the number of unique users who did something, e.g., how many distinct users made a purchase (unique event) vs. how many purchases were made through the app (non-unique event).
4

Run a Campaign Report

Once you've added your data connectors, apps, and events, you are ready to start running reports on your campaign performance!

Singular lets you get data in different ways:

To get started, we recommend that you log into the platform, go to Analytics > Reports and run some reports to get familiar with the system.

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To run a report, you choose:

  • Dimensions (breakdowns), such as app, country, campaign name, os, publisher, etc. 
  • The metrics (stats) you want to see, such as clicks, installs, or cost.

Tip: Singular reports can include two types of data:

  1. Network data: Campaign stats from your ad networks/agencies, such as Cost. 
  2. Tracker data: If you have also set up a data connector for a third-party attribution tracker (MMP), or you're a user of Singular's attribution service, Singular will also show you data from the tracker, including Impressions, Clicks, Installs, Revenue, and more.

Whenever possible, Singular shows both types of stats in the same row so that you can evaluate your campaign ROI and KPIs.

In addition to getting stats by campaign, you can break down the data by Country, OS, Sub-Campaign (variously called "ad group" or "ad set"), Publisher, and more, but note that the availability of certain breakdowns varies by network.

Learn all about Singular reporting in the Reports FAQ.

Look up different fields in the Metrics and Dimensions Glossary.

5

Run a Creative Report

To measure the performance of your campaign creatives, run reports in the Analytics > Creatives page. Creative reports show you your actual creative assets, including images, videos, and texts, next to their performance metrics.

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For a full guide, see How to Set Up and Run Creative Reports.

If you still have questions, check out the Creative Reports FAQ.

Next Steps: Explore Additional Analytics Features

  • Save and Share Reports: After you run a report, you can use Save Reports to save the report query and share it with your team, or use Share Report to share the data with people who don't have a Singular account. Learn more in the Shared Reports FAQ. 
  • In the Pivot Table page (Analytics > Pivot), you can run the same reports as in the Reports page but with the added functionality of advanced spreadsheet-style manipulations on the resulting table. Learn more in the Pivot Table FAQ.
  • The Custom Dimensions page (Settings > Custom Dimensions) gives you a highly flexible tool to define new dimensions to help segment and organize your data. Learn more in the Custom Dimensions FAQ.
  • It's also possible to customize metrics. If you need a metric defined differently than it is in the default reporting configuration, reach out to your Customer Service Manager or the Singular support team with the precise formula, and we will check if it can be implemented for you.

Explore Other Ways to Access Your Data

  • The Singular Reporting API gives you access to all the data you can see in the Reports and Creative Reports pages. To get started, see Guide to the Singular Reporting API.
  • Set up Singular Data Destinations (ETL) to feed data regularly directly into your data warehouse, storage service, or BI platform, where you can use your own BI and visualization tools to process and analyze the data. Learn more in the Singular Data Destinations FAQ.

Note: Singular Data Destinations is a premium feature. If you're interested in this feature, reach out to your Customer Success Manager.

Related Articles

Data Connectors FAQ
App Configuration FAQ
Events FAQ
Reports FAQ
How to Set Up and Run Creative Reports
Creative Reports FAQ
Data Freshness and Update Times: How often different types of data are refreshed.
Data Connectors in Detail: See what data is pulled from each ad network and MMP partner.
Metrics and Dimensions Glossary: Learn what the fields in your reports mean.