[UPDATED] How to Migrate to Singular from Another MMP

Follow this guide to plan and implement your migration to the Singular platform.

Prerequisites You have signed up for Singular.
Guide For Advertisers who use mobile app advertising and wish to use to Singular as their MMP.

Overview

Phase Steps Estimated time
I. Plan
  1. Collect a list of your ad partners
  2. Coordinate the switchover date with your partners
  3. Decide on your attribution settings
  4. Import your historical data
2 days
II. Transfer
  1. Set up the basics of your Singular account
  2. Migrate data from your SAN partners
  3. Create tracking links for your non-SAN partners and owned media
1-4 weeks
III. Release
  1. Train and QA with Singular
  2. Test and distribute tracking links
  3. Start measuring!
1-3 weeks

Phase I: Plan

1. Collect a list of your ad partners

Your ad partners may include SAN partners (such as Facebook, Google Adwords, Apple Search Ads, Twitter, etc.) as well as non-SAN partners (such as Vungle, ironSource, etc.).

Self-Attributing Networks (SANs)

  • Some networks support running with two MMPs by deduplicate installs and in-app events.
  • Some support two MMPs for installs only (they deduplicate installs).
  • Some SANs cannot run with two MMPs. These SANs must be fully transitioned to Singular.

Once you configure attribution integrations for SANs, Singular will start sending postbacks for the configured installs and/or events immediately.

Non-Self-Attributing Networks

Non-SAN partners cannot run with two MMPs. To keep your data clean, you must fully transition all campaigns at the same time.

You can configure install and event postbacks to non-SANs in advance before migrating your campaigns. Singular will only start sending postbacks to non-SANs after you set tracking links live on the network.

Important: If you enable "Send All" for installs or events, Singular will start to send organic events immediately.

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2. Coordinate an attribution switchover date with your marketing partners

To keep marketing data as tidy as possible, coordinate with your marketing partners to migrate to Singular within a short window. Singular aims to get your onboarded in 30 days or less.

Choose a date to switch marketing efforts to Singular. This will be when you set SAN postbacks live and ask your non-SAN partners to transition campaigns to the Singular tracking links you will provide. Communicate this date with your Singular CSM.

3. Decide on your attribution settings

For each of your partners, you will set up an attribution postback. Within this postback, you must configure:

Attribution Types and Windows

  • Click-Through Attribution: lookback window
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  • View-Through Attribution: whether it is enabled, and its lookback window
  • Specialty Lookback Windows: event windows, deterministic vs. probabilistic windows, and any other special requirements.

Re-Engagement Tracking

  • Should re-engagement tracking be enabled?
  • What is the inactivity window within which a user can be considered re-engaged? (Default: 7 days)
  • Do you require deep links?
  • Do you require deferred deep links?

Events

  • In addition to the install event, which in-app events do you want to send to partners? How do the events map per partner? Each network has worked with Singular's Integration team to provide event naming conventions to map your SDK or S2S event to allow the network to have standardized reporting across all of their clients. Your networks can provide these event mappings.
  • Do you want to send postbacks for all installs and/or in-app events to your partners (including non-attributed ones)? Note: not all networks support this feature.

Partner keys, IDs, or passwords

Many partners require a key to link Singular with your specific advertiser account, and some require a different key per app (e.g., the Facebook App ID and the Google Link ID). You can usually find the keys on your partner's dashboard.

4. Import your historical data (Optional)

This is an Enterprise feature. To implement it, contact your Customer Success Manager.

If your app has a large existing user base, you can import it into Singular.

Historical data import allows Singular to identify your existing users. This way, when Singular starts receiving sessions and events from them, they are not marked as new users (new installs).

Before you begin

  • If you choose to import historical data, you must do it before any apps are live in Singular and used for campaigns.
  • Singular uses the Google Advertising ID (GAID/AIFA) to identify Android devices and the iOS ID for Vendors (IDFV) to identify iOS devices. To import data, you have to provide these IDs (you cannot use Custom User IDs).
  • If you have internal BI postbacks configured, imported users will have the value "Imported Users" in the Network field.

Preparing the Import File

  • You can find the file structure in the following article.

Phase II: Transfer

1. Set Up Singular

To set up your Singular account, you need to do the following:

  1. Add your apps in Singular (Singular > Settings > Apps).
  2. Integrate the Singular SDK in your apps.
  3. Set up attribution integrations to send postbacks to partners (Singular > Attribution > Partner Configuration).
  4. Set up data connectors to pull data from partners (Singular > Settings > Data Connectors).

» See the Set Up Singular section of our Complete Onboarding Guide or see below.

2. Migrate SANs

Self-attributing networks may have unique settings and requirements. See our dedicated guides for each of these networks to help set them up.

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Google Ads Facebook Ads Apple Search Ads Snapchat Ads Twitter Ads

3. Create tracking links for non-SAN partners and owned media

link_types.png

You configured your partners as part of the setup phase. Now you're ready to start creating tracking links.

You can create a Partner link for each of your campaigns. Alternatively, if the partner has a macro to pass the campaign name with the link, you can create a tracking link per partner per OS.

When creating your links, be sure to implement any specialty settings you decided on earlier.

You can also create links for your owned media such as email and SMS campaigns using Custom Source links.

» For details, see How to Build Tracking Links or consult your Singular CSM.

Phase III: Release

1. Train and QA with Singular

For enterprise customers, we recommend testing your setup in a development environment before testing with your production apps.

Talk to your CSM about verifying your attribution configuration and giving a final, end-to-end passthrough of your Singular setup.

2. Test and distribute tracking links

Share your tracking links with your partners. Ask your partners to completely transition campaigns to Singular Links before EOD on your target launch date.

3. Start measuring!

Once your setup is complete, you're ready to use Singular's analytics suite.

» See the Run Reports section of our Complete Onboarding Guide.